A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
If former President Donald Trump is to win reelection, turning out young men who don't normally vote could be key to victory. Trump has been appealing to them on podcasts and also via a familiar stomping ground, the UFC. He was at a Ultimate Fighting Championship event that he made one of his first public appearances after being convicted of 34 felonies back in May.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: Forty-five being ushered in by UFC CEO Dana White. Donald Trump is in the building, and the former president is getting a standing ovation from the assembled masses here at UFC 302.
MARTÍNEZ: The ties between Trump and the mixed martial arts company are explored in a new podcast, "In The Red Corner." Its host, investigative reporter Karim Zidan, told me earlier that the relationship began at a time when the UFC was struggling.
KARIM ZIDAN: The UFC was this ostracized company that had been relegated to small venues in places like Mississippi and Alabama. It was really the late Senator John McCain who referred to MMA as human cockfighting, and that statement really tarnished the UFC's reputation and its ability to promote events across the country. But as the lore goes, Donald Trump took a chance on the UFC in 2001 and allowed the organization to host two consecutive events at his Atlantic City casino, the Trump Taj Mahal. And the UFC has really been loyal to him ever since then.
MARTÍNEZ: How has that relationship between Trump and the UFC evolved since he first ran for office in 2016?
ZIDAN: So in 2016, when it was really time for Donald Trump to take this main stage as a presidential nominee, he called in his favor, and that was from UFC president Dana White, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DANA WHITE: Let me tell you something. I've been in the fight business my whole life. I know fighters. Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is a fighter, and I know he will fight for this country.
ZIDAN: So this idea that you're connecting Donald Trump with these very strong fighters, and he's getting the approval of these fighters - really this introduction of this strongman version of Donald Trump that he wanted to present himself as - it's part of the allure of Donald Trump, Donald Trump the politician we're seeing right now. But moving on past that to that RNC in 2016, Dana White has just since then continued to enthusiastically promote Trump and his politics from his position in the UFC, to the extent that I have started referring to the UFC as the sporting arm of Trump's presidency and presidential campaign. Really, if there's a platform out there, if there's a American sports league that has really become the platform for MAGA ideology and for Donald Trump, it's the UFC.
MARTÍNEZ: In what way does the UFC best fit into Trump's campaign strategy?
ZIDAN: What's been really interesting post-2020, and really, more importantly, post the January 6 insurrection, is that Donald Trump has utilized the UFC as a platform to sort of rehabilitate his image. Within six months, they were hosting Donald Trump at UFC events again. And this continued over the past few years to the point that it has normalized Donald Trump's presence at any event, really. The UFC's core base includes a lot of these young, apolitical men and conservatives who share his support. So to them, this is a very natural step. And for Donald Trump, he really utilizes it as a means to ensure that these apolitical young men are still connected to him, that he can still resonate with these people that he hopes will be a key base that he can activate in 2024 for this election.
MARTÍNEZ: So what is it then about Donald Trump's political style, maybe, that appeals to the UFC fan, the majority of which are young men?
ZIDAN: I think you have to look back at the inception of the UFC, the history of mixed martial arts, understanding that this is a niche sport that at one point had been relegated out of society for the most part, was not being taken seriously, was not accepted as part of the mainstream. So a lot of these fighters end up growing up with this and the entire industry, really, grows up with this chip on its shoulder, this us versus them mentality that really ends up benefiting somebody like Donald Trump, who came in and was so divisive yet he really connected with these groups of people who felt left out of the political space and out of society in general.
But I think a more concerning element of this is the fact that mixed martial arts was also one of the earliest sports to really be an online sport. Fans engaged with the sport online on forums and in these different online spaces. These happen to be the same spaces where a lot of, you know, far-right conspiracy theories and some of the awful stuff that we're seeing nowadays ends up spreading and really proliferating and radicalizing these same apolitical young men who end up watching the UFC.
MARTÍNEZ: Karim Zidan is the founder of Sports Politika. He hosts an audio series titled "In The Red Corner" about the links between the UFC and Donald Trump. Karim, thank you very much.
ZIDAN: It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
