Benson Henderson: My phone keeps ringing, UFC fighters asking about move to Bellator

[BrazilianDude]

It is intreresting though. It depends on the fighter. Edson Barboza is my coach and says nothing but good things about the UFC. He said his past contract, they upped his pay significantly and that doesn't include bonuses which he has made a lot of. He says UFC are great people.

I think the perception of the Reebok deal for brazilians tends to be slightly different. Very few of them are marketable enough in the US to get big sponsor money, so they are probably just making less effort to earn the same sponsorship money. For the ones who live and train in Brazil, 10k dollars is good money with the current exchange rate.
Barboza seems marketable though. His flashy style could be good in Hollywood.

 

[Meathead Jock]

"jagoff" Only Pittsburgh and Chicago say Jagoff. That said, couldn't agree more. Rice is a jagoff!

That is too funny. I'm from the Chicago suburbs and never even realized it was a regional term.

 

[listrahtes]

The UFC is the one that made the deal and handling the distribution of money. All your anger should be directed towards them, not Reebok.

Absolutely but you have to admire how clever they are at being shady. Ban fighter sponsors from tv than maximizing other sponsors like on the cage floor etc (I bet you they make much more now) but keep all that money for themselves while the money from the one sponsor left the fighters participate gets fled with a "distribution fee" in the tenth of millions. And they even present the scapegoat with Reebok for the fans.

I am pretty certain Reebok got **** pretty hard in the contract negotiations and are not happy with the situation. Money grab wise an excellent move by the Fertittas and with all the shills its not even that damaging to the brand.

Long term its negatively affecting the brand but I guess thats why it is a sign the Fertittas arent in it anymore for the long term.

 

[Rational Poster]

Absolutely but you have to admire how clever they are at being shady. Ban fighter sponsors from tv than maximizing other sponsors like on the cage floor etc (I bet you they make much more now) but keep all that money for themselves while the money from the one sponsor left the fighters participate gets fled with a "distribution fee" in the tenth of millions. And they even present the scapegoat with Reebok for the fans.

I am pretty certain Reebok got **** pretty hard in the contract negotiations and are not happy with the situation. Money grab wise an excellent move by the Fertittas and with all the shills its not even that damaging to the brand.

Long term its negatively affecting the brand but I guess thats why it is a sign the Fertittas arent in it anymore for the long term.

Uh.. it's the other way around.

Reebok fucked the UFC.


$70M for six years as the exclusive apparel sponsor for the UFC. Their logo all over FOX, FS1 and PPVs... it's a steal.

 

[method115]

Uh.. it's the other way around.

Reebok fucked the UFC.


$70M for six years as the exclusive apparel sponsor for the UFC. Their logo all over FOX, FS1 and PPVs... it's a steal.

I honestly think if the UFC knew how much some of the fighters were getting on their own they would have asked for more.

 

[Rational Poster]

I honestly think if the UFC knew how much some of the fighters were getting on their own they would have asked for more.

Beggars can't be choosers. This is probably the best offer UFC had on the table.

Mainstream advertisers just aren't that interested... yet.

I think now that they've been putting up some consistent solid numbers on both FOX, FS1 and putting on some of the biggest PPVs in years we'll see a much bigger apparel deal once the Reebok deal expires and the FOX contract should is going to be big once they resign in 2018 as well.

What's important with the UFC ratings on FOX isn't that they're doing huge numbers it's that the numbers they are pulling are EXACTLY the demographic advertisers are looking for.

18-35 year old males with expendable income.

Advertisers are going to notice what Reebok is doing here. They're getting HUGE blocks of advertising on FOX and FS1... hours in primetime slots to key demographics. They'll be all over the UFC once the deal expires.

 

[rush61]

UFC Attitude Era!

We need Conor to give the stunner to Dana White.

 

[traitmanz]

Sign a big deal with Nike, Adidas, or UA next time round.

 

[The_Renaissance]

You should watch their events anyways, they have great match makers and put on very entertaining fights, there's normally one or two freak show fights Pride style but it's mostly skilled fighters that are matched up well so that the fights are normally entertaining. I think their match making is much much better than the UFC's.

Really?

Josh Thomson vs. Villaseca
Melvin Guillard vs. Brandon Girtz
Paul Daley vs. Andy Uhrich
Josh Koscheck vs. Matt Secor
Every single hyped newcomer fighting someone with a 1-2 or 4-4 record.
Every newly signed HW fighting Josh Burns (whose record must now be around 6-11/12 as a result).

Their matchmaking is ridiculously average. Thomson complained that the UFC were giving him poor fights (huh? Bendo, Tony Ferguson, Nate Diaz) and is happy fighting Bronzoulis and Villaseca.


Wanna know why?

Coz he's happy being a big fish in a small pond.

Bellator can be fun but its absolutely ridiculous to claim their matchmaking is any better than the UFC's. Not saying the UFC don't make stupid matches at times, of course they do, but in general they are still more consistent than Bellator.

And to say its well-matched guys making entertaining fights....no, it isn't. It's in fact the complete opposite. Well-matched guys have closely fought battles. The reason Bellator used to be considered this exciting as hell promotion where every card was a HL reel was coz they were making complete squash-matches to guarantee exciting finishes.

 

[TheNinja]

Bellator does make sense for certain fighters. I think the guys who are ranked right around 7-12 range. I mean if you are stuck there and you know you can't beat the top guys. Or you know you have to win like 3 fights or have to wait around for a title shot it makes sense to go and try be the #1 guy at Bellator.

 

[KillerElite]

“I can’t even say how many texts and calls from other fighters asking me, ‘What did the UFC bring to the table? What did Bellator bring to the table? How did they treat you? Was Lorenzo mad? Did Dana get all mad? “A ton of fighters hit me up and asked me that and asked for advice.”

I feel bunch of UFC fighters will move over to Bellator this year.

source

Don't play this bendo. Just be happy at bellator.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Really?

Josh Thomson vs. Villaseca
Melvin Guillard vs. Brandon Girtz
Paul Daley vs. Andy Uhrich
Josh Koscheck vs. Matt Secor
Every single hyped newcomer fighting someone with a 1-2 or 4-4 record.
Every newly signed HW fighting Josh Burns (whose record must now be around 6-11/12 as a result).

Their matchmaking is ridiculously average. Thomson complained that the UFC were giving him poor fights (huh? Bendo, Tony Ferguson, Nate Diaz) and is happy fighting Bronzoulis and Villaseca.


Wanna know why?

Coz he's happy being a big fish in a small pond.

Bellator can be fun but its absolutely ridiculous to claim their matchmaking is any better than the UFC's. Not saying the UFC don't make stupid matches at times, of course they do, but in general they are still more consistent than Bellator.

And to say its well-matched guys making entertaining fights....no, it isn't. It's in fact the complete opposite. Well-matched guys have closely fought battles. The reason Bellator used to be considered this exciting as hell promotion where every card was a HL reel was coz they were making complete squash-matches to guarantee exciting finishes.

That isn't that many fights and all of the guys you mentioned had something in common, they are relatively big named fighters so they gave them kind of warm of fights to showcase their skills. I don't know why you can't see that as it's very obvious. That's not the normal match making though that's what they do when they bring in new fighters and what to showcase them.

 

[Russie]

I wish Benson well. I will be watching and supporting him at Bellator. In regards to the UFC they made about as much off of him as they were going to. Of course they realized this and were not going to over reach to keep him. I see Bellator as the place where fighters will go as their run plateaus out at the UFC.

 

[Gunny]

The UFC roster is big enough that I'm sure Dana isn't sweating a few (dozen) fighters opting not to resign.

If you can't make a living without sponsor money you probably can't be a UFC champ or mainstay anyway. May as well go to Bellator.

You're probably right that he isn't sweating them. Seems he thinks UFC's champion incentives are all the pay any fighter should care about and that a fighter who's unwilling to put all his eggs in that basket isn't worth having. He's wrong to think that way though. There are a lot of top ten fighters who would forgo a low odds shot at UFC gold for a chance to earn a decent living elsewhere.

 

[Shining Wizard]

if it continues like this , bellator and ufc will be neck and neck within 3 years

Competition is always a good thing for the fighters and the fans...but how much money you want to put on that? UFC is mma to a good deal of casual fans.

 

[Bartinho]

I doubt this, Bellator can't even hold a successful PPV event, has some really bad, local circuit quality fighters, and pays some prelims fighters as little as $500. What's the appeal?

 

[AGEZ909]

Much like Strikeforce this model of Coker's Bellator will fail.

Viacom will give him money up until some point and then expect big results. Those will not come and much like Strikefoce, Bellator will fall hard. Sadly

Strikeforce was sold for a profit. How is that falling hard

 

[The Schmoop]

He's content with being a big fish in a small pond. Six figures, new opportunities for sponsors, etc, would look enticing to anyone.

But is the potential of fighting only once a year, if that, worth it?

Strikeforce was a small pond. 4 current UFC champions are former Strikeforce fighters. Zuffa will prbly just buy Bellator eventually just as they've done with everyone else but Coker knows what he's doing. He's built a quality product before. Give the pond time to grow.

 

[bellavf]

I hate to tell you breddahs

but the same thing will happen that has always happen (At least until the Fertittas pull out)

Dana can mismanage the UFC as poorly as he likes. A competitor gets big and looks like they might be a threat? He'll use the bottomless pool of cash (Fertittas) and buy them out.

It's worked well so far, but the Reebok deal shows even the Fertittas are tiring of MMA. They're trying to wring every last cent out of it ATM. They won't be in that much longer. Make no mistake - they got on MMA at the right time, and like smart businessmen, soon they'll see the writing on the wall and stop propping up Dana's dumb decisions.

So maybe Bellator will succeed and take over. Maybe it won't. Who knows? Dana's iron grip on the testicles of MMA is loosening, that's for damn sure.

Bellator is owned by Viacom. Money shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Ninja]

“I can’t even say how many texts and calls from other fighters asking me, ‘What did the UFC bring to the table? What did Bellator bring to the table? How did they treat you? Was Lorenzo mad? Did Dana get all mad? “A ton of fighters hit me up and asked me that and asked for advice.”

I feel bunch of UFC fighters will move over to Bellator this year.

source

After reading that ...

OPEN THE FLOODGATES!

 

[Ninja]

Bellator is owned by Viacom. Money shouldn't be an issue.

Precisely!