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Just as quickly as TikTok star Addison Rae landed a new gig as a UFC correspondent, she’s out of the job, Deadline reports. Rae, who reported on a preliminary event for Saturday’s UFC 264, angered some fans when she posted pictures of herself covering the event with a caption joking about her credentials for the role.
“I studied broadcast journalism in college for 3 whole months to prepare for this moment,” she wrote on Twitter July 9. The post caused an uproar online, with some calling out Rae for having “zero self awareness” and accusing her of taking a job from other, more qualified professional journalists.
“It’s the way you worded the caption for me,” one wrote. “Very exciting that you got this opportunity but many broadcast journalism majors who spent 4 years studying won’t ever get a chance like this because they aren’t social media famous. Still happy for you tho!!”
Another added, “This is disrespectful to all the people who go to college and work their asses off for jobs like this and sometimes don’t even get them but because Addison has clout she gets them over QUALIFIED sports journalists.”
Despite the widespread backlash against Rae’s post, some jumped to defend the influencer. “People tell you to get a real job and then are mad when you get one smh,” one wrote, while another tweeted, “lol people mad at addison as if she really stole a job from someone, shes obviously there for publicity and if it wasn’t her it was gonna be a different celebrity. This is not a new concept.”
Still, the controversy didn’t do much to boost Rae’s short reporting career, and the popular TikTok presence claimed she was “fired” shortly after her job with UFC began. “nvm y’all got me fired,” she tweeted July 10, just one day after her UFC debut.
But according to a source close to the situation, Rae was never a reporter with UFC, and she wasn’t “fired” from her job. “She did one social activation for UFC where she interviewed Dustin because they’re from the same town, Lafayette,” the source told E News. “She’s not, nor was she ever, a correspondent. She’ll be at the fight tonight but just as a spectator. There were never any plans for her to have any further official responsibilities.”
