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November 18, 2024 - 5:30pm
The entrance of Donald Trump at UFC 309 on Saturday night, flanked by Robert F. Kennedy, Elon Musk, and UFC president Dana White, felt more like an inauguration than the January spectacle still to come. Here was the President-elect taking his place among his people, as heavyweight champion Jon Jones did the “Trump dance” in tribute after dispatching his opponent.
At the event, Trump chatted animatedly with UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan, whose October interview with the then-candidate and subsequent endorsement potentially helped win over a younger male demographic. Even more than Nascar once catered to traditional Republicans, MMA is now the sport of the MAGA Right.
UFC viewers skew predominantly white, young, and male, with 10.6% of American viewers aged 18 to 29 and 33% of men in that category watching its events within the past 12 months. It is no coincidence that Trump made big gains with that group in this year’s election. While there are some notable Left-wing fighters, they are very much exceptions within a sport dominated by conservative-aligned athletes.
Dana White’s political allegiance isn’t subtle. The UFC president spoke at both the 2020 and 2024 Republican National Conventions, and was one of a handful who spoke during Trump’s victory speech on election night. The President-elect’s embrace of MMA feels more complete than his previous sporting relationships with professional wrestling, American football, and boxing — he appears to be genuinely interested in the sport and maintains a friendship with White that goes beyond mere political convenience.
Even when Trump was slowly returning to the political top table, before becoming the big winner he proved to be this month, the UFC was there for him. One of his most important interviews in August 2023 was on UFC Unfiltered, where, just as he was facing down a series of criminal prosecutions, he discussed his love of combat sports, his favourite fighters, and his role in past promotions. The YouTube video garnered 1.3 million views and the podcast was heard by many more, reaching a crucial voting bloc of young men who might otherwise tune out from traditional political media.
The connection runs deeper than mere demographics. Much more than today’s heavily sanitised corporate pro wrestling product, UFC’s promotional style — characterised by hyper-masculinity, displays of superficial wealth, and disregard for liberal pieties or political correctness — mirrors Trump’s own self-presentation. The fighters who connect most with fans, such as former middleweight champion Sean Strickland — who has spoken previously about his neo-Nazi past — do so without traditional media promotion, talking directly to audiences in the seemingly improvisatory way that has distinguished Trump from heavily scripted politicians like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.
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SubscribePlease can authors always define abbreviations at their first use? I’ll need to Google UFC.
UFC & MMA mass popularity started with the movie ‘Fight Club’ and the idea that you’re not a real man unless you have been in a street fight.
Much as many people don’t like to acknowledge it, many young men -not all, but a significant number – do like fighting. Generally it is in a group, so they can share their support and masculinity for and with each other and they can experience the thrill and adrenaline rush of conflict. Football hooliganism in the 1970s and 1980s had little to do with football but a lot to do with tribalism and collective identity. Supporting a club gave a framework for this to be expressed, and the rumble, ruck or punch up was for some fans an integral part of this identity. I was at football in England in the 70s and 80s and while personally not involved I knew people who were on the fringes, and they all thought it a great laugh and a way of proving themselves with their peer group. That latent desire is always likely to be part of the male psyche, although attempts to water it down, delegitimise it and make it unlawful will continue no doubt.
It’s a sign of the stupidity of our current age that people are actually consciously trying to water down, delegitimize, and make unlawful aspects of human nature that have existed since forever and think they can actually succeed in doing so.