UFC pay is a huge topic with everyone’s favorite athletes having to ask for bonuses after putting their lives on the line. Just last week Mark Zuckerberg was apparently invited by UFC to attend a private event – barring even athletes families from attending all so Zuckerberg could skip prelims and enjoy in the company of his wife’s favorite athlete – Mackenzie Dern.
Terrence McKinney has the record for one of the quickest knockouts in UFC history. He competes in the lightweight division and has a 13-4-0 record. Recently, McKinney tweeted about becoming sponsored by Tesla and his intention to invite Elon Musk to the UFC.
Tesla has emerged as the world’s leading advocate for electric vehicles thanks to an entrepreneur of Elon’s calibre at the helm. Tesla offers supercars, premium vehicles, and environmentally friendly vehicles. In a recent interview with EssentiallySports, Terrence McKinney discussed his growing interest in a Tesla sponsorship.
McKinney said:
“It’d be cool, and it’d be a good way to get like better sponsors for the fighters like they did with Mark Zuckerberg. So, it just made sense to us and I think it’d be cool to have Elon Musk in there and meet him”
McKinney is not the only one. Several other UFC athletes expressed interest in owning prestigious electric vehicles.
“What’s up @Tesla… looking to sponsor a fighter with a Model X…” Yanez said in the first post. Sterling then said, “I’ll take one too!”
I’ll take one too! 🙋🏾♂️🙋🏾♂️🙋🏾♂️ https://t.co/ok8SZofZvN
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) September 17, 2022
Following this, Uros Medic joined in and suggested that they bring Elon Musk to the Octagon. He tweeted: “You guys doing it wrong… We have to bring him in and once he sees the fights live, it’ll blow his mind… then there will be cars for everyone.”
What they’re clearly unaware of is that Musk is a part of their parent company – Endeavor. Endeavor acquired full control of UFC for estimated 6 billion dollars in 2021. They previously had a controlling interest of 50.1% acquired for 4 billion and change.
While Musk is a fan of the UFC and occasional spectator he likely has no interest in helping better the lives of the athletes. Just last year Beniel Dariush called out Musk in the cage after his Tesla order was delayed. The call out worked – and Dariush later admitted he was unaware of the fact he was effectively calling out his boss.
Musk previously told Fullsend podcast:
“I watch UFC occasionally these days. I watch the early fights with Royce Gracie… Crazy… That was like they didn’t have any rules, basically. I mean, they technically had some rules.”
Musk added: “Because you know you can’t like eye gouging, knee caps or throat, you know… I see occasional once. It’s still interesting to watch. There’s a lot more technique. These days they have like weight categories.”