If you hang around MMA long enough, you start noticing the same little details over and over — hand wraps, energy drinks, recovery gadgets, and, yes, nicotine pouches. The sport has always had a certain no-frills, locker-room honesty to it, so when fighters use something, people notice. Then they ask the obvious question: which UFC fighters actually use nicotine pouches, and what brands are they tied to?

The clean answer is this: there are a handful of UFC fighters and former UFC fighters with public, documented links to nicotine pouches, but the list is not nearly as long as internet rumor makes it sound. Some have clear sponsorships. Some have been filmed using pouches. Some have done both. The best-supported names right now are Justin Gaethje, Joe Pyfer, Alex Pereira, Israel Adesanya, and former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra. The best-supported brands tied to those names are Lucy, ALP, and ZYN.

That matters because there is a difference between:

• a fighter joking around near a can on social media,
• a fighter clearly taking a pouch,
• and a fighter publicly calling a nicotine pouch company his sponsor.

Those are three different levels of evidence. So let’s keep it tight, stick to what is public, and separate the real examples from the nonsense.

The short version

Here’s the practical list based on public evidence:

• Justin Gaethje — Lucy Nicotine
  Public sponsored content tied to Lucy Nicotine.
• Joe Pyfer — ALP
  Public sponsorship content with ALP, plus a clip where he picks “nicotine pouch” over “caffeine pouch.”
• Alex Pereira — ZYN
  Public clips show him handling or sharing ZYN, including giving Nina Drama a ZYN and separate social clips showing him seeking or stocking up on ZYN.
• Israel Adesanya — ZYN
  Public social clips around UFC 312 show him sharing a ZYN moment with Alex Pereira.
• Matt Serra — ZYN
  Public podcast transcript shows Joe Rogan introducing Serra to a 6 mg ZYN on-air.

That’s the high-confidence list from public material. There may be more fighters who use nicotine pouches privately, obviously. But privately is privately. This article is about what is actually documented.

Justin Gaethje and Lucy Nicotine

Justin Gaethje is one of the clearest current UFC examples because the public sponsorship link is not subtle. An Instagram reel tied to him includes Gaethje saying: “I just want to take a minute and thank one of my sponsors from UFC 313 Fight Week. Lucy nicotine pouches.” That is direct and easy to classify: public sponsorship with Lucy.

There is also other MMA content tied to Gaethje that includes Lucy sponsorship language around UFC discussion, which reinforces the public brand connection rather than leaving it as a one-off mention.

Now, does that mean Gaethje uses Lucy pouches personally outside sponsored content every day? Nobody can prove that from the outside. But if your question is, which UFC fighters are publicly tied to nicotine pouch brands, Gaethje belongs near the top of the list and the brand is Lucy.

And honestly, this is usually how it works in combat sports now. The first clean signal is not always a locker-room confession. It is sponsor integration. Then people work backward from there.

Joe Pyfer and ALP

Joe Pyfer is another strong current UFC example, and this one is even cleaner because the ALP relationship shows up in more than one public place. Pyfer’s Instagram bio itself references UFC 316 and says he is stepping into the cage “with ALP in my corner.” That is about as public as a sponsorship signal gets.

There is also a reel in which Pyfer is asked “Nicotine pouch or caffeine pouch?” and answers “Nicotine.” That does not identify a lifetime habit or a specific daily routine, but paired with the ALP sponsorship, it makes the connection a lot more concrete.

Separate social posts also say Pyfer “recently joined the crew at @alppouch”, which lines up with the sponsorship angle. A sports profile on his endorsements also identified ALP Nicotine Pouches as a brand tie-in ahead of one of his fights.

So with Pyfer, the brand answer is straightforward: ALP. The usage answer is also pretty strong publicly, because he is not only linked to the brand — he has publicly answered in favor of nicotine pouches in branded content.

Alex Pereira and ZYN

Alex Pereira is probably the most talked-about UFC name in this category, mostly because the clips feel organic rather than heavily scripted. He has shown up in multiple social moments involving ZYN, and those moments spread fast because they fit his whole online image — unbothered, deadpan, dangerous, then suddenly funny.

One of the clearest examples is a public clip where Pereira gives Nina Drama a spicy ZYN. There are also social clips showing fans meeting him while he is swimming and “hooking him up with some zyn,” plus separate posts referring to him stocking up on ZYN.

That does not read like an abstract brand reference. It reads like public familiarity with ZYN. Again, the careful wording matters: public content strongly suggests Pereira uses ZYN, and ZYN is the brand most clearly tied to him in public clips.

This is also why Pereira gets mentioned so much in nicotine pouch conversations online. It is not just because he is famous. It is because the clips look like actual fighter behavior, not polished ad copy. That difference matters more than people think.

Israel Adesanya and ZYN

Israel Adesanya is a little more nuanced here, but he still belongs in the article because there is public content linking him to ZYN through Alex Pereira at UFC 312. Social clips and MMA coverage from that event show Adesanya and Pereira sharing a ZYN moment, with one Instagram reel explicitly framed as “Israel Adesanya & Alex Pereira Share A Zyn At UFC 312.” Sportskeeda also covered the same interaction.

Now, is this as strong as a sponsorship statement? No. Is it as clear as Gaethje thanking Lucy as a sponsor? Also no. But it is still fair to say that Adesanya has publicly appeared in content involving ZYN, and if someone is asking which UFC fighters have been publicly seen with nicotine pouches, he is one of them.

This is one of those cases where people overstate things online. The accurate wording is not “Israel Adesanya is officially a ZYN guy.” The accurate wording is more restrained: he has publicly appeared sharing a ZYN with Alex Pereira in social content around UFC 312.

That may sound like a small distinction, but it is the difference between credible writing and lazy writing.

Matt Serra and ZYN

Matt Serra is not a current UFC fighter, but he is a former UFC welterweight champion, and his case is one of the best documented because it appears in a podcast transcript rather than a fuzzy repost. In the transcript of JRE MMA Show #154 with Matt Serra, Din Thomas & John Rallo, Joe Rogan says: “Was Matt’s first zen, by the way. Six milligram. That’s a heavy dose.” The conversation then continues with Serra asking about ZYN, nicotine, and whether regular use would be addictive.

That is strong public documentation that Serra used ZYN, specifically a 6 mg ZYN, at least in that setting. It also shows the kind of thing that happens a lot in fight culture: one guy tries something because another guy already has it on him, then the whole room starts talking about it. Very gym behavior. Very believable.

So if your article is asking about UFC fighters rather than only current roster fighters, Serra absolutely belongs in the conversation, and the brand tied to him publicly is ZYN.

What brands show up the most with UFC names?

Right now, the three brands with the clearest public ties to UFC fighters are:

ZYN

This is the brand that shows up most naturally in clips, podcasts, and casual fighter-adjacent content. Public examples tie ZYN to Alex Pereira, Israel Adesanya, and Matt Serra.

Lucy

Lucy’s clearest UFC name right now is Justin Gaethje, based on his own sponsor-thank-you content. Lucy is also plainly active in combat sports marketing more broadly.

ALP

ALP’s strongest UFC association in this set is Joe Pyfer, whose public content and fighter bio tie him to the brand.

That does not mean other brands are absent. It just means these are the names and pairings that are easiest to support publicly right now.

Why nicotine pouches seem to fit MMA culture

It is not hard to see why nicotine pouches show up around fighters. The format makes sense in a fight-world setting: no smoke, no vape cloud, no lighter, no break in the action. Just a pouch, a can, and a guy talking nonsense in a gym parking lot or on a fight-week shoot. That part almost explains itself.

But let’s keep it practical. The real reason this matters to readers is not sociology. It is shopping behavior.

People see a fighter with a pouch and immediately start asking:

• What brand is that?
• Is it strong?
• Is it actually good?
• Is this one of those hype brands, or does it hold up?

That is why articles like this matter. They connect public names to real products without inventing stories.

If you are comparing pouch brands yourself, the smart move is to look past the celebrity angle and compare what actually matters — strength, flavor, feel, and how consistent the brand is from can to can. If you want to do that without the noise, you can browse Rushnico’s nicotine pouch collection or go straight to the ZYN selection on Rushnico. Both give you a cleaner way to compare than scrolling through edited fight clips.

So who is most clearly linked to what?

If you want the no-fluff version one more time:

• Justin Gaethje — Lucy
  Public sponsor statement.
• Joe Pyfer — ALP
  Public sponsor tie and nicotine-pouch preference in branded content.
• Alex Pereira — ZYN
  Public clips show him with ZYN in multiple contexts.
• Israel Adesanya — ZYN
  Publicly seen sharing a ZYN with Pereira at UFC 312.
• Matt Serra — ZYN
  Public podcast transcript documents him trying a 6 mg ZYN.

That is the strongest public list I can support cleanly.

Final take

If the question is which UFC fighters use nicotine pouches, and what brands do they use, the safest factual answer is that publicly documented examples exist, but the list is still relatively short.

The clearest brand-fighter pairings right now are:

• Justin Gaethje with Lucy
• Joe Pyfer with ALP
• Alex Pereira with ZYN
• Israel Adesanya with ZYN in public event footage
• Matt Serra with ZYN on a public podcast

That is the real answer — not every rumor, not every meme, not every comment section fantasy. Just the names that can actually be tied to public evidence.

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