Mixed martial arts

Friday

Britt McHenry

Donald Trump saved the UFC 

A new bombshell has fallen on the sports-media villa: Dana White cloaked in the glory of a whopping seven-year, $7.7 billion media-rights deal with Paramount to stream all UFC fights on Paramount+ in the United States and select simulcast events on CBS. For the love of everyone’s wallets, goodbye Pay Per View and hello to a new right-wing cultural shift in mainstream sports coverage.  Why is this new deal so relevant? Since the UFC’s inception in 1993, mixed martial arts existed as its own niche category. Critics openly said it wasn’t a real sport. They lampooned the more brutal style of MMA as less skilled and artistic than boxing, once a more revered American pastime.

Thursday

Cockburn

The people deserve a Mark Zuckerberg-Elon Musk cage fight in Vegas

Just when you thought toxic masculinity was dead: Emmanuel Macron chugs a beer and Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to a cage fight.  Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that he was "up for a cage fight" with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — to which Zuck replied on his Instagram Story, "send me location.” Musk came back with: "Vegas Octagon,” the fenced-in area used for Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts in Las Vegas, Nevada. Musk also tweeted "I'm gonna use a move called 'The Walrus', where I just lie on you, and you can't get away” and "I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids & throwing them in the air." https://twitter.

elon musk mark zuckerberg cage fight

Tuesday

Ben Sixsmith

What makes Joe Rogan so successful?

If you had watched the Joe Rogan Experience in the early 2010s, you would have had no idea that it would become the world’s largest, most influential podcast. Filmed in the living room of the Fear Factor host and Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator Joe Rogan, JRE featured Rogan and his hapless sidekick Brian Redban hunched over webcams in novelty t-shirts and beanies and talking to a strange assortment of comedians and conspiracy theorists. It was sponsored by Fleshlight, a company which produced masturbatory aids.Fast forward 10 years and JRE is moving to Spotify in a deal allegedly worth $100 million. It is watched and listened to millions of times a week. Guests have included Elon Musk, Mike Tyson, Bernie Sanders, Robert Downey Jr and Mel Gibson.

joe rogan