Dana White keeping Bud Light as UFC beer sponsor a 'brilliant business move,' ex-ESPN star Sage Steele says

Former ESPN star Sage Steele praised UFC President Dana White’s decision to keep Bud Light as the company’s official beer sponsor in partnership with Anheuser-Busch.

Bud Light received immense backlash over the last year for its partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light saw Modelo surpass it as the No. 1-selling beer brand, and its sales were still down through the first month of 2024.

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UFC President Dana White is shown during the UFC 299 press conference at Kaseya Center in Miami on March 7, 2024. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

But Steele, who was at UFC 299, told "OutKick The Morning’s" Charly Arnolt that everyone deserves a second chance and that it was a good move for White to keep Bud Light.

"I get it, but I said to Dana when we met a couple of weeks ago … I love that he did that because it’s like, No. 1, everybody deserves a second chance, in my opinion," Steele said on the show. "I really do believe that. And secondly, what a brilliant business move."

"When a company is down, down and out, losing billions of dollars, guess what, from a strictly business perspective, they’re going to pay up to try and fix their image. And UFC has benefited greatly from that. 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.’ And look, it was great to see those guys there, too, enjoying it."

Sage Steele (Rey Josue II/NBAE via Getty Images/File)

White defended the decision in October during an appearance on "The Sean Hannity Show."

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"These guys employ 65,000 Americans, thousands of vets they employ. They spend over $700 million a year with U.S. farmers, you know, buying their crops for their product. And there's many, many other reasons that I did this," he said.

"Where I sit personally with my core values, and I felt like the core values of the UFC, even though we're a global sport and we have fighters from all over the world, this is an American company. And I love this country, and this is more about me being aligned with somebody who is a sponsor of the UFC and somebody I'm going to work with every day."

A general view of the Octagon during the UFC 180 event at Arena Ciudad de Mexico on Nov. 15, 2014, in Mexico City. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

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White alluded to the backlash Bud Light previously received by saying fans "might not love" every business decision that is made by either UFC or Anheuser-Busch, but he said "it wasn't a tough decision at all."

"This is more about core values to me than anything else," White added.

Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.