Ex-ESPN anchor Sage Steele has spoken favorably of a decision made by Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White, in which the UFC partnered with beer company Anheuser-Busch to make Bud Light a sponsor.
The deal was revealed in October 2023, approximately six months after Bud Light did a partnership with transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney, sparking widespread dislike among conservatives. White has defended the partnership between the beer brand and UFC, with Steele voicing her support for White’s decision.
“I love that he did that because it’s, like, No. 1, everybody deserves a second chance, in my opinion,” Steele said. “I really do believe that. And secondly, what a brilliant business move.”
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Steele explained that from a business perspective, when a company is losing money, it will pay others “to try and fix their image.” In the wake of Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney, the brand’s sales notably decreased, losing its position as the top-selling beer in the United States.
“I just think it’s brilliant, and again, he does not care: ‘This is what I’m going to do. I’ve proven I’m a pretty good businessman,’” Steele noted. “And look, it was great to see those guys there, too, enjoying it.”
In defending this partnership, White argued he was looking at what Bud Light’s parent company, has done for the community, such as financially helping families of first responders and soldiers of the U.S. military. The UFC president described himself as someone who is “very big into law enforcement and military,” which makes him “very aligned” with Anheuser-Busch.
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Steele is not the only one who has suggested giving Bud Light a second chance, as former President Donald Trump did so last month, pointing to how Anheuser-Busch spends “$700 Million a year with our GREAT Farmers” while employing “65 thousand Americans.” Musician Kid Rock has also suggested that Bud Light “got the message” over people’s objection to the Mulvaney partnership.
In August, Steele announced that she would be leaving ESPN so that she could “exercise my First Amendment rights more freely.” The announcement was made after she was suspended by the network in October 2021 over comments she made about former President Barack Obama and the network’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
