Nate Quarry: Our answer to @Reebok and @ufc Nothing will change until fighters stand up for themselves. #MMAFA #boycottreebok @Reebok
Fighters are really letting loose on the UFC on social media. Too many to list here. The vast majority are skeptical or outright hostile towards the Reebok deal. The UFC has been backpedaling saying that the released numbers don't represent the deal in it's entirety but other details are emerging that make it seem even worse; for example, there is a provision in the deal that allows another sponsor logo to be on fight shorts but the fighters will not receive compensation at all from it. So far it seems that the single-sponsor idea is backfiring tremendously. Most fighters are seeing their sponsorship income decrease by 50% or more. Josh Samman, as an example, says he was getting upwards of $15,000 from sponsors despite being a relative newcomer to the UFC but will now get $2,500 to fight. Brendan Schaub was getting over $100,000 per fight and could stand to lose six figures per fight with the new deal. This deal and the ongoing antitrust lawsuits could be the tipping point for a fighters association, as Nate Quarry is hoping. The fighters need to be at the table for these kinds of negotiations. Needless to say Zuffa has a problem with unions so this process, if it is underway and momentum can carry it, could take years and involve a lot of underhanded shit.
I hope to God a champion comes out and joins this. A champ gets how much $40k? Okay that is great. If a guy like Mitrione was getting six figures...imagine what Weidman could get in sponsorship. It is time for the UFC to fall.
Randy Couture, eight or so years later, is back on the union bandwagon. He shut up about it when the UFC brought him back but now that that's never happening again he could take a role in making it happen. Despite what DFW says, Couture's reputation among fighters isn't bad.
Quick number crunch: You are a first year UFC fighter. The average number of fights per year per fighter in the UFC is around 1.9 but you are lucky/healthy and get two fights. You win both! You don't get an "of the night" bonus because you fought on early prelims and the bonuses tend to go to fighters who compete later on in the night. Short term memory or whatnot. Your earnings for the first fight are $8,000 to show, $8,000 to win, and $2,500 for sponsor payout. Your second fight earnings are $10,000 to show, $10,000 to win, and, again, $2,500 in Ree-bucks. Congrats! You've earned $41,000. Let's say you have to pay 10% income tax on that since you are claiming a lot of expenses as work related. But you still need to pay your gym and your team, including your agent. Let's have a (very) modest tithe of only 20%. To be nice we'll roll in eating five to eight healthy meals a day plus steroids (I mean supplements). Ok, a few more expenses. The UFC won't pay to fly your second and third corner man to your fights or pay for their hotel rooms or meals. Let's be really conservative and say this costs you $3,000 per fight. Hopefully the UFC won't book you on a card in China. Well done! You've cleared $22,700, champ! Good thing you won both of those fights. If you'd lost one you'd be making $8-10,000 less this year. From what we've heard recently $5,000 was the minimum guys were making per fight from sponsors (if they put no effort into it). It was possible for even relative unknowns to make three to five times that. This exclusive sponsorship deal is brutal for young fighters.
Zuffa/UFC's efforts to marginalize and overpower fighter agents and managers have hit a tipping point with the Reebok deal. Ariel Helwani is reporting that Zuffa will host a bunch of them in Las Vegas in an attempt to talk it out. According to a higher-up with Bellator, a lawsuit is likely.
