The UFC has been pumping money into US politics for the past decade, with mixed success. Through lobbying they have sought to promote mixed martial arts to lawmakers and argue for tougher laws on piracy and copyright infringement.
The UFC has also used lobbying to focus on issues regarding foreign relations, work visas and the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act (an act that would give MMA fighters the same kind of control over their careers as boxers currently enjoy).
Thanks to federal disclosure forms we can see exactly how much the UFC is spending on official lobbying missions. We also know who they employ to do this, what branches of government they target and what specific issues their lobbyists are focused on.
Recent disclosure form releases show us that in the last two quarters of 2021 the UFC started lobbying work on a specific set of bills: H.R.842 and S.420. These bills are known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021. The disclosure forms also list “Employment status of mixed martial artists” as an issue of concern for the UFC.
Those two issues were part of a package of issues the UFC paid Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP to conduct lobbying work on. The UFC typically pays this firm $80,000 a quarter for lobbying work. So, to date, the UFC has disclosed $240,000 worth of spending on the Right to Organize Act of 2021, among other issues.
H.R.842 was introduced into the US House of Representatives on February 4, 2021 by Robert Scott, a Democrat from...
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