Benson Henderson Talks Fighters Association, Bellator Sponsor $, Mark Hunt

[CC27]

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/8/1...fighters-association-state-of-sponsorships-in

"For my last Bellator fight, I had one sponsor, and with that one sponsor, just one, I made just shy of what I made for the Reebok sponsorship," Henderson said Monday on The MMA Hour. "But I am aware, I do know, that it's going to take a while to build up those sponsors again. Sponsors in the UFC were at one point a very high dollar amount. You got paid quite a bit of money. After the Reebok thing took over, and all of the companies kind of heard about that, the value went down a lot.

"I'll have to build back up to that, and I'm a patient man. I know my worth. I'm not going to sell myself short. If the Ritz Carlton has 100 rooms, and then 75 of the rooms are empty, do they rent out the rooms for any cheaper? Do they rent out the rooms for only $100 instead of that $700-$800 range that they normally rent out the rooms for one night? No. They know what the value of those rooms are. They know what their worth is. They hold to their worth, $700-$800 a night. I'm not going to sell myself short, I know what my value is."

As a veteran with 20 combined fights in the UFC and WEC, Henderson earned $15,000 in Reebok sponsorships for his final UFC fight against Jorge Masvidal in Nov. 2015.

"I have talked to Mark Hunt's people," Henderson said. "I have talked to Cung Le and Jon Fitch's people. Both want the same idea, the same thing: a fighters union, a fighters association. Looking at different models to follow, whether it's the tennis model or the international football model, soccer model, whether it's the basketball model -- we are in individual sport so we can't exactly follow the NFL model, we can't exactly follow the NBA model. But because we are an individual sport, it won't necessarily be just a UFC fighters association, it won't just a Bellator fighters association. It will be a fighter association, fighters union, of all fighters everywhere.

"Anybody trying to separate the fighters, they're doing it for a reason. They're trying to separate to make our voice smaller, to make our pull, our demands smaller. So it would be very bad and detrimental to the fighters to separate at all. We need to stay strong. We need to stay smart about it. We need to hire smart people to work for us. We've got to hire smart lawyers and intelligent people who will help guide us in the formation of this fighters association."

Henderson is turning 33 years old in November and has long indicated that he wants to retire from the fight game early, so the while the goal of getting a fighters association established may not be competed by the time he hangs up his gloves, he is more confident than ever that an association is an inevitability, rather than a pipe dream.

"I know a lot of guys have already been working on it for a couple years now," Henderson said. "I'm still looking to retire in not too long, so I'm not sure if it'll get done in my time period. But definitely if not while I'm fighting, I would say (it'll get done) probably a couple years after that."

 

[CC27]

This should wake some people up who say yeah but they can get their own sponsors in Bellator.

The sponsorship market aint what it used to be.

 

[Gendry]

But his value is much less fighting in Bellator than in UFC. And that is what the sponsors are telling him with their lack of money. No one is breaking down his door to sponsor him. There just isn't the cash in MMA anymore. And certainly not outside of UFC.

But let dumb MMA fans tell us different.

 

[skylolow]

But his value is much less fighting in Bellator than in UFC. And that is what the sponsors are telling him with their lack of money. No one is breaking down his door to sponsor him. There just isn't the cash in MMA anymore. And certainly not outside of UFC.

But let dumb MMA fans tell us different.

Pretty much

Days of Tapout and 90 other apparel companies is more or less over and they were always the most consistent sponsors of MMA.

It's partly why Zuffa went with the Reebok and tried to create a uniform for a fighter. So people would buy a fighters shirt and not some random Afflication shirt or tapout shirt. Similar to people buying jerseys in other sports. Though I don't think the Reebok deal quite worked out the way they thought or at the very least its still evolving into what they hope it will be.

 

[tithas]

The days of a easy cash grab for a 30 second spot showing your t-shirt are over. Sponsorships evolved and the best way to see it these days is on the regional scene. I have regional fighter friends who get monthly stipends from sponsors but they also promote their brands constantly on their social media, show videos of them taking it. etc. they also work more like a partnership than a sponsorship. Stann said for many of his big corporate sponsors (he was getting 10k/month in sponsor pay year round) he would do seminars and motivational speech's. You just have to have a manager who looks past easy cash grabs for t-shirts.

 

[InfinityLens]

This should wake some people up who say yeah but they can get their own sponsors in Bellator.

The sponsorship market aint what it used to be.

He's almost making what he did in the UFC after one fight. That'l sounds decent to me.

 

[CC27]

He's almost making what he did in the UFC after one fight. That'l sounds decent to me.

Biggest free agent signing who is a star, hyped like crazy, main event and in a title fight made less than 15k.

Didnt even make as much as shit Reebok money.

Thats decent?

Not saying he cant get more or others cant get some more but its basically giving fans an idea what a top guy can get out there and its not nearly as much as some pretend it is.

Shit Ben Saunders was saying he made more in Reebok money than he got in Bellator.

 

[Conor McTap]

benson jesus called said stfu

 

[Kinku]

Benson was much more will known when he was fighting in UFC. I mean what happen to Phil davis, he kinda drop off face of the earth in MMA world.