Oct. 24 (UPI) — Bud Light is back as the official beer of the UFC after a Tuesday deal that is reportedly the biggest in UFC’s history.
It comes as Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light tries to counter a recent conservative backlash and boycott that followed its partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Sales declined after that partership and the company even recently was forced to lay off hundreds.
At the height of the backlash, Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as the best-selling beer in the U.S.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship deal means Bud Light replaces Modela Especial, which agreed on a deal with the UFC in 2017.
Bud Light officials say the beer is back where it belongs.
“Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light have always been on the cutting edge of iconic sporting moments that fans remember forever, and reuniting with UFC is a continuation of this industry leading legacy,” Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said in a statement.
Terms were not disclosed, though the sponsorship deal is “well into the nine figures,” and the largest in the mixed martial arts promotion’s history, CNBC reported.
The conservative boycott went beyond slumping beer sales. This summer, Florida Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis launched on a government review of how Bud Light’s promotional partnership with Mulvaney may have affected state pension investments.
DeSantis ordered the agency overseeing Florida’s pension investments to look into whether AB InBev breached shareholder duties by using an ad featuring Mulvaney, something DeSantis said was part of the global brewing company’s “radical social ideologies.”
With the UFC deal, Anheuser-Busch renews ties with an organization perceived to be more conservative politically than other U.S. sports leagues. UFC CEO Dana White donated at least $1 million to a political action committee that supported Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, and the ex-president appeared at a UFC event in Las Vegas earlier this year.
“Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light were UFC’s original beer sponsors more than fifteen years ago. I’m proud to announce we are back in business together,” White said in a statement.
″There are many reasons why I chose to go with Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light, most importantly because I feel we are very aligned when it comes to our core values and what the UFC brand stands for,” he added.
The UFC reaches an audience of more than 700 million fans, the company has said. The partnership gives Bud Light visibility in an estimated 900 million TV households in more than 170 countries.
