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.
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Several months ago, my friend and talented podcast producer Elie Bleier approached me with an idea for a three-part audio series about Donald Trump, his relationship with the UFC, and the violent politics that unite them. His idea became the basis for Sports Politika’s first audio original series: In The Red Corner.
The series take you back to 2001, back when the UFC was struggling financially and had a tarnished reputation. At the time, few venues were willing to host the organization’s events due to the sport's “human cockfighting” image. Trump, however, saw potential in the UFC and allowed them to host events at his Atlantic City properties, including the Trump Taj Mahal, providing a critical lifeline for the fledgling organization. His support helped the UFC gain legitimacy, which eventually paved the way for its mainstream success.
Over the years, Trump and UFC President Dana White maintained a strong relationship, with White publicly endorsing Trump during his presidential campaigns and Trump attending several UFC events as a special guest. Their alliance reflects a shared ethos of defying establishment norms and capitalizing on the appeal of spectacle and entertainment.
No other American sports league has invested as much time and effort as the UFC has in promoting Trump. The alarming trend of UFC fighters and officials campaigning for the former president – including spreading propaganda and disinformation – emphasizes how the promotion has embraced its role as the sports arm of Trump’s political ideology.
So how did the UFC become entangled in MAGA politics? And why does this matter now? This is what In The Red Corner attempts to answer.
Over the course of three episodes, we’re going to unpack the relationship between Trump and the UFC. In this first episode, I’m going to take you back to the league’s inception, and explain how Trump gave the UFC legitimacy as politicians tried to shut it down. In the second episode, I’ll show how the UFC helped Trump’s presidential campaigns, and how Trump tapped championship fighters to help boost his allure.
Then, in our final episode, we’ll discuss what MMA had to do with the January 6th capital insurrection, and how in its wake the UFC still doubled down on Trump, and rehabilitated his image running up to this current election.
In the Red Corner is an audio original series created by Karim Zidan and Elie Bleier. The series will be available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcast and Spotify, starting next week.
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Coming soon: In The Red Corner