UFC CEO Dana White clarified that money was not the sole factor in the organization’s decision to bring back Bud Light as its official beer sponsor.
The deal is reportedly worth $100 million.
Bud Light has faced serious backlash and boycotts after going “woke” and supporting transgender Americans. (Poll: Do You Support ‘Woke’ Companies? VOTE)
UFC President Dana White announces their partnership with Bud Light pic.twitter.com/FiXoHbkCZm
— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) October 25, 2023
White emphasized the importance of being aligned with a sponsor and highlighted Anheuser-Busch’s core values, such as employing Americans, supporting veterans, and contributing to charitable causes like Folds of Honor.
“When you do sponsorships, you definitely do sponsorships for the money, too. Money is definitely a part of it, but money was not the decision-making [factor],” White told FOX News’ Sean Hannity.
“There’s more to being aligned with a sponsor, a major sponsor like that, for as long as I’m going to be… There are many other things that are important to me other than just the money,” he continued.
“And the people that were all involved in this negotiation, on every side, absolutely, positively know that my choice was not determined by money.”
“They were the first beer company that we really did business with. They were our first real big sponsor when we were getting started, and now we’re back with them,” White said.
Bud Light and the UFC have entered into a $100 million partnership, but will this be enough to rebuild the beer brand's image?@ClayTravis weighs in pic.twitter.com/0q2v3T4yFG
— OutKick (@Outkick) October 25, 2023
“I know all the controversy and everything else, but for myself, going into a long-term deal with another sponsor, I want to be with somebody that I’m actually aligned with.”
“They employ 65,000 Americans. They have thousands of vets that work for them. They spend $700 million a year with U.S. farmers using their crops to make their products and many, many other great things that Anheuser-Busch has done in this country,” UFC’s CEO noted.
“I’m very big into law enforcement and military. And over the last, I don’t know how many years, they’ve spent like $45 million taking care of these servicemen and first responders who have died, taking care of their families, scholarships for their kids and things like that. So I am very aligned with Anheuser-Busch,” White expanded.
“Did you know that when there’s big disasters, they shut the plant down and they turn it into a water bottling facility?” he added. “And they’ve bottled like 100 million bottles of water that they’ve sent out to disaster areas. I’m going to focus on the good that they do. We are very aligned in many different areas and that’s why they’re going to be my partner for the next six years.”
Despite recent controversy, White focused on the positive aspects of the partnership and expressed his alignment with Anheuser-Busch.
The multiyear deal with Bud Light is considered the biggest sponsorship agreement in UFC history.
