Paige Spiranac rushed to the defense of TikTok celebrity Addison Rae on Saturday in the midst of ongoing drama surrounding Rae’s short-lived gig with the UFC.
Rae announced earlier this week she partnered with the UFC to provide coverage for Saturday’s UFC 264 card, highlighted by the Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier bout. Dana White’s alleged decision made sense. Rae has over 100 million followers combined on TikTok and Instagram. Her presence alone would probably garner more views for the UFC.
Rae’s gig with the UFC was short lived, though. She made a wrong impression on Twitter when she flaunted her new gig and mentioned she only “studied broadcast journalism in college for 3 whole months to prepare for this moment.” The tone-deaf comment sparked heated exchanges via Twitter, and it may have been the primary reason she allegedly lost her job on Saturday.
nvm y’all got me fired https://t.co/kHFFvHuSaM
— Addison Rae (@whoisaddison) July 10, 2021
One fan in particular became upset over the fact there’s many more qualified candidates eager to earn the opportunity Rae was given.
“Should we hire someone who busted their butt through college, and genuinely loves UFC and is hungry for an opportunity in journalism?? Nah, let’s hire Addison Rae because she’s popular for ‘throwing it back’ on tik tok,” one fan wrote.
Paige Spiranac caught notice of the fan’s tweet and she didn’t like what she saw. The social media celebrity defended Rae and her “hard work.” She also praised the UFC for hiring an individual with such a strong social-media presence.
“Don’t discredit all her hard work,” Spiranac said on Twitter. “UFC is smart to hire someone with millions of followers.”
Take a look.
Don’t discredit all her hard work. UFC is smart to hire someone with millions of followers.
— Paige Spiranac (@PaigeSpiranac) July 10, 2021
If we’re being honest, the UFC’s reported decision to hire Addison Rae was brilliant. But the TikTok star didn’t think things through with her tone-deaf tweet.
UFC 264 begins Saturday evening at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Update: According to a report, the entire Addison Rae-UFC news was a ‘stunt’ for social media.
This was all a stunt, a source with knowledge of the situation tells @FOS. @whoisaddison was never employed by UFC, either in a full-time capacity or as a one-off for #UFC264. pic.twitter.com/sq4rL8pNs1
— A.J. Perez (@byajperez) July 10, 2021
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