Forget boycotting Bud Light, proud Americans should be drinking it by the gallon, says Dana White.
The UFC president went on a passionate rant about the controversial beer during an interview with Tucker Carlson, defending the MMA promotion’s massive six-year, $630-million US sponsorship deal with Bud Light-brewery Anheuser-Busch.
Bud Light has been under fire and the subject of boycotts after teaming up with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney for an ad campaign earlier this year. It has since dropped from the top spot in beer sales in the U.S., being supplanted by Modelo Especial and seeing its sales volume drop by a reported 26.7% since March.
White, however, doubled-down in his support of Bud Light in his conversation with the former Fox News host.
“I’m getting into this point of my life and my career where I want to be with people and sponsors that I’m aligned with, which makes sense in this crazy world that we live in these days,” he said about his company’s partnership with Bud Light.
“And let me tell you what, if you consider yourself a patriot, you should be drinking gallons of Bud Light. Believe me when I tell you. Gallons!”
After Carlson joked that he should instead be boycotting the beer, White ramped it up: “Gallons of Bud Light! You should have Bud Light drums stacked up in your garage and drinking it right out of the keg.
“They are way more aligned with you than some of these other beer companies are, that I guarantee you.
“Take it from somebody that is in the know, who does business with beer companies. You are way more aligned with Bud Light than you are with any other beer company.”
When the deal was announced in October, there was plenty of backlash towards both UFC and Bud Light. White said that there were several options on the table in terms of beer brands to work with, but ultimately settled on Bud Light.
“We had multiple bidders on the table, they were one of them,” White said.
“History has shown me that relationships I have had with other beer companies, I, who leans more this way, I, who considers myself a patriot — I don’t go crazy over the whole patriot thing, but I consider myself a proud American — you are way more aligned with Anheuser-Busch than you are with other beer companies. That I guarantee you.”
Also on Wednesday, Kid Rock announced that he has ended his boycott of Bud Light, saying that “they got he message.”