After withdrawal from Markus Perez fight last weekend, Eric Spicely released from UFC

Hellowhosthat said:
He seems to think he can fight again, he's asking for short notice fights on Twitter
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Those kinds of drugs tend to mess with your whole system so I think making weight will be very difficult for him going forward. If he's even cleared to fight, he did say he suffered brain trauma.
 
Needing antidepressants after a fight doesn't sound like something that should allow you to fight for a good while.
 
I'm torn. On the one hand, I'm very sympathetic to Spicely. On the other hand, I love this Brock thing

<CanYouSeeMeNow>
 
TheNinja said:
I wondered that too. Does he have a potential case against the UFC? He's under a doctor's care and medication for injuries sustain while fighting for the UFC........and then the UFC fires him. Seems like a wrongful termination case to me.

Like if I'm working for a company and get carpel tunnel or something.......then have to get surgery and have lingering effects from the surgery I don't think the company can just fire me. Maybe long term disability or short term or something but they can't fire me for injuries and follow up doctor care that happened on the job.
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Could it had been his last fight so they just pay him off and thats it? similar to what they did with Leslie Smith, her last fight was cancelled, they paid her off, she went to rant on how they cut her and so on, but thing is, her contract ended up, they paid her up, not sure whats the case here, but it could be the same, its not really cutting if they reach the end of their contracts.
 
UFC prolly not super excited about keeping a guy around who openly said on Twitter that the head trauma he got in a UFC made him go on anti depressants..
 
I was on dudes side until my brain clicked that the guy is publicly saying his last fight trauma caused him to get on anti depressants (I assume he got his ass whopped? Didn’t see fight) but man if you need anti depressants after going in and earning your paycheck (I stress the earning, fighting AINT easy) but if you need pills after a win or loss even then man time to look into other jobs.
 
If you think that's a unique case you're out your god damn mind.
Tony Ferguson looking for mics in the wall
Donald Cerrone passing out in his bathroom
GSP getting abducted by aliens
Mike Hunt forgetting what he did yesterday
And you really think Max Holloway is fine?

Eric Spicely was just "foolish" enough to be honest about it. If you're a fighter and you want to keep your job you don't talk about your CTE symptoms.

Also, Spicely is not an employe of the UFC as noted. and with no fighter's union in sight, he's out of luck.

what a job...
 
El Fernas said:
Could it had been his last fight so they just pay him off and thats it? similar to what they did with Leslie Smith, her last fight was cancelled, they paid her off, she went to rant on how they cut her and so on, but thing is, her contract ended up, they paid her up, not sure whats the case here, but it could be the same, its not really cutting if they reach the end of their contracts.
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That's a great point too. And as others have said they are independent contractors in a sense, not like the NFL or NBA players' unions for example. But I just feel there would be some protection for a fighter who got hurt while fighting and then missed weight b/c of it. OF course that could be a lie on his part too, he might have just gotten too fat during covid.

But that does make sense as far as the UFC just buying out the contract's show money. Probably the easiest way for then to "cut" someone without worrying about legal recourse.
 
austinblair said:
I was on dudes side until my brain clicked that the guy is publicly saying his last fight trauma caused him to get on anti depressants (I assume he got his ass whopped? Didn’t see fight) but man if you need anti depressants after going in and earning your paycheck (I stress the earning, fighting AINT easy) but if you need pills after a win or loss even then man time to look into other jobs.
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I don't think he means he feels depressed or sad. What he's saying is he received some physical trauma that changed his brain chemicals (either temporarily or permanently) to cause him to have depression. Chemical depression is different than feeling depressed. It is possible he means mental trauma of losing in which case I'd agree he shouldn't be fighting b/c almost all fighters lose. But, like I said, I think he mean physical head trauma.
 
TheNinja said:
I don't think he means he feels depressed or sad. What he's saying is he received some physical trauma that changed his brain chemicals (either temporarily or permanently) to cause him to have depression. Chemical depression is different than feeling depressed. It is possible he means mental trauma of losing in which case I'd agree he shouldn't be fighting b/c almost all fighters lose. But, like I said, I think he mean physical head trauma.
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That’s way worse than what I thought was, dude just feeling sad.

if he got beat so bad it changed his brain (I don’t know the circumstances) then the UFC did the absolute right thing as an employer of the hurt business.

in my opinion.

great point you made mate. lot of people like me probably think he just got sad but you’re saying he’s alleging he got truly fucked up. Dude needs another job for sure and I hate when a damn job doesn’t work out know what I mean?
 
austinblair said:
That’s way worse than what I thought was, dude just feeling sad.

if he got beat so bad it changed his brain (I don’t know the circumstances) then the UFC did the absolute right thing as an employer of the hurt business.

in my opinion.

great point you made mate. lot of people like me probably think he just got sad but you’re saying he’s alleging he got truly fucked up. Dude needs another job for sure and I hate when a damn job doesn’t work out know what I mean?
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Thanks for the adult response, sometimes it's hard to get them here :) - But ya, I think he's saying he went on anti-depressants following head trauma after the fight with Winn.

From his twitter - "For the sake of transparency this was my first weight cut since starting antidepressants due to the head trauma I sustained in the Deron Winn fight."

So basically head trauma seems to have caused depression or a change in his brain. Maybe the UFC saw this, bought out his contract, and sent him on his way. They might not want to deal with a non-star fighter having CTE or head trauma or having something worse happen or get sued. It's safer for the UFC to just part ways with him. Sucks for him b/c he sustained the alleged injury while fighting in the UFC, but business is business I guess.
 
El Fernas said:
Could it had been his last fight so they just pay him off and thats it? similar to what they did with Leslie Smith, her last fight was cancelled, they paid her off, she went to rant on how they cut her and so on, but thing is, her contract ended up, they paid her up, not sure whats the case here, but it could be the same, its not really cutting if they reach the end of their contracts.
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TheNinja said:
That's a great point too. And as others have said they are independent contractors in a sense, not like the NFL or NBA players' unions for example. But I just feel there would be some protection for a fighter who got hurt while fighting and then missed weight b/c of it. OF course that could be a lie on his part too, he might have just gotten too fat during covid.

But that does make sense as far as the UFC just buying out the contract's show money. Probably the easiest way for then to "cut" someone without worrying about legal recourse.
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It doesn’t sound anything like the Leslie smith situation. The UFC has all the power in their contracts. They can terminate you at any point with no consequence. The only reason Leslie Smith got paid is because she made weight and her opponent didn’t. Once you make weight you’ve fulfilled your obligation and can’t be forced to fight someone who comes in overweight. The reason she was cut is because she tried to use the opportunity to force the UFC to renew her contract. It was the last fight on her deal and, reading between the lines, it doesn’t sound like the UFC was interested in re-signing her. They typically sign 6-8 fight deals and renegotiate after 3. So the fact that they let her get to the last fight on her deal speaks to this. She said give me a new contract or I won’t agree to fight her. Dana was pissed somebody tried to strong arm him so he paid her her show money, and said we don’t want to re-sign you.

They don’t have to do contract buyouts because they’re contracts are written in a way that a fighter has zero power. They can cut you at any time, for any reason, and not owe you a dime.
 
Spicely, the man that laid down the recipe to dispatching Thiago “the uncrowned champ” Santos with ease right?
 
I wonder what weight was able to cut to
 
Kell Martin said:
If you think that's a unique case you're out your god damn mind.
Tony Ferguson looking for mics in the wall
Donald Cerrone passing out in his bathroom
GSP getting abducted by aliens
Mike Hunt forgetting what he did yesterday
And you really think Max Holloway is fine?

Eric Spicely was just "foolish" enough to be honest about it. If you're a fighter and you want to keep your job you don't talk about your CTE symptoms.

Also, Spicely is not an employe of the UFC as noted. and with no fighter's union in sight, he's out of luck.

what a job...
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I love to watch mma fights, and I joined a mma gym at 37 but quit the striking within months because I read up on all the issues of cte. I still do Bjj and love it, I prefer to watch grappling competitions to mma. Sometimes you see these all out striking wars and you are literally watching these guys take years of quality life off the table. At that point it’s not fun to watch. Not sure if there is a fix for this, but I feel it will be an issue in the next 10 years or so, when a lot of the more mainstream fighters begin having issues.
 
Kell Martin said:
If you think that's a unique case you're out your god damn mind.
Tony Ferguson looking for mics in the wall
Donald Cerrone passing out in his bathroom
GSP getting abducted by aliens
Mike Hunt forgetting what he did yesterday
And you really think Max Holloway is fine?

Eric Spicely was just "foolish" enough to be honest about it. If you're a fighter and you want to keep your job you don't talk about your CTE symptoms.

Also, Spicely is not an employe of the UFC as noted. and with no fighter's union in sight, he's out of luck.

what a job...
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Somebody gets it, this stuff is very real and extremely common across all combat athletes.
 
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