MMA commentator and analyst Luke Thomas has made his position clear when it comes to UFC’s political entanglements, and he is not holding back on calling out what he sees as a glaring double standard among fans who claim they want politics out of sports.
The conversation was sparked after reporter Katie Miller asked UFC CEO Dana White whether he thought politics should be kept out of sports. Thomas found the question almost laughable in its framing.
“You’re asking a dude that made a decision to at least politicize himself to a degree by getting involved with Trump in 2016,” Thomas said. He compared it to asking a mime whether they enjoy silence, pointing out that White has definitively answered the question through his actions over the past decade.
Thomas argued that White may be the most deliberately political actor in the history of North American sports, noting that while figures like Muhammad Ali were thrust into political roles through circumstances like the draft, White actively chose this path.
“This was elected. They elected to lean into this the way that they did,” Thomas said.
Thomas outlined a timeline of the UFC’s political involvement, from the 2016 Trump endorsement to the Commander-in-Chief documentary. Thomas described it as a coordinated effort to rehabilitate Trump’s public image after January 6, 2021, when polling numbers were at a low point.
“You cannot buy this kind of mainstream organization marshalling its forces for a political candidate,” Thomas said.
Thomas reserved particular frustration for fans and critics who spent years complaining about political messaging in the NFL and NBA, only to embrace the UFC’s far deeper political alignment without question.
“The right have been crying about it for years, and now they shamelessly do it with the UFC,” Thomas read from a comment. He acknowledged that if leagues lean one political direction, it is difficult to object when another does the same, but argued there is simply no comparison in scale or intent. “There is no sports league in modern history who has ever leveraged their considerable private and public might around a candidate for office,” he said.
Thomas also took aim at those who questioned why he had become more politically vocal in his commentary.
His response was direct: “I have to sit here and watch the UFC rehabilitate a guy who tried to steal a presidential election with a fake elector scheme…. I have to watch this be politicized in the most aggressive and polarizing of ways and I’m the one politicizing it for merely observing reality.”
For Thomas, the hypocrisy is the central issue. Fans who demand politics stay out of sports are often the same fans cheering a White House card.
