(Headline USA) Ultimate Fighting Championship announced this week that it was partnering with Anheuser–Busch to make Bud Light its official beer, CNN reported.
Bud Light served as UFC’s sponsor from 2008 through 2017. This new deal is reportedly nine-figures and will last another six years.
It comes as Anheuser–Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, suffers from heavy financial losses incurred as a result of its woke partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and the boycotts that ensued, driven largely by conservatives.
UFC President Dana White—an outspoken conservative and close friend of former U.S. President Donald Trump—defended his company’s partnership with Bud Light, claiming he was looking at “all the good things” Anheuser–Busch has done over the years.
“Going to this deal, you know, I know all the controversy and everything else, but for myself, going to a long-term deal with another sponsor, I want to be with somebody that I’m actually aligned with,” White told Fox News.
Ironically, prior to their earlier sponsorship agreement, Anheuser–Busch, which had a partnership with professional boxing, had lobbied the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to ban UFC fighting. McCain’s wife, Cindy, is heiress to one of the beer company’s largest U.S. distributors, Hensley Beverage Company.
That effort eventially failed, however, and a vindicated White let bygones be bygones by accepting vast sums of money from the one time threat.
Now, he’s hoping the lure of the octagon will entice his loyal fans to bury their grudges with the disgraced beer-maker over its virtue-signaling folly.
“I know people were upset with what they did, but I’m looking at all the good things they do,” White said.
“You know, they employ 65,000 Americans,” he continued. “They have thousands of vets that work for them. They spent $700 million a year with U.S. farmers using their crops to make their products, and many, many, other great things that Anheuser-Busch had done in this country.”
Not all of their agricultural associations are positive ones, however.
Globalist billionaire Bill Gates, who has been criticized, among other things, for his alarming acquisition of vast tracts of U.S. farmland, also bought up 1.7 million shares of Anheuser–Busch in September.
Nonetheless, White insisted that money “was not the decision-making” factor in his recent sell-out.
“There’s more to being aligned with a sponsor, a major sponsor like that, for as long as I’m going to be,” he claimed. “… There are many other things that are important to me other than just the money.”
For example, Anheuser–Busch’s commitment to supporting law enforcement was important, White said.
“I’m very big into law enforcement and military,” he explained. “And over the last, I don’t know how many years, they’ve spent like $45 million taking care of these servicemen and first responders who have died, taking care of their families, scholarships for their kids and things like that. So I am very aligned with Anheuser–Busch.
It’s unlikely UFC will convince consumers to agree. Already, the company is facing its own boycott for partnering with Bud Light.
“UFC BOYCOTT IS ON,” tweeted one user following the announcement.
UFC BOYCOTT IS ON
— ♨️John♨️Gregorek♨️ ㊺ (@OstrichEyesCOM) October 25, 2023
Another added: “Time to double down on the #BoycottBudLight and now #BoycottUFC.”
Time to double down on the #Boycottbudlight and now #boycottUFC https://t.co/MXMAO4fSYX
— Brian (@Brian36203532) October 25, 2023
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
