Leslie Smith Addresses "The Haters", And Explains What Happened With The Cancelling Of The Fight

[Paradigm]

Well she's not ranked top 10 anymore because the UFC didn't renew her contract.

Unless it's a title fight that would no longer be one or the opponent is ridiculously over the weight limit, if you're a fighter you still go and fight.

Obviously Aspen is at fault but to refuse to fight because of 1.8lbs is ridiculous.

Not ranked top 10 by the UFC, you mean.

 

[chrisdiaz]

10-7 in the top 10 and she probably doesn't even have the worst record in the top 10.

Move WMMA out of the UFC please

Wheres your petition and where do I sign it? Invicta is where it is for a reason. I love mma but im not watching that crap.

 

[Hoop]

She is delusional if she thinks she’s worth 100K a fight. The UFC is not a charity and will not be in business long if they pay everyone like a top guy.

Smith was not having success winning fights and becoming a top contender so she tried to strongarm the company into giving her a large, undeserved contract when they were in a bind. They called her bluff and she’s gone now. I have no sympathy for her; Smith screwed Smith

I read that she's head of something called Spearhead - trying to get a union for fighters set up or something and at the UFC summit thingy she stood up and made a fuss about fighter pay/treatment, so imagine the UFC would have given her the boot regardless.

 

[Deleted member 436105]

She isn’t smart at all. She’s already probably on thin ice with her involved with that union shit. And she isn’t getting any title shot soon so her ranking is irrelevant. She probably won’t get another fight for a while

 

[AlexDB9]

She did us a favor to be honest

 

[Anomonis]

Is she even well-known enough to have haters?

 

[Better Every Day]

Is she even well-known enough to have haters?

All you have to do is read today's Sherdog threads about her to get your answer to that.

 

[Anomonis]

All you have to do is read today's Sherdog threads about her to get your answer to that.

Well those aren't really "haters", I mean, most of them probably only heard of her today when he got canned. Not like they have been following her "career" and bashing her.

 

[Better Every Day]

Well those aren't really "haters", I mean, most of them probably only heard of her today when he got canned. Not like they have been following her "career" and bashing her.

She's talking about today. I wouldn't be surprised if she has done some reading of comments on Sherdog today.

 

[dim_]

Leslie Smith wants to tell "the frickin' haters" that she is ranked "top ten in the world" at bantamweight and has won her last 3 fights at bantamweight. And she explains what happened with the cancelling of the fight

so what happened..

she saw the weight miss as an opportunity to renegotiate her contract (She states that on instagram)

she asked the ufc for a flat $100k per fight (no show/win, just flat rate - and thats hell of a leap from $32k/$32k)

UFC said no, goodbye

she tried to play the situation, it backfired (and this is the person who wants to handle ufc fighters affairs)

"was willing to fight Aspen no matter how overweight she is but I decided to use the situation to negotiate for an extension of my contract since this was the last fight on my UFC contract. The UFC declined to extend my contract and instead decided to pay me my show and win money so that they would be completing my contract"

She's talking about today. I wouldn't be surprised if she has done some reading of comments on Sherdog today.

Im sure you screencapped all the best bits and sent them to her

 

[Better Every Day]

WMMA...

You don't sound like a cat person.

 

[DRMZ]

Not gonna watch that shit, there is nothing she can say that can make me think missing weight is ok.

You’re a professional, it’s your job, you train all day and eat right all day, you have months and months to prepare. If you can’t hit the fucking weight when you’re in camp doing 3 sessions a day for 2 months, then move up and fight in your actual class you gobshite.

Really pisses me off.

 

[WarriorPoet1]

actually maybe a ufc top ten but WMMA rankings have her at 6........... I'm a fan ever sense she wanted to compete with her ear hanging off.... hope she can make 125

 

[Better Every Day]

so what happened..

she saw the weight miss as an opportunity to renegotiate her contract (She states that on instagram)

she asked the ufc for a flat $100k per fight (no show/win, just flat rate - and thats hell of a leap from $32k/$32k)

UFC said no, goodbye

she tried to play the situation, it backfired (and this is the person who wants to handle ufc fighters affairs)

"was willing to fight Aspen no matter how overweight she is but I decided to use the situation to negotiate for an extension of my contract since this was the last fight on my UFC contract. The UFC declined to extend my contract and instead decided to pay me my show and win money so that they would be completing my contract"

You should actually watch the video, and then you'll see how incomplete your information is. Your jump from "she asked for a flat $100k per fight" to "The UFC said no, goodbye" leaves out a lot of in between stuff, like that Leslie quickly dropped to asking only for a 2 fight extension at her present rate of pay. So saying "it backfired" is silly... it is common to start any negotiation with a high request. The fact is, any fighter being considered for a contract renewal would generally have already gotten some mention of the contract situation from the UFC before that point, but the UFC had avoided the topic up until then. She decided the time was ripe to discuss it.

 

[ShoelessRye]

UFC never was going to re-sign her because of her union stuff. So she played it smart. She got her win bonus out of it and didn't have to fight. She could have fought Aspen and maybe lost - got beat up, don't get the win bonus and still be out of the UFC.

If you don't value yourself nobody else will either.

 

[Darwinambrosius]

She has won three in a row at bantamweight. Her loss to Cyborg was not at bantamweight.
And her win/loss number at bantamweight is 10-6, not 10-7, for the same reason.

Pretty sure she had wins at losses other than cyborg outside of bantamweight.

 

[Better Every Day]

Not gonna watch that shit, there is nothing she can say that can make me think missing weight is ok.

You’re a professional, it’s your job, you train all day and eat right all day, you have months and months to prepare. If you can’t hit the fucking weight when you’re in camp doing 3 sessions a day for 2 months, then move up and fight in your actual class you gobshite.

Really pisses me off.

She didn't miss weight. Her opponent missed weight.

 

[Emjay]

Rankings don't matter

 

[dim_]

You should actually watch the video, and then you'll see how incomplete your information is. Your jump from "she asked for a flat $100k per fight" to "The UFC said no, goodbye" leaves out a lot of in between stuff, like that Leslie quickly dropped to asking only for a 2 fight extension at her present rate of pay. So saying "it backfired" is silly... it is common to start any negotiation with a high request. The fact is, any fighter being considered for a contract renewal would generally have already gotten some mention of the contract situation from the UFC before that point, but the UFC had avoided the topic up until then. She decided the time was ripe to discuss it.

she should have sorted it out long before having her final fight.

did she not learn from other fighters who left it to the last fight or after the last fight to negotiate? Did she not learn from the Stevie Ray situation?

This is someone who wants to spearhead doing things to benefit the fighters and she cant even sort herself out. Anyone and everyone whos ever had a UFC contract knows you dont leave it till your contracts ending to renew it.

Why would they pay her 32/32 when they can just recruit another 135'er for 8/8

Shes 35 years old, she isnt going to be anywhere near a title shot.. shes totally expendable from a business point of view.

she played her cards very badly



yes, the union thing is a factor, but lets not make out its the only factor. The division she is in, her age, her appeal are all factors.

If it was just a union thing then Donald Cerrone wouldnt have got a renewal after he headed the MMAAAAAAAA

 

[Better Every Day]

Why would they pay her 32/32 when they can just recruit another 135'er for 8/8

Shes 35 years old, she isnt going to be anywhere near a title shot.. shes totally expendable from a business point of view.

If that's the way they would think about a fighter who has won her last three at bantamweight, who won her most recent fight by TKO, and won the one before with a FOTN bonus, and who did them a favor by agreeing to fight the much bigger Cyborg in Brazil, then you've just made a good case for why fighters need a union or something like that in order to get treated right.