The world is becoming a cage fight—are you paying attention?
The spectacle of modern politics isn’t accidental—it’s a calculated shift, and the UFC-Trump alliance is a key piece of the puzzle. Here is what you can do about it.
Welcome to Sports Politika, a media venture founded by investigative journalist and researcher Karim Zidan that strives to help you understand how sports and politics shape the world around us. Our mission is to offer an independent platform for accessible journalism that raises awareness and empowers understanding.
If you share this vision, please consider supporting us by joining our community and becoming a paid subscriber.
If you’re watching politics today and thinking it looks more like a UFC main event than a serious debate, that’s because it is. The fights aren’t just in the Octagon anymore—they’re in the halls of power, on the campaign trail, and in the streets.
And while mainstream media scrambles to catch up, Sports Politika is already in the thick of it, breaking down the stories within our niche that try to make sense of the chaos.
Ahead of the 2024 election, my friend Elie Bleier and I released a scripted audio series titled In the Red Corner, which delved into the longstanding alliance between the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Donald Trump. The three-episode series is one of the projects I’m most proud of from the past year—not just because I believe the final product is excellent, but because we accurately predicted much of what unfolded in the aftermath of the election.
Elie and I are not clairvoyant. We didn’t know the outcome of the election in advance, nor could we have predicted the precise role the UFC would play. However, we had a clear understanding of how the UFC hastened the replacement of America’s conventional political culture with an abrasive new blend of entertainment and confrontational politics, perfectly embodied by Trump himself.
By embracing the UFC’s ethos, Trump is able to blur the lines between politics and spectacle, reshaping American culture in profound ways, the ramifications of which will be felt for years. You can learn more about how this happened by listening to the entire In The Red Corner series linked below:
Elie and I have been discussing a new season of the show, this time analyzing the fallout of the election. We are both excited to keep working on this project but we need your help in order to do so.
In order for us to continue producing the show, as well as the other investigative reporting and commentary we do at Sports Politika, we need more generous support from this incredible community.
This is why I need your help.
At the moment, Sports Politika has approximately 250 paying subscribers, many of whom have generously paid for annual or founding memberships. However, we still need at least another 1000 paying subscribers in order to fulfill our upcoming goals, including:
Producing another season of In the Red Corner.
Hiring an editor to help with our investigative outputs.
Establishing a freelance budget so that Sports Politika can begin to feature some of the leading writers in the space.
Have the freedom to do the necessary reporting that no one else is attempting at the moment.
To help get the ball rolling, we are offering a 20% discount on annual subscriptions. This is your last chance to secure this bargain price before we increase subscription prices by 20% next month, in order to meet our growing overhead costs.
Upgrading to a paid subscription isn’t just about getting deeper investigative reporting, sharper commentary, and stories that cut through the noise. It’s about investing in the kind of journalism that follows the money, tracks the influence, and exposes the real stakes behind the spectacle.
More importantly, it’s about building a community of people who see what’s happening and refuse to look away. The more we know, the better we can fight back against the forces trying to turn our political reality into just another bloodsport.
Thank you,
Karim
Sports Politika is a media platform dedicated to the intersection of sports, power and politics. If you like what you see, upgrade to a paid subscription ( or gift a subscription if you already have your own). We would appreciate if you could also like the post and let us know what you think in the comment section below.