The rise of the internet and social media, together with the explosion of mixed martial arts (MMA) as a major global sport, has meant that today’s fighters are under intense scrutiny not just in the cage, but at all times – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As such, some fighters have managed to ignite a storm with politically motivated remarks and motivations, while others have infamously gone as far as to rub shoulders with some of the world’s most powerful and influential leaders.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at 10 MMA stars that have courted controversy and hit the headlines by stepping out of the Octagon and into the all-too-often murky waters of politics – for better or worse.
Tim Kennedy
Kennedy captured global media attention earlier this month when he became the willing participant in a demonstration about the controversial interrogation technique known as ‘Waterboarding.’
Kennedy, a special-forces soldier and ex-UFC contender, live-streamed himself being waterboarded off-and-on for 40 minutes in an attempt to prove that it was not a form of torture, and instead was simply just ‘uncomfortable’.
There was a political motive behind the demonstration though – to support Gina Haspel, who was coming under fire for having overseen ‘black-sites’ in which waterboarding had been used during the ‘War On Terror.’
“Right now, an amazing hero has been appointed to be director of the CIA and because of that, some of the things she has done are being attacked,” Kennedy wrote alongside the video feed.
If I can change one person’s mind about what torture is and what I would do to protect American freedom, I will do this for years.”
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