During a recent live broadcast, MMA analyst Luke Thomas responded to a viewer question about whether UFC CEO Dana White is being unfairly criticized over the promotion’s use of AI in advertising and the perceived decline in the quality of recent cards.
Thomas pushed back on the idea that White should be shielded from blame. He argued that White still holds significant influence over the look and feel of UFC broadcasts, particularly when it comes to production decisions.
“On the AI side, one thing that I do know that Dana still has control over largely is a lot of the production and the production elements,” Thomas said. “It would not surprise me at all if AI was his idea, but that was run by him. At a bare minimum he was supportive of it.”
From there, Thomas suggested that many critics are mischaracterizing the real issue. In his view, the debate isn’t simply about replacing artists with AI. It’s about standards and expectations for a company that is more financially successful than ever.
“The argument wasn’t ‘oh, you could just pay real artists to do this.’ Well, yes, you could do that,” he explained. “The argument is you’re using AI at a time when you’re flush with cash and the AI is quite bad actually. It’s quite bad.”
He emphasized that the problem lies in how the AI-generated elements compare to the rest of the broadcast product, which has traditionally been a point of pride for the UFC.
“It’s actually not nearly as good and not up to standards as the rest of the traditional broadcast elements that the UFC uses,” Thomas said. “That’s the problem. The problem is that it is incongruous in quality to what the UFC typically does on the broadcast, which is Dana’s kind of hobby horse internally, how the broadcast looks and who’s in control of it.”
Thomas then reframed the criticism as a question of priorities. For a company generating record revenue, he argued, cutting corners on presentation sends the wrong message to fans.
“The argument is why do you have so much money and you’re finding ways to spend less to make the broadcast look worse?” he said. “No, the argument is why are you turning in an inferior product at an exceptionally less cost when you have more money than God?”
He did not mince words when describing the final result.
“It’s a question of quality. You’re turning in trash. This is trash. It looks like trash. It doesn’t look good,” he stated.
Despite his harsh criticism, Thomas made it clear that he is not fundamentally opposed to artificial intelligence. In fact, he noted that he uses AI tools himself and sees legitimate applications when they improve the end product.
“I’m not one of these people that’s opposed to AI uses,” he said. “I’ve talked about it. I use Anthropic for research all the time. There are use cases that I think are appropriate and can be ethical.”
However, he stressed that technology should enhance quality, not diminish it.
“I’m not anti-AI, but if you’re going to use AI, it should be serving you to make what you’re doing better, right?” Thomas added. “If you’re making it worse, it just is so emblematic of the bigger issue.”
He went on to talk about what he sees as a recurring pattern in the UFC’s leadership: prioritizing cost-cutting while dismissing fan concerns.
“You have more money than ever and you’re trying to go cheap and the product looks worse as a consequence,” he said. “And then they have the balls to say if you don’t like it, go f*** yourself basically.”
Thomas argued that facing criticism is part of White’s role as the public face of the organization.
“Dana’s job is to be the guy that fields these questions. I have no sympathy for him, none whatsoever,” he said. “Get better answers. ‘Shut the f*** up and watch the fights.’ No. How about you shut the f*** up and fix that.”
He closed by tying the controversy over AI to a deeper disconnect between the company and its audience.
“It’s lazy. It’s lazy. It’s lazy and it’s cheap,” Thomas said. “We have a company that has lost touch with what general market pressures are, that has a growing schism between themselves and the fan base who they are extracting for more money than ever.”
