'Elite politics': Why UFC at the White House has so many people thinking about Ancient Rome
Perhaps certain comparisons regarding the UFC White House event were inevitable. Maybe once a fighting cage is erected on public grounds at the request of a nation's leader — for a celebratory event that just happens to take place on U.S. President Donald Trump's birthday — it becomes hard not to think about gladiators and emperors and the sand of Ancient Rome's Colosseum.You don't have to look far to find people willing to connect those dots, whether in the Los Angeles Times or CNN. The recent issue of Time Magazine that featured UFC CEO Dana White on the cover noted that "brawling at the home of the President risks coming across less as a tribute to America's fighting spirit than as a harkening back to the Roman gladiators' fighting to the death to entertain the emperor."The UFC itself has, in the past, leaned into the gladiator analogy. Longtime fans still remember when UFC pay-per-view broadcasts would begin with a shot of a man in a gladiator costume, reaching down for a fistful of sand as he prepares for combat, the operatic score giving way to a nü metal crunch as that evening's fighters were unveiled.But this White House event seems to cast the equivalence in a different light, and to a degree that makes some uncomfortable while others rejoice. How apt is the comparison, really? And what does it say about our current cultural moment in the United States?One person who was not at all surprised by these comparisons is Alexander Mariotti, a specialist in Roman gladiator history who's worked as a historical consultant on film and TV projects like "Gladiator II" and HBO's "Rome" series. While he's quick to point out that there are many vital and obvious differences between ancient gladiators and modern prizefighters, the core appeal is still similar."I talk a lot about the UFC, just because there's so many parallels," Mariotti says. "UFC itself is kind of an offshoot of gladiatorial combat — not just the sport itself, but also culturally, what it means for human nature, what it means for human psychology."Part of Mariotti's work has been to dispel the many myths about Ancient Roman gladiators. Fights were not typically contested to the death, he points out, though deaths certainly did occur from time to time. And while some gladiators were slaves or prisoners of war, many were free men who chose it as a profession, preferring it to the other available options."In antiquity, much as the same as in modern society, sports could be a way out for someone born into humble origins," Mariotti says. "If you come from a poor background, you have no education, but you're physically imposing, you have an out. It's an opportunity to reach the pinnacle of fame and stardom. You can win glory. You can win sex. You can win money. It's the Rocky story, but it's real. I mean, Rocky is a story about a gladiator, isn't it?"Construction continues on the South Lawn of the White House.Kevin Carter via Getty ImagesBut staging these modern-day equivalents at the White House on President Trump's birthday is where the comparison really gets interesting, according to Mariotti. To him, it looks like a natural evolution from Trump's many appearances at UFC events in recent years, with aims and overtones that would be instantly recognizable to many Ancient Roman citizens."The emperor's success was down to populism," Mariotti says. "It was down to them appearing like one of the people. Julius Caesar was a great populist who understood how to seduce people with power. He used gladiatorial combat and the popularity of it to win favor with the people. He put on these lavish games. He gave out free food and wine. He had the best gladiators fighting. Of course that won him popularity."This is one of the benefits Trump derives from allying himself with the UFC, Mariotti says. Being seen cageside at the fights helps give him the appearance of a regular guy who enjoys the same sporting pleasures as the masses. And when he's highlighted and praised by UFC fighters and commentators during those broadcasts, it helps spread their aura of success and popularity to him."It's also such a great connector," Mariotti says. "I mean, what do you and I have in common with a politician? What can we talk about? In my work I've met people like Bill Gates and Tom Cruise. I've met politicians, you name it. What can we talk about? We talk about gladiators. We talk about fighting."There's nothing between the politician and the average person, but if the average person is into football or UFC, well, there's a great connection. And you're like, 'You know what? He's just a bloke. He's just one of us.' Now, does he actually go home and watch the fights like we do? I don't know, maybe not. But I would say a strength of your current president is the ability to come across as an average person. He doesn't talk like politicians, does he? He says ‘son of a b****’ and he goes to the fights. How many other presidents have you seen sitting there at the UFC?"But of all sports, why fighting? Why MMA and not baseball or basketball or football? Trump has attended events in all major sports, but never with anything resembling the kind of close personal connection that he's created between himself and the UFC brand specifically.That, according to historian and longtime fight fan Patrick Wyman, is likely a very intentional choice."What the Roman games or gladiatorial games and this event have in common, in my opinion, is that while they are both theoretically pitched at the public as mass entertainment, they're actually elite politics — or at least elite politics is the driving force behind them," Wyman says. "This is gender all the way down. If you are the President of the United States and you want to project an image of toughness and masculinity, you choose to associate yourself with the tough guy sport."And, I mean, to some extent people do like violence as mass entertainment. But I also think there's a real difference between a product that serves the public or is aimed at the public, versus a product that is aimed at the elite and happens to have a mass consumption angle."For instance, Wyman points out, look at what we know of the guest list for this UFC event. Some tickets will reportedly be given to U.S. military members, but plenty are reserved for VIPs chosen by the Trump administration or the UFC and its parent company, TKO. Trump has boasted that VIP slots for the event are "the hottest ticket that I've ever seen." It seems likely that, while some attendees may be genuine fight fans, others will go to see and be seen — which is also not without historical precedent."I think it's really a stage-managed spectacle for elites, and you don't just have to go to Rome to find parallels for this," Wyman says. "I think you'd make the same argument about boxing and the Saudis these days. Traditionally, I think that's been a really common thing in combat sports. You think about some of the old-timey boxing fights where it's like, this rich guy really wants to see his guy fight another guy, so they bankroll the thing."U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and UFC CEO Dana White.Pool via Getty ImagesThis was essentially how professional fighting worked in the days of the London Prize Ring, which laid the groundwork for much of our current version of combat sports. (The idea of assigning colors to different corners, of appointing a commission of sorts to oversee the action, even the phrase "tossing your hat into the ring" all come from the British bare-knuckle boxing world of the 19th century.)In those days, fight "purses" were put up by wealthy benefactors, often members of the English aristocracy, who would fund their chosen fighter to compete against a fellow aristocrat's fistic representative. Fights were usually winner-take-all, with fighters and their friends profiting via side bets. While mostly illegal, the sport became popular with the elites of many nations. Regency-era boxers like "Gentleman" John Jackson were called upon to put on fighting demonstrations for the Prince of Wales and the Emperor of Russia. This, too, had certain parallels with the ancient Roman fight sports. It's also not unlike medieval jousting competitions, Wyman says, which often served as public celebrations that were really about elevating various members of the nobility."One of the main driving forces behind Roman games of a certain period was always competition between members of the elite," Wyman says. "Say my son is coming of age. How do we show the public that I am a person to be taken seriously in this public arena? Well, we put on games, and I'm going to hire 80 pairs of the best gladiators. It's going to cost an enormous amount of money, but then everybody will know my name and my son's name. He will have a good entrance into public life when he runs for his first office. Then next year, the guy who has hated that aristocrat since they were 7 years old is like, "Well, now my son's coming of age, so I've got to have 82 pairs of gladiators.'"But to the gladiatorial history specialist Mariotti, the thing that makes this current progression to fights on the actual White House lawn the least surprising is Trump's own personal history. Part of the appeal of this event, he points out, is sheer novelty. It's the kind of thing that has never been done before. While there may be parallels to ancient Rome, there really are none in American political history.That's to be expected, he says, since there are no other U.S. Presidents quite like Trump."You've never had a president before now who's been in a wrestling ring," Mariotti says. "[Trump] has been tied to that world, to professional wrestling, since the start. I mean, WWE isn't so different from gladiatorial combat. There was an element of pageantry always. Gladiators weren't called Phil or Rob. They were called Steel and Blade and Flame. It was their version of The Rock or The Undertaker. So with a president who's been in the ring, albeit a wrestling ring, this seems like a very natural progression. I think his base of supporters would expect something like this, and they will probably love it."But there is something uncomfortable for many Americans in seeing ourselves as the crowd at the Colosseum. While sports are practically a religion in our culture, we've long sneered at what we imagine to be a bloodthirsty mob gathered to watch humans devoured by lions. We like to think we are better than those ancient sports fans, or at least more refined.As Mariotti points out, there's something about a violent spectacle that still captures our attention. He recalls the brief but memorable time when tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk teased the idea of an MMA fight to settle their differences."There were plenty of people who said, 'Oh, that's ridiculous.' But you know what? People would have gone to that," Mariotti says. "They would have watched. It would have been tremendously successful, and if you were advertising anything there, it would have been a big moment. That's essentially what the emperor was doing. He was advertising himself. It was product placement. Today it's the same. It's just a different product."
English
Arabic
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Deutsch
Turkish
Dutch
Italiano
Russian
Romaian
Portuguese (Brazil)