During a recent episode of his podcast, former UFC welterweight Jake Shields reacted live to a CNN segment featuring reporter Donie O’Sullivan, who explored the UFC’s growing role in American political culture. The report suggested that the sport’s rising popularity is increasingly intersecting with right-wing political spaces.
The CNN segment argued that the UFC’s influence now extends far beyond the octagon. “The UFC is playing a greater and bigger and bigger role really in American life,” Sullivan stated in the broadcast.
He continued by highlighting key figures tied to the promotion: “Joe Rogan, who’s the world’s biggest podcaster, is a UFC commentator. Dana White, who is the founder of the UFC, is a prominent Trump supporter and was recently appointed to the board of Meta by Mark Zuckerberg himself.”
Shields quickly took issue with one part of that description, correcting the claim about Dana White’s role. “Dana White is not the founder of the UFC,” he said. Frustrated by how often the label is used, he added, “People always say this. He’s owner and founder. It’s like so annoying.”
Reiterating his point, Shields continued, “Dana White is not the owner or the founder of the UFC. I don’t know why people think that.”
The conversation then shifted to Mark Zuckerberg’s recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast and his growing involvement in combat sports culture. Shields admitted he didn’t watch the full episode.
“I didn’t watch the whole interview on Rogan. I couldn’t take it serious,” he said. Describing Zuckerberg’s demeanor, Shields remarked, “He’s like 10. He’s got like a chain. His hair is all curled. He’s just like training in jiu-jitsu. He’s just like what up?”
He went on to make more observations: “It’s kind of like he’s a reptile pretending like he’s a human.” Despite the criticism, Shields softened his stance by acknowledging mutual connections. “I have a lot of friends who have gone and trained with him so I’m not going to bash him,” he said.
He added a more positive note about Zuckerberg’s training: “I am happy he’s training jiu-jitsu. I hope it’s making him a better person. Jiu-jitsu makes a lot of people better people,” before concluding with, “but he still looks like a reptile to me.”
When the CNN segment brought up UFC athlete Bryce Mitchell and the backlash surrounding his podcast debut, Shields was quick to defend him. “Bryce is awesome. Good friend of mine. One of the nicest guys ever,” he said.
Addressing Mitchell’s widely reported remarks about Adolf H**ler, Shields downplayed the controversy, saying, “A little bit out of context, but anyways.”
In the CNN piece, O’Sullivan made it clear that being a UFC fan does not automatically align someone with any political ideology.
“There’s tons of guys who are fans and some women as well who are fans of the UFC,” he said. He emphasized, “It certainly does not mean that if you are a fan of the UFC, you are falling down this rabbit hole of h*te and white supremacy.”
However, he noted a visible overlap: “But what we are seeing is that there is this crossover.”
Shields agreed and ultimately gave a measured reaction to the segment as a whole. “It wasn’t too bad,” he said. He acknowledged that the interview had likely been trimmed for broadcast, adding, “Obviously it was edited because it was a longer interview, but that was a fairly fair interview.”
Shields concluded by suggesting that his own consistency made it difficult to misrepresent him: “I mean, I guess it was kind of hard to make me look bad because I just always speak my real opinions and truth. So it’s hard to make you look bad when you do that.”
