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- Jan 22, 2016
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Watching Barnett pop his Achilles on that hard landing and RDA tear his ACL and knowing the extensive rehab involved with either of these injuries reminded me that the UFC is the only major professional league in the United States with essentially complete control of a sport that doesn't provide health insurance for its fighters.
The NBA, MLB, NFL all do it. Military, law enforcement, oil rig workers, any profession where people are expected to risk their lives, the employees get health insurance -- even after they leave the job.
It's the reason Evan Tanner tried to start a fighter's union and part of the reason Ngannou left for the PFL (outside of the $60 million dollars he's made since leaving).
Mark Coleman literally ruined his hips and couldn't walk and the UFC left him dead on the matt. Shane Carwin is living at the poverty line from meal to meal because of the medical bills and injuries he accumulated during his career. Stephan Bonnar should have had better health care to treat the obvious traumatic brain injury and chronic pain that he was living in. And these guys were at the apex of the sport. There's a mountain of guys underneath them who are unnoticed and swept into the gutter.
There are 578 fighters in the UFC, about half of whom are in the United States. Health insurance for young men in this age range is about $500 bucks a month. Back of the envelope math is that it would cost the UFC ~1.7 million a year to cover its entire roster. A fraction of that to provide health insurance in the foreign countries abroad where its not part of the national health service. Even if you wanted to get ambitious -- over the last 30 years, about 5000 people have fought in the UFC. Retroactive yearly coverage for everyone in the organization would be a fraction of a single pay-per-view, counting the advertising and gate.
But instead they offer the horse$hit olive branch that is the UFC PI. These guys need orthopedic surgeons and operating rooms, not a super accurate measurement of their body fat.
The UFC fighters need a union. But no high profile athlete will step up because if they're kicked out of the organization most don't realistically have alternative fight organizations to go into (the three backup options that exist suck for anyone other than Francis Ngannou: boxing, the PFL or exhibition matches with Jake Paul).
The recent $500 million anti trust suit the UFC lost may change some of this, but I suspect the main reason nothing's been done is because fans don't care and fighters are too divided. Perhaps having a former well spoken legend like GSP or Josh Barnett champion the cause would help. I'm not sure how to topple a giant, I just know that chronic medical expenses destroy most fighters once their time under the limelight is past.
It's a free country, I know, they choose to fight tough shit, sure, but I just think its shitty that a major corporation like TKO worth $20 billion dollars isn't held up to the same standard as the MLB, NHL, NBA or NFL. It would be nice to see the UFC finally have some accountability and actually take care of the people they're paying to risk their lives.
The NBA, MLB, NFL all do it. Military, law enforcement, oil rig workers, any profession where people are expected to risk their lives, the employees get health insurance -- even after they leave the job.
It's the reason Evan Tanner tried to start a fighter's union and part of the reason Ngannou left for the PFL (outside of the $60 million dollars he's made since leaving).
Mark Coleman literally ruined his hips and couldn't walk and the UFC left him dead on the matt. Shane Carwin is living at the poverty line from meal to meal because of the medical bills and injuries he accumulated during his career. Stephan Bonnar should have had better health care to treat the obvious traumatic brain injury and chronic pain that he was living in. And these guys were at the apex of the sport. There's a mountain of guys underneath them who are unnoticed and swept into the gutter.
There are 578 fighters in the UFC, about half of whom are in the United States. Health insurance for young men in this age range is about $500 bucks a month. Back of the envelope math is that it would cost the UFC ~1.7 million a year to cover its entire roster. A fraction of that to provide health insurance in the foreign countries abroad where its not part of the national health service. Even if you wanted to get ambitious -- over the last 30 years, about 5000 people have fought in the UFC. Retroactive yearly coverage for everyone in the organization would be a fraction of a single pay-per-view, counting the advertising and gate.
But instead they offer the horse$hit olive branch that is the UFC PI. These guys need orthopedic surgeons and operating rooms, not a super accurate measurement of their body fat.
The UFC fighters need a union. But no high profile athlete will step up because if they're kicked out of the organization most don't realistically have alternative fight organizations to go into (the three backup options that exist suck for anyone other than Francis Ngannou: boxing, the PFL or exhibition matches with Jake Paul).
The recent $500 million anti trust suit the UFC lost may change some of this, but I suspect the main reason nothing's been done is because fans don't care and fighters are too divided. Perhaps having a former well spoken legend like GSP or Josh Barnett champion the cause would help. I'm not sure how to topple a giant, I just know that chronic medical expenses destroy most fighters once their time under the limelight is past.
It's a free country, I know, they choose to fight tough shit, sure, but I just think its shitty that a major corporation like TKO worth $20 billion dollars isn't held up to the same standard as the MLB, NHL, NBA or NFL. It would be nice to see the UFC finally have some accountability and actually take care of the people they're paying to risk their lives.
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