UFC, which has spent years lobbying state governments to regulate and sanction mixed martial arts, is now lobbying the federal government as well.The Hill reports that UFC hired Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to lobby on Capitol Hill, with the goal of letting our nation's elected officials know that MMA has changed since John McCain labeled it "human cockfighting" in the 1990s.
"The sport that McCain objected to many years ago is really a sport that doesn't exist anymore," said Lawrence Epstein, general counsel for the UFC. ...The Fertitta brothers, owners of UFC, have donated quite a bit of money to political candidates, so presumably they have friends in Washington. Although it must concern the UFC brass that the man who was once their sport's most vocal opponent could be the next president of the United States, it seems that UFC knows how the game is played on Capitol Hill.
"UFC is at the point where they are one of the fastest-growing sports leagues, and we want to make sure members of Congress are aware of the changes MMA has undergone," said Makan Delrahim, a former top Justice Department official who is now a lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt.
Get the latest gear
