Last week’s UFC White House event drew a reported 8.2M viewers on Paramount Plus. The upcoming Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas against Max Holloway could draw just many viewers.
Michael Tasner at Inc Magazine argued that whatever money TKO lost on the UFC White House event would be more than made up for by the wave of earned media before and after the event and a permanent elevation of the promotion’s profile. Is he right?
This week’s super-sized podcast from The MMA Draw analyzes every single angle from the UFC Freedom 250 event including the historical juxtaposition of TKO throwing an 80th birthday bash for President Donald J. Trump, only to see him surrendering hours later to the Iranian government by signing the Treaty of Versailles 2.0.
President Trump isn’t the only one making political history. Ari Emanuel is one of the key unelected power brokers in this current US Presidential administration and he is preparing for Life After Trump. That framing explains why the US State Department recently signed a deal with UFC in the name of diplomacy.
Thought being a fight fan meant you could escape politics? Not any longer.
Ari Emanuel enabled, produced, and orchestrated the process behind the UFC White House event. Dana White and Craig Borsari put in the elbow grease but it was The King of Hollywood who President Trump made a beeline towards for the first handshake at UFC Freedom 250. The tabloids and Hollywood press took notice.
Everyone involved — including the mainstream political media — would rather not focus on mentioning Ari Emanuel’s name… or if they have to, categorize it in a minimal fashion.
On the menu for this week’s MMA Draw podcast:
Why the Paramount Plus media strategy in maximizing UFC visibility for recruiting new subscribers seems chaotic. If you same-day subscribed to the UFC Freedom 250 event, you also will receive Conor McGregor’s return fight in the same billing cycle. Nevermind the Summer campaigns advertising “get two months for 99 cents.”
How much bigger (or smaller) will Conor McGregor’s fight draw in Paramount viewership versus UFC White House? The trends indicate it will draw a monster number.
The huge tax dilemma UFC fighters receiving Freedom 250 crypto bonuses from the White House event are about to face. Nerd alert: We break down how multiple silos of taxation regarding Fair Market Value, ordinary income, and capital gains/losses could hypothetically end up costing fighters tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Thanks to Twitter user DeepDarkRock, we now apparently know the name of the doctor who tried to stop the Ilia Topuria/Justin Gaethje fight after round three but was reversed by referee Marc Goddard. UFC’s medical director, Dr. Jeff Davidson, was the other doctor present. What exactly happened and how much more punishment did Topuria unnecessarily absorb? Is Justin Gaethje when he says that Topuria will never be the same fighter ever again?
How Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira losing in lopsided fashion will create future hesitancy in fighters jumping up multiple weight classes to chase “money fights” instead of sticking to a more natural weight class.
Why Zach Arnold initially interpreted The New York Times article on Conor McGregor and Dr. Neal ElAttrache as a hit piece on the doctor as a larger sports story rather than as a direct hit on UFC or Conor himself. There’s a reason Conor dismissed having a bullseye on his back from The Times during his recent Ariel Helwani interview.
A jam-packed 80 minute podcast covering the most politically sensitive issues in combat sports and geopolitics. You simply won’t find this kind of discussion anywhere else in fight sport.
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Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.
Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.
