In my spare time I do a martial art called Jiu Jitsu. Jiu Jitsu is a kind of grappling which was propelled into notoriety when Royce Gracie won the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993. The UFC was established to determine which martial art was most effective, and when Royce Gracie won UFC 1, many spectators took it as proof that Jiu Jitsu is number one. Nowadays, the UFC platforms a distinct sport called Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), which incorporates elements from a variety of combat sports like Jiu Jitsu, wrestling, boxing and Muay Thai.
Since Royce Gracie’s first win in UFC 1, the UFC has exploded in popularity, both globally and in Australia. Earlier this month, President Trump announced that the White House will host a UFC event next year as part of celebrations for 250 years of American independence. In February of this year, Sydney hosted UFC 312 in the Qudos Bank Arena and hosted over 18500 fans. The UFC is reported to have the youngest fan base of any professional sport in Australia.
How is this relevant to online hate? Earlier this month, I had a strange experience. A short video popped up on my youtube feed featuring one of the most famous athletes in all of Jiu Jitsu. I didn’t recognise the podcast he was appearing on or the host he was chatting to, but I clicked anyway. I spent a few minutes watching a prominent athlete discuss some technical details of a sport that I’m interested in. The host seemed knowledgable, and I got the sense that he had had a career in the UFC. It finished and I didn’t think much more about it.
Then later that week, I was on video hosting website Bitchute.com, monitoring hateful and extremist content for OHPI. A major selling point of Bitchute is that it champions free speech. In practice, this means that users can engage in some of the most extreme and shocking forms of hate-speech imaginable without having their videos removed. Users who have long since been banned from Youtube or X have found refuge in Bitchute, where they can express their unfiltered racist, misogynistic and bigoted ideas without interference. The experience of searching through content on Bitchute can be a bit sickening for most people, and it’s one of the websites that I typically warn people about before they engage with it.
So imagine my surprise when, in the middle of trawling through content from Neo-Nazis on Bitchute, I realised I was watching the very same podcast that I’d previously seen clipped on Youtube, featuring a famous Jiu Jitsu athlete. This time the host was chatting to a prominent Australian Neo-Nazi. The host explained that his guest was the third, fourth or fifth white nationalist he’d had on the podcast and that, while he himself wasn’t a white nationalist, he felt that they got a bad rap. As the interview progressed, they touched on topics like the Jewish lobby’s supposed efforts to flood white countries with non-white immigrants, the different “spirits” of white people and Jews, and white traitors.
This was an odd moment for me. Two of my worlds had collided in a way that made me pretty uncomfortable. When I first watched the clip on Youtube, I had no idea that I was watching a podcast that frequently hosted white nationalists and Neo-Nazis.
But, while I was surprised, I wasn’t that surprised. Or, to be more specific, I wasn’t as surprised as I would have been to find out that a former tennis, soccer or rugby pro had open ties to Neo-Nazis. And that’s because, as someone who has been a fan of combat sports for a little while now, I have come to understand that combat sports has a serious problem with hate-speech.
I became aware of this issue through numerous controversies sparked by prominent figures in the sport. In September of 2020, UFC fighter Colby Covington made headlines when, during a post-fight press conference, he asked Kamarau Usman (Nigerian-born UFC champion at the time) whether he had received a message from his “little tribe” through “smoke signals.” This incident was nothing new for Covington, who had previously referred to Bazillians as “filthy animals” before a fight in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Though prominent black UFC fighters spoke out against Convington’s remarks, Dana White (CEO of the UFC) did not elect to penalise Covington, stating “I don’t know what he said that was racist. I don’t know if I heard anything racist that he said”.
Controversial former UFC champion Sean Strickland has also made headlines through his various homophobic and transphobic rants. In early 2024, when a reporter attempted to ask Strickland about previous homophobic comments the fighter had made on X, Strickland started berating him and called the reporter a “weak fucking man” and “part of the problem”, because the reporter stated that he (the reporter) would have no issue with having a gay son. Once again, Dana White refused to penalise or condemn Strickland, stating “Free speech, brother. People can say whatever they want. They can believe whatever they want.”
More recently, White did feel compelled to speak out against UFC fighter and seat-belt denialist Bryce Mitchell, who stated that Hitler was a “good guy” and that the holocaust “ain’t real” on the very first episode of his recently launched podcast. Though White strongly condemned Mitchell’s comments, he declined to impose any formal disciplinary actions on the fighter, reasoning once again that “It’s free speech”.
The list goes on. Prominent figures in the UFC have consistently espoused explicitly hateful views about a variety of groups, and have consistently avoided any form of disciplinary action. The UFC is an outlier in this respect. In most mainstream sports, official fines and penalties are dealt out for far less than what was said by Covington, Strickland or Mitchell. Recently, the AFL integrity unit banned Riak Andrew for five weeks for using a homophobic slur during a game, and announced he would be taking part in Pride in Sport education. A former UK athletics chief was banned for three years in 2023 for making a racist remark about black sprinters. Former F1 star Nelson Piquet was recently ordered to pay £780,000 in moral damages for racist and homophobic comments he made towards Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
This article looks at some of the online responses to these UFC controversies, which demonstrate a significant atmosphere of hate in some UFC spaces online. We discuss the influence that the behaviour of prominent UFC figures can have on the fanbase, and suggest that the direction of influence can also run in the opposite direction, from the fanbase to UFC fighters and management.
Responses to Strickland:
Below, we see an instagram post about some of Strickland’s controversial X comments on homosexuality. One comment reads “Only sissies would be mad about this”, and another says “idgaf” (I don’t give a fuck). Another user writes “facts”, while the last says “based”. All of these comments show broad support for the Strickland’s homophobic online comments.
The following comments are taken from the viral Youtube video of Strickland’s rant towards a reporter, in which he expresses hateful views towards both gay and trans people. The first comment, with 762 likes, says “He’s %100 right. Time to stand up to the perverts.” This comment uses an accusation that has historically been levied towards gay people, and more recently against the trans community, that members of those groups are in fact pedophiles and are a danger to children. This stereotype aims to paint these communities as threats to society who should be shunned.
The following two comments, which have 3.4k and 4.7k likes respectively, also show broad support for Stricklands comments. The first says Strickland is “spitting facts”, and the second describes him as “100% correct”.
The popularity of these comments is disturbing. It suggests a general environment of homophobia and transphobia in some online spaces tied to the UFC.
Responses to Mitchell
The response to Bryce Mitchell’s comments about Hitler are equally disturbing. Below, we see an instagram post reporting on Dana White’s condemnation of Mitchell’s comments, which he called “dumb” and “ignorant”.
The comments featured alongside this post are supportive of Mitchell. The first says that “Bryce Mitchell is a G”, suggesting the fighter should be praised for his extremist views about Hitler. The second says that “DANA GOT THE CALL FROM HIS MASTER!”. This comment implies that Dana White is controlled by Jews who would have been unhappy with Mitchell’s comments. It feeds into traditional antisemitic stereotypes about Jews controlling the media and other institutions.
Finally, we have a user asking whether we can blame Mitchell for “questioning historical events”, given that “we’ve been lied to by our government about nearly every event”. This comment is referring to some of Mitchell’s specific claims about the holocaust, which he claims began in response to Jews turning members of the German population gay. This user excuses Mitchell’s holocaust distortion by painting it as a rational response to misinformation from the government.
Below, we see a similar pattern of support for Mitchell in comments on Instagram. One user asks “Is he wrong though?”, followed by another saying “He is right agree with him”. Below this, we see a third user saying “He’s not wrong”. This demonstrates significant support amongst the UFC community for extremist positions on Hitler, the holocaust and Jews.
The following user on X describes Mitchell’s comments as “based” and claims that “most Americans were taught WWII propaganda and not actual WWII history in school”. Another describes Mitchell’s comments as “historically and factually accurate”. These comments both express support for holocaust denial and distortion.
Finally, we see a user responding to Mitchell’s comments by writing “They’re beginning to understand”, with a picture of Hitler whispering in the ear of Goebbels. The implication is that Mitchell is finally understanding the truth of the holocaust, according to which Jews were to blame and Hitler was just trying to save his country.
Anshul Jubli and Anti-Indian Racism
When high-profile figures in a sport express hateful views and receive no official penalty, it emboldens fans to do the same. I think it’s possible that the direction of influence also runs in the other direction: from the fans to the athletes. When a fanbase openly expresses hateful views, athletes become aware that they can express similar opinions without risk of public backlash.
We can illustrate this point by considering recent anti-Indian against Anshul Jubli. Anshul Jubli is the only active Indian fighter on the UFC’s roster, and the second Indian fighter to have ever received a UFC contract. On the 9th of February of this year, at UFC 312 in Sydney, Jubli was knocked out by Australian fighter Quillan Salkilld just 19 seconds into the opening round.
Many UFC fans responded to Jubli’s loss by engaging in blatant and explicit anti-Indian racism. This X user says that Jubli should “stick to cricket” as “MMA isn’t for Indians”.
Next, this X user argues that, when Jubli was knocked out, he fell “like an Indian man who accidentally stepped into the shower”. This is in reference to the racist stereotype, propagated vigorously online, that Indian people have bad hygiene.
This user on Tiktok responds to Jubli’s loss simply by saying the word “Indians”, followed by a number of laugh reactions.
Recently, Strickland took to X and dished out a slew of anti-Indian hate. Below, Strickland suggests that Kash Patel should be threatened “with a bar of soap” if he refuses to release the Epstein files. Kash Patel the Director of the FBI, and is of Indian descent. Strickland’s post is a reference to the aforementioned stereotype that Indian people have poor hygiene.
Responding to a user who called out his anti-Indian hate, Strickland first claims that he is not racist, and then jokes that he would wash his hands “like 6 times” after shaking hands with an Indian person.
These anti-Indian tweets come a few months after the anti-Indian racism that we saw from fans after UFC 312 in Sydney. I don’t mean to suggest that Strickland’s anti-Indian racism was a direct response to the racism directed at Anshul Jubli. But I do think that when athletes are aware that a large contingent of their fanbase hold hateful views, it softens the potential concern that fighters might experience public backlash if they express their own hateful ideas. It therefore removes a potential drawback for prominent figures publicly expressing hateful views, and thereby helps facilitate the spread of hate among athletes.
This suggests that, as fans of the UFC, we bear significant responsibility for the prevalence of hate-speech in MMA discourse, amongst both fans and fighters alike. It isn’t just prominent UFC figures who, by their propagating or failing to punish hate-speech, encourage an atmosphere of hate amongst fans. It is also us fans who, through our evident willingness to engage or tolerate hate-speech, send a signal to UFC fighters and management that hateful discourse will be excused by a large portion of the fan base. Unless UFC fans are prepared to stand against hate-speech, Dana White will never feel a need to penalise fighters for expressing hateful views, and prominent figures will continue be engage in racist and homophobic discourse without fear of reproach.