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Felix & Karim catch up on all things combat sports centered around Karim’s new podcast series “In The Red Corner,” examining the relationship between Donald Trump and the UFC. They look at the long history between Trump and Dana White, the UFC’s emerging status as THE conservative sport, the tensions between super-Democrat Ari Emanuel and his ownership of the league, and UFC’s bid for global prominence, including the many threads of crimes and controversies flowing through the UAE and other gulf states.

Find “In The Red Corner” wherever you get pods, also at: https://www.sportspolitika.news/p/ufc-trump-podcast-red-corner-mma-politics

And find all of Karim’s work at: https://www.sportspolitika.news/

Order Matt’s Book (and check out the new merch!): https://chapotraphouse.store

Come to our 11/4 Election Eve show in LA with E1: https://link.dice.fm/b1eb3de54f54

CON, INC: Felix’s podcast series examining the history and functioning of the media and lobbying apparatuses of the American Conservative movement is coming for Patreon subscribers in December!

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Comments

Manuel Vera

I’m first and gayer than all of you

Tom Joad

Many people are saying that I'm much more gay and more first than you. Many such cases..

Evan

You don't look gay.

Yutawq

This a certified Felix episode

John

Mmmm late night slop

Josh Woods

haven't listened yet but this just reminded me Felix narrated a doc about fighting. anybody know where I can watch that?

Begginstrip

late night noti in the middle of listening to the last episode 😩

Andrew Cross

damn it would be cool if someone had a video series about the intersection of MMA and politics

Travis

Felix begins speaking at 0:34 seconds

Semine

When does Will start speaking?

JD Nonce

Fighting in the age of loneliness or something like that right?

Chapo Bath House

Legit just re-subscribed to get the Karim episodes from the vault 🤙

MATT TRIANO

Fighters are fucking morons and fascism is violence so of course they turn out to be fascist morons

TheHairyClevage

And people that use oversimplified generalizations are what exactly? oh yes, fucking morons. Stop being such a bitch, get the Cock from out of your mouth and start training.

MATT TRIANO

Clever detour to homophobia sir

Underscore_Demilich

Bro just assumed their own gender. No neo-pronouns? No wonder you're bitch made

MATT TRIANO

I don't need to assume my own gender. Holy fuck you guys get hit in the head a lot.

J. A.

I will not get the cock out of my mouth. I put it there on purpose sir.

J. A.

No we get head a lot

J. A.

Cause we're gay guys

J. A.

And that stuff is just more readily available to us

J. A.

And I'm gay, together we're

Christian Johnson

Fighting in the Age of Loneliness on YouTube from 2018 I believe

Christian Johnson

Based on his performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 296, his name is Colby Cuckington now

Christian Johnson

Felix making MMA references is always a treat, a full episode on the subject is primo slop

Eric Murphy

I wonder if Dana knows how they built all of that abu dabi infrastructure..... It couldn't be the 30 men living a shipping container making 2$a day

Tim O'

The rare and beautiful Felix Mindset episode

Sam Zeng

Weak tea sis

Yairo Martis

I've been watching so much Napoleon Blownapart lately, I feel primed for this episode.

Drew McGill

Fighting and violence is inherently reactionary imo. look at what reactionary cinema is. It’s all revenge stories or one man against the world type stories. It does not surprise me one bit that UFC isn’t liberal lol

Drew McGill

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard today

——

I really wanted that to be good but it wasn’t great. It’s on YouTube

Nathan Explosion

and he’s been talking over his guests ever since

Fat Cobra

When are we getting a Will centered episode,. Obviously about taking MDMA and stealing other people's ladyfriends with his boyish good lioks?

Peanut Horse

Dana white fumbled the Conor Mcgregor meteoric rise so bad in hindsight, I remember when the company was rising and Dana said it’s about time ppl took the sport seriously, and Conor still ended up being a drugged out con man chasing boxing money (lol) and Dana was so desperate for growth he created a slap league named after himself, and publicly slapped his wife like 6 months into the first year of operation hahahha

Ian B

Booooo

Bryan Jennings

Karim is a fantastic guest. I know absolutely fuck all about MMA, and I always come away from episodes with him feeling like I've gotten real insight into a world I otherwise am not exposed to. He's also just very thoughtful with his answers and he and Felix clearly enjoy thinking things through as they talk.

Podcast subscriber 78

I don’t like being surprised so can anyone tell me if there are any Will jump scares in this.

Dustin Sparks

I could listen to Karim reading a phone book

hamburglar

Felix has been on a hot streak lately. Seems like he was checked out for a long time

Adam B

Would love a Felix x Luke Thomas crossover

Simon Maraya

I think it's uncontroversial to say that a central tenant of facism is the valorisation of strength measured by ability and willingness to do violence. Idk if it's fair to say that all individual practices or media explorations of violence are necessarily reactionary, but the overlap is there for sure.

Jackson

It's cool having someone on who does give some air to the real threat of a next trump term seriously without being completely apathetic or a hysterical lib

etienne

yeah speaking of pro sports leagues distancing themselves from woke causes, the MLB and NHL are basically starting to not enforce the uniform regs at pride nights for either bs reasons or just if they players say they don't feel like it, or in the case of Ovechkin because he loves Putin and he thinks the West is too queer

etienne

this is a certified Chapo Old Head episode

LPO Crane Jefferson

Possibly adding Chris Curtis and Angela Hill to the list... (Possibly!)

CS

Counter point: Haitian revolution

etienne

stock up on them because those are going to come back in a huge way a few years down the line

Ryan

Basically everything said here about UFC/Dana can be said verbatim about American pro wrestling/the McMahons. Great episode!

Ryan

In English soccer this happened last year too—Sheffield United’s captain at the time refused the rainbow armband and responded simply “Guess” when asked why.

Mangomoosh

Felix take the wheel. Fuck yeah.

Merthiel

Really don't get why there's always this implication that no one knows why combat sports and the like lean right wing. I mean it seems pretty obvious to me, it fits their vibe.

Whucko Jaang

Sorry guys! That's my email account.

Amsterdammit.

There's nothing inherently right wing about combat sports. I know this is anecdotal and in part a function of geography, but a bunch of the people with whom I train either skew left or are outright leftists. Historically, it wasn't straightforward either. Muhammad Ali is the biggest example that springs to mind.

Chris

the venn diagram of dudes who are okay with getting punched in the face for little to no reward and being a total degenerate moron has good overlap in my XP

P$

Merthiel

Here's the thing though, whether we want to admit it or not, the Left has a reputation as trying to impose some kind of "caring" on other people or focusing on "pity". It's part of why some of these guys can make the transition from "not caring about politics" to being super right-wing. Like it was the same thing with the "gamers" (hate that term) crowd. It could be they genuinely didn't care about politics until they got this impression that the Left was telling them "you should think about and fret over women/minorities/social causes". They get the impression the Right is willing to let them be and the Left just wants them to be doting and concerned 24/7.

Florida Woman Podcast

Not disagreeing with those that say fascism is rooted in fetishizing violence. However, if physical strength and the ability to fight were prized by the left, I think it’d make our politics a lot more attractive to the average person. Make being a socialist something that hot strong cool people do and I believe you’ll suddenly find a lot more people are willing to consider it

Philippe Duhart

“A fundamental pillar of classical fascism was anti-communism. There is nothing comparable in the postfascist imagination, which is not haunted by Jungerian figures of militiamen with metallic bodies sculpted in the trenches. It knows only bodybuilders trained in ordinary fitness centres.” — Enzo Traverso, The New Faces of Fascism

Andrew

In regard to the last question and discussion you also see overwhelming right wing political stances in high school and college wrestling. One minor difference is that the views have even more of an evangelical christian slant in wrestling. One example is at the 2023 NCAA championships the guy who just won the title is being interviewed live on ESPN and says “No false prophets, No Muhammads, just Jesus.”

CS

Hopefully never?

Theodore Nathan

Both episodes this week brought up the issue of the far right getting yoked out. I’m starting to worry, big muscles and no brains is a bad combo. Throw in misguided grievances… is there a left wing gun club I can join?

Jessica Rios

I miss Matt. There hasn’t been a good episode in so long. Ugh.

Simon Maraya

See also The Battle of Algiers or The Purge series for examples of non-reactionary violent cinema

Kinetics Video

Marvel movies are primarily concerned with kicking the shit out of an older Grimace who has become a sad Hitler (as far as I can follow them). They're liberal as all get-out

Sai

Yeah he provided a mostly solid materialist foundation to the analysis of the show. I like the current iteration of the show, but the hole he left is gigantic.

Burlack Sapp

51mins in no JOR ROGAN consideration?

eduard karpoev

I think their are a lot of UFC fighters that probably are more Left leaning, but also can read the room of having a fanbase that is probably 60/40 or 70/30 Right/Left. True a lot of the fighters & the fan base fucking suck. Fighters like Colby & Strickland shouldn't be allowed a platform to just spread hate for their brand. Also the fanbases obsession of calling any grappler from the Caucasus a crotch sniffer or no matter the style a rat is fucking disgusting. Also hate watching a sport knowing the guys are paid probably 1/3 what they should and have literally no safety net given to them as they professionally beat the shit out of each other. Like its awesome watching two FW or LW fucking battle during a fight, but also the repercussions of everyone one of those banger prelim card fights is maybe 50K, extreme physical damage, and the potential for life long psychological problems and your not getting enough money to be a salary.

Ashley Naftule

Listening to this made me wish Felix took the lead on more interviews. Not to say that Will is bad at it but he interjects a LOT more, whereas what was nice about this is that Felix was more laidback with his comments and just let Karim rip.

eduard karpoev

Fr his solo episodes like this one or the one with Rod Blagojevich are really good

Kinetics Video

Oh man, haven't thought about the Bernie cultural moment for a while now. Think as any kind of left political vision recedes back to the fringes we'll be seeing more and more alienated people drift right out of there being nowhere to go.

Jake Creighton

I’m a white guy, I wish I could fail upward.

Gary Klama

"coming out of the pandemic"

Bob K Ross

You racist assholes never mention Anderson Silva, despite him still having the most wins in a row.

Colton Durbin

Solution: get yoked out yourself and convince other leftists to do the same.

Michael

If I remember correctly The Ultimate Fighter was produced originally by the Fertitta brothers and Dana White because no one wanted to touch them. I also remember when Affliction MMA was running Dana White did an interview with The Score/Hardcore Sports Radio in Canada and was asked about Affliction aligning with Trump and White had a lot of good things to say about Trump and how smart he was and basically said Trump was suckering Affliction. Very interesting interview in hindsight.

K H

Great interview.

K H

An amazing anime arc would be uniting the fighters while becoming the heavyweight champion...maybe welterweight.

K H

Mentioned him what?

K H

Are you serving capital?

K H

More medium large. No need to be rude.

K H

Besides the Black Panthers? You can just start shooting guns and talking about leftist shit. There are others that aren't completely retarded and many just need the new framework to understand their material conditions. I don't know that it is necessarily easier to go from being a brain dead lib to progressive or commie than it is to from brain dead rightwinger to to full commie. At least not at this point.

K H

Later he jerked off on a bagel and made the frosh eat it.

Archie MacLellan

Yeah I listened to Bernie on Rogan when working on the rigs and he shook me up and changed my direction. Shame the apprentices now don't have that moment

Ardy Rezv

Ovechkin is the goat. Sorry shitlib. Imagine being a chapo patron and a Ukraine head 🤣

Podcast subscriber 78

Dumb joke notwithstanding, I absolutely enjoyed this. Great job Mr chapo

etienne

no no like has a photo of him with putin as his instagram avvi and thinks the '14 *and* 22 invasions are great. he's an unabashed russian chauvinist prick and a real profound social conservative. in what dimention is that okay

BadGattitude

"President Dana White" In 30 years this is a phrase you'll be seeing often.

Yevka D

i don’t know anything about fighting or sports but i liked the end of the episode because you can tell how much they like one another

J.P. McD.

Came here to post about the heartwarming ending

Timothy Mattackal

Can’t believe no one brought up Man City and the 115 charges.

Michael

“Do you want a f*cking tax cut.” Dana White on stage during the Republican primary.

Brian Halvorsen

It's worth noting that Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann, both from Liverpool, are socialists. If I recall correctly, Paddy even got a "fuck the tories" chant after winning a couple years ago in London.

MKatieUltra

Affliction and True Religion jeans with embroidered back pockets were different strains of the same early 00s mind virus

Agent Grange

After a week of H3H3s audience of grotesques ragging on Felix for "sounding stupid" or being a "vape guy" for hanging out on Hasan's stream its immensely satisfying to have an episode where Felix shows he is more informed and capable of more nuance than Ethan Klein has shown in their entire career.

Jack

Tens of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese are currently suffering the implications of a Biden-Harris regime

Ardy Rezv

In a world where not everyone agrees with your politics snowflake. He got a goal tonight too lmfao

Ardy Rezv

Hey maybe if this was trumps genocide instead a of Biden-Harris genocide the liberal media and people with TDS would join to protests.

parker

I would say that more has to do with the culture at a place like Liverpool and sports in the UK in general.

etienne

you're so caught up in being based to recognize that someone is being a scumbag. you're not the only one but you don't have to

AbeLinkin

Please unlock this one so I can send it to my meathead right-wing friends. I’m still friends with them because I like sports and all my left-wing friends are the most unathletic dudes you’ll ever meet and don’t like casually watching sports. A trend touched upon in this ep

Sol Chatz

Nah, they're anti Tory for sure but that's just a Liverpool thing. They don't seem that political apart from their problems with the conservatives, and are certainly not socialist

Jessica Rios

I used to love Ethan but not anymore. Attacking Hasan and Felix for not wanting genocide has exposed his true colors

Das_Steckdose

Love me some Cream Zidáne, thanks Felix!

——

What happened to brown people under trumps presidency? At this point I legit think a Trump presidency will be better for black people than Biden was and Harris would be.

AbeLinkin

They mentioned him

Mac daddy

Great listen, love Karim.. wrt to fighters being anti-union and dreaming of being the next Conor, my heart almost breaks for them bc with how the UFC has adjusted their contracts, there will literally never be another MMA fighter who gets as rich as Conor. He was a great cash cow for them but they've found out the real money is in exploiting the shit out of everyone else. Even their Flyweight champ Pantoja (one of few current ufc champs i actually like watching) makes a max of around 200k per fight and I wouldn't be surprised if it was closer to 100k

Shfifty_five

My poor ass needs more servings of capital.

Shfifty_five

Ok, no means of production for you, hippie.

Quadabyte

Felix has been waiting for this moment for 9 years

William

It’s just the same small % that it’s always been

Dyyyyylan

“They continue to fail upwards, it’s like white men personified.” “Hell yeah, nice one,” I said, sipping some milky java from my ‘Male Tears’ mug. “But, hold on one second, wouldn’t white men personified be white men?”

TheHairyClevage

What the hell would you know? you're just a school shooter that has gay sex with his collection of stuffed anteaters. I'm not listening to you.

Tyler Berglund

Absolutely top tier interview, great listen.

Phil Darovic

Re good news: the Craig Jones invitational this year was definitely a step forward for fighters. Jiu jitsu only but that was a big deal

The Other Lauren

abu dhabi isn't real it's just where nermal kept getting mailed to

C. Ries

Why are the guys whose job description is: ‘Be punched in the face repeatedly’ all belligerent morons? What an enigma

John

To be fair Khabib literally got to plea to trump to stop the war on palestine face to face. I know trump was lying when he said he would, but that is at least something. UFC let's their Muslim fighters say their piece.

Mangomoosh

Immediately thought of the affliction dress shirt Jim Irsay wore in his 2014 arrest video. Damn. Great episode.

K H

Why don't you seize the means of sum bitches(proletariat)?

Sam Tung

Really interesting episode. Also I genuinely would like a Felix FromSoft epsidoe.

Morgan

I really want to have an episode about how evil FIFA is