The growing overlap between MMA and cannabis is no longer just about sponsorships or CBD patches on walkout banners. A new wave of fighter-owned cannabis brands is turning athletes into founders, giving them equity, storytelling power, and direct relationships with consumers.
No names embody that shift more than Nick and Nate Diaz. Long before cannabis was trendy in combat sports, the Diaz brothers were public advocates, famously using CBD for recovery and speaking openly about marijuana use. Their plant-based wellness company, Game Up Nutrition, launched in 2018 and now offers CBD topicals, tinctures, edibles, hemp flower and pre-rolls aimed at athletes and everyday consumers alike.
Game Up’s branding leans heavily into the Diaz ethos: anti-establishment, endurance-driven, and grounded in real training culture. Their POWER BALM topical, high-mg CBD pre-rolls, and vegan-friendly formulas are marketed as tools for recovery, not shortcuts. The company’s site, gameupnutrition.com, reads like a hybrid of fight team hub and wellness shop, reinforcing that this is a brand built around fighters, not just featuring them in ads.
That authenticity matters. When Nate lit a CBD joint at an open workout before UFC 241 and casually explained it was from his own Game Up line, he wasn’t just promoting a product — he was signaling to fans that cannabis was part of an athlete’s real recovery toolkit. Major outlets highlighted that moment and noted that CBD was permitted under UFC anti-doping rules, underscoring how quickly norms were changing.
On the THC side of the combat-sports universe, Tyson 2.0 shows how a fighter’s story can scale into a mainstream brand. While Mike Tyson comes from boxing rather than MMA, his company has become a template for fighter-driven cannabis. Tyson 2.0 is built around premium flower, vapes, concentrates and edibles, with a distribution network that spans legal U.S. markets and a strong lifestyle component through its online catalog and merch at tyson20.com.
Tyson’s move into the CEO role at Carma HoldCo, parent company of Tyson 2.0, shows just how serious this shift is. This isn’t a simple licensing play; it’s a combat sports icon turning into a cannabis executive, leveraging his personal wellness journey and massive fanbase to build a long-term platform.
At the regional level, smaller MMA names are following suit. In Colorado, fighter and dispensary owner Elias Egozi launched Egozi, a solventless rosin line sold through select dispensaries, positioning it as craft, terpene-rich cannabis born out of the same discipline he brings to training. These boutique projects may never reach Tyson-like scale, but they speak directly to local fight communities and hardcore consumers.
Fighter-owned brands also intersect with policy. The late UFC veteran Elias Theodorou made history as the first professional MMA fighter to receive a therapeutic use exemption for medical cannabis, using his platform to push for reform and athlete rights. His advocacy helps legitimize the idea that athletes can responsibly use — and own companies built around — cannabis.
For the MMA industry, the rise of fighter-owned cannabis brands signals a broader evolution. Instead of renting out their image to third-party sponsors, athletes are increasingly seeking ownership, building products that reflect their training reality, and tapping into a fan base that trusts their word on recovery, wellness, and performance. As regulations soften and consumer education grows, expect more fighters to trade some of their time on the mats for time in boardrooms — with their names on the jars.