Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
As we roll deeper into the political primaries, the stakes get higher and the demagoguery gets thicker. For better or worse, no realm of American culture escapes unscathed: not music, not fashion, not art, and certainly not sports. While politics and sports are not so unlikely bedfellows – both thrive on a considerable amount of showmanship – rarely do you see allegiances made between a politician and sports league.
So it is that the not-so-tacit support of Donald Trump by the UFC president and other MMA elite might come off as a bit alarming. Their cozying up to the N.Y. billionaire obviously doesn’t mean that the entire MMA community is under the spell of the hopeful Republican candidate, but it certainly warrants inquiry into what it means for the UFC to be promoting, explicitly or not, Trump’s particular brand of “values.”
For longtime MMA journalist and radio host Danny Acosta, enough is enough:
“MMA has reached increased visibility across the globe since Sudo’s time. With America’s divisive 2016 presidential election in full swing, it’s time to join an international chorus — it includes France’s prime minister, the United Nations’ human rights commissioner, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Holland’s foreign minister and many, many more — in condemning Donald Trump’s candidacy.
Trump’s absurd quotes are proving the American political process to be more pro-wrestling promo theater than anything reflecting a democratic election. Yet he currently leads the bewildered field of Republican nominees. Trump enjoys unsurprising support from the “telling it like it is” lowest common denominator. In MMA, that crowd includes UFC President Dana White, PED cheat and money laundering real estate fraud Chael Sonnen and the man that once compared working for the Ultimate Fighting Championship to slavery: Tito Ortiz.”
Do you agree that the MMA should divest itself of support for the Donald?
