UFC-Bud Light Sponsorship Deal Leads to Conservative Calls for a Boycott

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the latest target of outrage from conservative and far-right media personalities over a sponsorship deal with Bud Light.

Dana White, the mixed martial arts organization’s CEO, announced the deal on Tuesday and boycott calls by right-wing commentators and social media influencers miffed about the brand’s collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney quickly followed.

A handful of conservative users of X, formerly known as Twitter, posted screenshots of UFC Fight Pass confirming that they had cancelled their memberships of the streaming service.

And conservative opinion writers said the decision would cost the organization.

“​​Hi @DanaWhite, when you say @UFC & @BudLight ‘are very aligned when it comes to our core values,’ are you saying that UFC is okay with Bud Light promoting the evil transgender ideology of Dylan Mulvaney? Signed, millions of fans who will boycott you too,” conservative podcast host Liz Wheeler wrote on X.

“Lighting that money on fire would have been less embarrassing than what’s about to happen. Fighters are gonna hate this. Fans will hate it. The customers aren’t coming back,” former Republican congressional candidate Robby Starbuck wrote on X.

Clay Travis of the Outkick sports news website wrote that no one is tailgating with Bud Light anymore following the short-lived partnership with Mulvaney.

“The brand is dead,” he wrote on X.

White defended the decision to partner with Bud Light in a statement and in media appearances. 

"They were the first beer company that we really did business with," he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "They were our first real big sponsor when we were getting started, and now we're back with them."

He played up Bud Light’s donations to groups that support military families and law enforcement.

In a statement announcing the sponsorship deal, White said, “I feel we are very aligned when it comes to our core values and what the UFC brand stands for.”

A Daily Mail/TIPP poll conducted in July found half of Americans hold a favorable view of Mulvaney, compared with 42% who hold an unfavorable view, but the minority of Americans opposed to her now-defunct partnership with Bud Light have shown they are not opposed to punishing the brand for its decision to work with her.

Bud Light parent company AB InBev saw sales plummet by more than 10% in the United States in the second quarter of 2023 — which company executives attributed to the Bud Light boycott in an earnings call — and the company was forced to cut corporate staff.