Jon Jones as Tupac, Conor McGregor as Kendrick Lamar, Viral UFC-Rap Crossover Has the Internet Going Wild

The AI album cover trend is going viral on the internet as fans ask Gen AI to replace random celebrities on various album posters. So, it was only a matter of time before the craze hit UFC.

To kick things off, we had Khabib Nurmagomedov replacing Drake in his ‘Take Care’ album cover, complete with the OVO logo in front of him and everything.

Then came Conor McGregor, replacing Kendrick Lamar for his album cover for DAMN, where he wears a plain white tee and looks off into the distance. The poses for the photos were so uncanny that you would think the fighters themselves modeled for the photos.

To top things off, Jon Jones was fashioned as Tupac Shakur for his album All Eyez On Me. Fans in the comments section had a field day with these posters. “This is incredible,” one fan commented.

Another, completely ignoring that AI essentially steals existing intellectual property, exclaimed, “Why is this more accurate than the original album covers?”

A common reaction in the comments section was to add Manel Kape as the Weeknd’s starboy album instead of Ilia Topuria. “Missed opportunity not putting Manel Kape as starboy,” and, “How you gonna not use Manel Kape for star boy.”

This fan thought the Jones one was eerily accurate due to a perceived similarity with Shakur- “The fact that Jon Jones would actually say these lyrics to DC.”

The AI ‘art’ did not stop there because the next thing that got posted was fight posters!

UFC fans trash AI fight posters

It didn’t matter whether it was potential matchups like Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria and Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall; the same fans who loved the rap album covers were quick to shank this project.

To be fair, in the Islam vs. Ilia poster, the Spaniard looked like the ‘Create your own fighter’ aspect of a video game than the man himself.

“That’s Pantoja more than Ilia”, one fan joked.

This Instagram user took one look at the AI creation and immediately regretted trashing actual graphic designers who created the real UFC posters. “I appreciate the actual art that goes into the design of the UFC cards already”, he said. 

“They look amazing but I’m seeing the same theme no creativity”, said another, unironically.

It is funny, however, that nobody has yet commented on how Jon Jones looks more like former WWE star Booker-T in the poster!

All jokes aside, it’s worth noting that nothing AI creates is original content. It is a mix and mashup of existing work of artists on the internet.