MMA analyst Luke Thomas appeared on the Le Batard Show to discuss UFC Freedom 250, the upcoming event scheduled for the White House lawn on June 15, Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. Thomas did not hold back his views on the relationship between the UFC and the Trump political project.
“It is my belief that there is basically no mainstream, certainly not a sport and entertainment entity, that has a greater role in returning Trump to power than the UFC,” Thomas said. “They are the most important, again, mainstream kind of actor in rehabilitating Donald Trump post January 6.”
Thomas described the event as two things happening at once. He said, “I’m trying to cover both of those events as one simultaneously, a combat event as well as this kind of political reward for this effort that they did for the Trump regime.”
On the UFC’s rightward shift as an organization, Thomas was direct. He stated, “The right-wing turn that the company has made is complete. It used to bother me when they were in this kind of period where they were trotting him out and it literally changed the sport.”
He continued: “On the one hand it drove out people who aren’t automatically sympathetic to MAGA or at a bare minimum just politically agnostic. It drove all of them out and it pulled back in a group of folks who I would describe as like terminally online chud losers.”
Regarding Dana White’s recent attempts to soften the UFC’s political image, Thomas rejected the framing entirely. He said, “After January 6, one of the very first places that Trump went was UFC. You actually look at when Trump goes to UFC events. Not always, but pretty often it’s in close conjunction with when he was getting indicted and by the way held liable for crim es in New York State.”
Thomas argued that Dana White’s personal politics are beside the point. He stated, “Whatever Dana White’s personal view about the world and maybe he doesn’t hold all the same views as for example Steven Miller, it doesn’t matter because he was a chief architect in returning a political project to power. You own what comes with that. You cannot distance yourself now. It is absolutely too late.”
He went further on the idea of the UFC seeking reconciliation with fans alienated by its politics. “After you’ve changed the fan base, after you’ve turned MMA into a vector for right-wing politics, now it’s time for Kumbaya. No, it is not. There is no coming back from this,” he noted.
Thomas closed with a warning that the consequences of the UFC’s political alignment are only now becoming visible.
He stated, “The destruction that Trump has wrought upon us is only, frankly, just beginning. And the UFC was very, very clear that they were big supporters of the president. And I intend to make sure everyone understands that connection as things deteriorate.”
