• just_another_person@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    To be fair, the UFC crowd has always had a pretty heavy right-wing crowd. I bet the Venn Diagram of UFC and NASCAR fans has a lot of overlap, just saying.

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      10 hours ago

      Combat sports have always been primarily a working man / blue collar sport, whether it’s the athletes or the spectators.

      But no, what the UFC has done in the 5 years has been to intentionally and actively push out anyone who doesn’t align with their far right views, or at least tried their best to - there are still some of us left.

      As someone who consumes a lot of combat sports, and actively participates in those communities, I have yet to meet a NASCAR fan. But I have met a lot of pro wrestling fans.

      Not saying they don’t exist, just that your comment does not align with my experience.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Well I’m not in that area of entertainment at all, so my experiences are purely anecdotal. The people I read online who are super huge into UFC.are definitely of a certain type, and the people we see participating always have some sort of right-wing attitude in positions (not saying all, but a lot), and people will flock to that.

        The reason why people think all the traditional professionals in sports are super left-wing is the same reason why people think UFC/NASCAR is super right-wing, certainly. What you see people doing in front of the public leaves the entire group with those lasting impressions.

        So certainly not EVERYONE of a particular group is a certain way by any means, but to your point, it certainly doesn’t help how the UFC people seem to be bootlickers for Trump. Especially that guy who heads the whole thing and is trying to get a UFC at the fucking White House and bring Idiocracy to full realization.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          9 hours ago

          The UFC swung right as an organization because of Trump, to support Trump post Jan. 6, in large part, because Dana White and Trump go back a long while, and are actually friends, well insofar as Trump is capable of having friends.

          Prior to that the fighters and fans may have skewed towards a right-leaning demographic, but it was not overtly political as a matter of company policy.

          But yes, the UFC’s turn, post Jan 6, has pushed out a lot of left-leaning viewers because of how nakedly political and far-right it has become as an organization, and what remains is a primarily right-wing audience.

          Here’s a video from a couple days ago that highlights that schism: Left-wing hosts of The Vanguard who stopped watching the UFC because of their right-wing turn, interviewing a prominent MMA media figure, and outpsoken leftist, Luke Thomas.