Leslie Smith dishes on the UFC's underhanded tactics - interview with Luke Thomas

These UFC women are stealing a living. The average time and effort required for them to become famous fighters is nothing compared to what the men have to do. For that reason I have zero sympathy, even though she was treated harshly
 
So add "luggage allowance" to the list of things the UFC makes the fighters pay for themselves, along with mandatory medicals. I have a feeling that one day a jury is going to be hearing these things in some context and the UFC will be finished.
 
Last edited:
Keep fighting the good fight , Leslie! At least somebody stands up to the powers that be. Do any of you know “real fighters?” Leslie is a good friend and a teammate of mine so i am partial and biased. There are so many struggling fighters. I’ve seen so many of them riding their bike to practice, living at home, making $700 a fight.
I get it. It’s their lifestyle choice. Their dream... the average fight fan just wants to see them bleed.
I don’t know what I can do to help, but this sucks for my friend.
Nathan isn’t a happy employee either. Nick and Jake are probably done. I support Gilbert who makes some money commentating....
This sucks.
 
Well basically that-'s what it is; she has te right to decline and take all the money, but it is a bitchmove taking paying fans one fight away. So she has her short term money, long term she probably lost her career with it.

Dumb move imo.
I’d pay to never watch her fight
 
Keep fighting the good fight , Leslie! At least somebody stands up to the powers that be. Do any of you know “real fighters?” Leslie is a good friend and a teammate of mine so i am partial and biased. There are so many struggling fighters. I’ve seen so many of them riding their bike to practice, living at home, making $700 a fight.
I get it. It’s their lifestyle choice. Their dream... the average fight fan just wants to see them bleed.
I don’t know what I can do to help, but this sucks for my friend.
Nathan isn’t a happy employee either. Nick and Jake are probably done. I support Gilbert who makes some money commentating....
This sucks.
The Diaz brothers complain that they don’t get paid and when they do they don’t fight to actually get paid.
 
So add "luggage allowance" to the list of things the UFC makes the fighters pay for themselves, along with mandatory medicals. I have a feeling that one a jury is going to be hearing these things in some context and the UFC will be finished.
She is a independent contractor. There is zero requirement to require her contract holder to pay for any required testing for license. Do you pay for your plumbers drug test? Do you pay any electrician more than it required to travel to your residence? If she needs extra baggage its her responsibility to cough up that 25 bucks.
 
Figuratively.
She was cut neither literally nor figuratively. There's a real distinction between terminating a fighter mid-contract, aka cutting a fighter, and opting not to renew their contract, aka a fighter entering free agency. I think Leslie Smith's situation is still worth discussing from many angles, but we should get the basic facts right. There's little value to opinions formed about things that didn't actually happen.

There's an obvious political angle here, because Smith was pushing a fighter's union, but other fighters who have pushed that same union have not been punished, for example, Al Iaquinta. It doesn't mean that the issue wasn't in play here, but it might mean it's not the only factor.

Deciding not to fight makes a lot of sense from Smith's perspective, but not wanting to recommit long term to a fighter who make such decisions makes sense from the UFC's perspective. Choosing to remove a fight from a card last minute took something away from paying fans and from the promotion. It was Smith's prerogative ad she exercised it, but it is very possible that the UFC not resigning her is in part a consequence of that choice.

And of course, Leslie Smith, while indubitably scrappy and tough, is not a particularly skillful fighter. She was 3-2-1 in Invicta and 4-3 in the UFC. She's slightly above average, she's at a place where she wants veteran pay, and she doesn't really have the name value to justify paying her more. If she weren't involved in the union and she didn't decide not to fight Ladd, it would not be all that controversial simply not to resign her based on her mediocre record.
 
Last edited:
She's legit complaining about having to pay for luggage at the airport lmao.
 
Well it's more the reasoning behind why she was cut, she was cut over absolutely nothing.

Starting talking shit about the people you work for and publically organizing others against them and see how your employment/contract goes.

She even admitted to being purposely antagonistic towards the UFC the entire week. Who in their right mind would want to continue a toxic working relationship like that when you're constantly shit on about everything?

Welcome to the real world Leslie Smith and thanks for the popcorn.
 
She has almost no bargaining power and Leslie decided it was a smart plan to be an outspoken member of an union. What the hell was she expecting? Yes GSP and Cain were in it also but the UFC needs them.
 
Since you're talking about financial sense, look at it this way TS.

It makes zero financial sense to the UFC to keep a fighter that take their money and doesn't fight.

So, they let her go.
 
"Political reasons"? for the longest time the UFC (ie Dana) didn't want women's divisions. It was under the auspices of "I'm just not comfortable watching women fight" but really, if we translate it, it was "We don't think we can make enough money off it". Remember the UFC had no LW division for about 5 years because there was no one there to make them money.

Ronda could move the needle and arguably, I bet if Gina Carano had a few more people not named Cyborg to fight he might've given it the go then too.

Unfortunately(?) Ronda's flamed out, PvZ hasn't really panned out and he's stuck with divisions that he can't get rid of and can't make them $$$
Huh. I vaguely remember them adding two weight classes both of which are female.
 
Listened to it. Cliffs did not include the part where she Aspen had plenty of time to make weight and decided to not put in the effort. Bitch move by Aspen, and then a bitch follow up move by the UFC who was just waiting for a reason to cut Leslie.

After listening to the whole thing, I kinda side with Leslie.
Not true.. the commission told Aspen the night before weighins to stop cutting and that she wasn't going to be approved to fight. Yet, Aspen was still cutting the morning of to get closer to 136lbs (knowing she would get close but not down to it, being it was "that time of the month" for her), hoping the commission would allow her to fight, she even offered to give up 5k, plus the automatic percentage of her purse for not making weight.. Commission didn't take into account that her menstrual cycle had just hit the day prior to weighins and killed her weight cut. Aspen is a Warrior and a very solid person outside of the cage and gym!
 
what you fail to mention is that

- She initially asked for 100k per fight on a new deal

- The UFC paid for her to have a malignant tumour removed from her stomach in 2016 which they didnt have to

They treated her pretty well. She in return went out and compared them to an abusive husband on twitter.

Not really surprising they declined to offer her a new contract all things considered.

if she was 20-25 maybe.. but shes 35 years old now
Glad I'm not the only one who knows this! There are always two sides to every story.. her side, and the truth!
 
as an example//

the other day Leslie was comparing the UFC./Fighter relationship to domestic abuse



Its a shit comparison, but when you are gonna say stuff like that why the fuck would hte UFC renew your contract.



You can be pro union, you can be pro athlete rights without saying dumb shit and comparing it to domestic abuse cases (honestly, she should know better) - dont even gvet me started on her logic that victims of domestic abuse bring it on themselves
 
Last edited:
I don't like it that she took 62k not to fight, rather than risk getting only 40k if she lost. She was a fighter and should have been in it to win it. If she won she would have gotten all the marbles - Her show fee, her win fee, 20% of Ladd's purse plus the extra 5k Ladd offered. Plus a much needed W in her record.

She should've fought and risked making less money? Think about what you are saying.
 
So let's say she goes out there and submits Ladd inside of a minute, that would be 3 wins in a row.

Without some foul play, how on earth was she going to be cut?
Easy..wins dont equal a contract. And when your paint a huge bullseye on yourself ( the fighters union) your boss is gonna look for ways to get rid of you. Even if she won her last fight ufc wasnt going to resign her
 
Cool Project Spearhead bro.

I don't see anyone paying her (or most fighters) $31/31k per fight. Invicta can't afford near that.
 
Back
Top