Why Trump’s cage fight could hurt the UFC

UFC Freedom – A White House UFC event tied to Donald Trump is projected to deliver political leverage for Dana White and Zuffa, but it risks alienating MMA’s core fans—especially as the sport leans harder into Trump-friendly branding and culture-war style smack talk.

On June 14, the White House is set to host UFC Freedom 250—an event billed as mixed martial arts inside the most politically loaded address in the country, honoring both America’s 250th birthday and Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

The idea itself feels like a mismatch to many longtime fight fans. But the matchup goes deeper than spectacle. Trump’s relationship to combat sports—often entangled with Dana White and the UFC—has helped shape how the sport is marketed. who it appeals to. and what it asks of the people inside the cage and the fans outside it.

Kyle Green. a sociologist at SUNY Brockport who writes on the intersection of sports and politics. points to UFC’s political role as more than branding. “The UFC and Dana White arguably helped Trump get elected,” he said. Green added that the UFC helped put Trump “in contact with Joe Rogan. ” and that Rogan then connected Trump “with all the other podcast bros. ” which Green said helped Trump “especially in the last election.”.

Green also argued that UFC’s mainstream rise has been intertwined with having a fan in the White House. That relationship, he said, has gone on for decades—yet he identified two tipping points that solidified the alliance as it exists now.

The first was Covid. Green said the UFC bucked shutdown protocols and became the first to host a major sports event. a move that earned public praise from the president. The second was January 6. Green said those moments could have been a breaking point. “That could have been a moment where the UFC breaks with him,” he said. “Instead, they invited Trump to a match and let him do the walkout.”.

The political upside for UFC leadership is obvious—especially because White has been explicit about the price. Green said Dana White has said he’s going to lose millions with the White House fight, given the bill for construction, while White also stands to gain “a lot of political power.”

The risk is less about finances and more about the sport’s identity. Green said the White House card is unlikely to bring in new fans in the way the UFC once brought them in.

If you want to understand why, Green says look at what UFC is asking fans to watch. He described how MMA has evolved in public consciousness, particularly the way fights are sold. Green said UFC’s modern buildup often leans into the professional wrestling model: taunting. insults. and character work meant to draw attention rather than convey sport alone.

He argued that the tone extends beyond MMA and into broader American behavior. “I think Trump has enabled it,” Green said, while also saying Trump didn’t originate it. Green tied the shift to the way fighting is marketed now—combined with a labor structure he called “grotesque. ” where fighters are “technically independent contractors with very few protections and rights.” Green said that is “very different from boxing. ” where he referenced the Muhammad Ali Act.

Green said UFC is trying to move into boxing through what’s called Zuffa Boxing and working with Saudi Arabian money to reform the Muhammad Ali Act to get rid of some protections. He linked that effort to Dana White’s influence on Donald Trump. and Green said Trump influences the Senate. where lawmakers are currently deciding about reforming the Muhammad Ali Act.

Green’s concern is that while UFC gains power through the White House connection. it may be costing the audience that made the sport feel like something other than mainstream politics and spectacle. “A bunch of the core fanbase is struggling right now,” he said. “For some of them, they’re like, ‘I can’t watch this anymore.’”.

The question Green kept returning to was what this shift does to fandom. Not whether UFC is entertaining—it is. It’s whether presenting the sport through the Trump-aligned frame changes what people feel watching it.

There are also signals that the card’s priorities go beyond fighting itself. Green pointed to weigh-ins and staging at the Lincoln Memorial. He said the official weigh-in is in the morning. when fighters step on the scale. but at the Lincoln Memorial the event is symbolic: fighters face off for crowds. do a “symbolic step on the scale. ” pose. “make muscles. ” and intimidate each other before the actual fight—“just like Lincoln wanted.” Green called it “absurd. ” while emphasizing that he isn’t a newcomer to the sport. He said he has been a fan since it arrived in the United States in 1993 and watched events with his brother. a wrestler. and his dad.

The politics of that staging, Green said, sit awkwardly with how the sport is sold to the public. Green described a core argument that MMA is consensual—two people entering a space and agreeing to what they’re going to do. testing techniques against each other. But he also said what people see in bars can be something else: “they’re just screaming for blood. screaming for the knockout. That’s what sells.”.

Green then illustrated what that selling looks like in practice. He cited a fight involving Sean Strickland. saying Strickland—described by Green as one of the sport’s most “despicable” characters—had said extremely racist things in the lead-up to a fight. Green said Strickland later told viewers. “Hey. sorry. you know. I was just selling it to you guys.” Green also raised Josh Hokit. a fighter scheduled to compete on the White House card. Green said people

familiar with Hokit’s background as a college wrestler believe he’s “just playing a character. ” but that when Hokit gets in front of the mic now he wears an American flag bandana and says he wants to “kick Mexicans out of the country. ” or that he wants to “beat up transgender people. ” and says “Brittney Griner is a man.” Green said he doesn’t know whether Hokit believes it. but argued it “doesn’t really

matter. ” because it sells.

Green’s argument about Trump’s influence is not limited to politics—it’s about why the sport’s branding has grown sharper and more provocation-driven. “I think Trump has enabled it,” he said, linking it to people feeling more willing to use racist and sexist language in public life.

Green also questioned how much credit UFC deserves in claiming Trump’s role in its rise. He said Dana White and Trump’s alliance has strengthened. and yet White has tried to rewrite the story by acting like Trump was essential to UFC’s growth. Green disputed that version. He said that initially UFC would host events wherever it could. and after Zuffa bought UFC and became its parent company in 2001. Green said the first event was at a Donald Trump-owned casino. Green added that if Trump hadn’t been there, UFC would have gone to a different casino. Green also said Trump later became involved with a rival MMA organization.

When Green turned to Dana White himself, his view was blunt. He said he believes White and Trump share similar understandings of how politics works: “They’re both transactional and seek power.” Green said White tries to claim he is “center to the left” in politics. but Green described that as a kind of positioning among conservative religious. sexuality. and immigration circles. Green said White’s conservatism also includes not believing in the rights of the worker and not believing in regulation from the government or athletic commissions. Green said White is willing to make deals with Saudi Arabia or the Chechen dictator or Trump—again. in Green’s telling. as a route to “amass more power and influence.”.

Green said White’s strategy has a limit. As UFC tries to keep Trump-aligned fans while reaching new ones, Green said the company leans on “I’m apolitical, sports are not political,” even as Green describes UFC as the most overtly political of sports.

Then there’s the issue that Green treated as a visible sign of how UFC is staging identity: gender representation on the White House card. Green said the White House fight is the only card in the UFC without any women fighting on it—not just this year. but last year and the year before that. Green said he didn’t think the fights themselves were the point. but argued the UFC’s broader presentation overlaps with Trump’s appeal to masculinity—what Green described as a “traditional version” of femininity the sport wants to perform and the femininity it wants to sideline. Green said MMA is one of the few sports where two women fighters can headline a card and men can be underneath them. meaning women get prime positioning elsewhere in UFC.

For Green, that contrast is part of why the White House event could backfire. He said if someone is trying to introduce a person to MMA and convince them it’s “a really cool thing. ” Green wouldn’t use the White House card. Instead. he said he would show Anderson Silva fighting with “beautiful. graceful” technique—someone who won through technique rather than brute strength. He framed that choice as an alternative to what the White House event risks making MMA “only” associated with: Donald Trump.

In the end, Green’s concern is not that UFC will fail to draw attention. White House hosting guarantees attention. His concern is what kind of attention it creates—and whether the people who built the sport’s reputation in the first place will feel priced out of it.

“A bunch of the core fanbase is struggling right now,” Green said, and the central question, as he put it, is what that White House moment does to the people who still want MMA to feel like MMA.

UFC Freedom 250 Dana White Donald Trump White House June 14 MMA Joe Rogan Kyle Green Muhammad Ali Act Zuffa Boxing labor protections Sean Strickland Josh Hokit Lincoln Memorial weigh-in