News Dana responds to Spencer Fisher: “It’s part of the gig.”

[Pierced7681]

No one said you should but to act like MMA isn't a higher risk is going to prove foolish in the next few years when all of yesterday's stars are being pushed in a wheel chair drooling.

It'll eventually become a big enough story that UFC will get stuck having to take measures to insulate from lawsuits and we'll end up with something way more padded than we have today. Just like any contact sport.

Obviously my statement wasn't intended to gauge your personal emotional turmoil under the incorrect assumption a sherdogger is capable of basic human traits like empathy.

Where did I say mma isn’t high risk? It is very high risk, just like boxing, which has been known for ages now.

 

[rjmbrd]

I agree I'd like to see some sort of plan, but it's difficult to work out where they draw the line with it. I wouldn't expect them to give anything to someone who fought for them a couple of times for example, but the 15 fight vets, sure.

Of course.

"Vested" players in the NFL need 3 or more credited years in the league to receive benefits. It would be trivial to map out something similar for UFC fighters, eg 3 years or 5 fights should qualify a fighter.

Even if we set aside the fact that fighters are getting a paltry 18% of revenue (which includes every dollar spent, bonuses, PPV points, everything) its obvious the UFC is having trouble attracting talent in the upper weight divisions.

We're shuffling around old farts at 205/265 where the average age, athleticism and skill is frankly embarrassing. Until the risk -vs- reward is more equitable, the UFC won't attract athletes of that size with any other options. Guys like Brock and Cole Konrad attempted to enter the NFL before washing into MMA as a backup.

If you're trading brain damage for 18% of the revenue generated, who the hell wants to sign up when there is no health benefits down the line? It's like a 7th grade students idea of a cool tournament.

I love MMA and I think it deserves a seat at the table. It will never be taken seriously until the fighters are treated equitably like real athletes.

 

[MescalineDreams]

lmao I like how Dana lumps himself in with these warriors. Dana you were a fucking boxercise instructor you jackass. <45>

Tito said Dana was almost a pro boxer.

That holds a lot more weight for how seriously he actually took the sport than people on the internet.

He also had a license to corner amateur boxers. None of which is possible for just a "boxercise" instructor.

 

[suffersystem]

Be weird having CM Punk getting all his medical paid for and have a Pension from UFC......

 

[BigGucci]

Why do we pretend to care about this stuff, it's what we came to see. We want to see guys get stomped out, sent to the hospital, get spit on and taunted after they get KOed. That's the name of the game and we don't thank Dana or pay him enough to make it happen.

 

[560ti]

That being said, it is common sense to recognize fighters deserve basic terms like health insurance and a retirement plan. Other sports have it and far more equitable deals on revenue sharing.

The problem is them being contractors. The sports that do have it have a union and there actual employees. Those leagues there employees because they work for each individual team that is in control of stadiums/attendance/marketing. It's a tradeoff for everyone (more liablity is shifted to the owners instead of the league doing everything but the tradeoff is the players being employees instead of contractors)

The 2 biggest contractor leagues (ATP Tennis and PGA Golf) pay less than 30% of revenue and have no insurance/retirement. UFC isn't really any different

 

[xn7]

It is a business. They cant just keep people on payroll. Im sure he can make money training people. He has a name.

did you even watch spencer's video. guy has trouble with balance, short term memory, sometimes forgetting the names of people he knows and his kids.

 

[Islam Imamate]

It is a business. They cant just keep people on payroll. Im sure he can make money training people. He has a name.

According to the article that's exactly what Zuffa did for a few years. Of course when the sale happened the new mangers trimmed the fat.

 

[pv3Hpv3p]

I think the problem with football, in America, was that they tried to hide the extent of the damage that was being done.

If the point of your profession is to concuss your opponent... What are you really expecting?

 

[rjmbrd]

The 2 biggest contractor leagues (ATP Tennis and PGA Golf) pay less than 30% of revenue and have no insurance/retirement. UFC isn't really any different

The UFC has paid an average of 15-19% - I'm not a whiz at maths - but I believe that is less then 30%.

Now Google how much PGA tour players make in sponsorship money, which they wear on the tour. It is an order of magnitude more then the abysmal Rebok deal.

I'm going to leave out the fact that tennis and golf doesn't involve brain damage in virtually all preparation and play.

 

[Feardafighta1126]

The UFC has paid an average of 15-19% - I'm not a whiz at maths - but I believe that is less then 30%.

Now Google how much PGA tour players make in sponsorship money, which they wear on the tour. It is an order of magnitude more then the abysmal Rebok deal.

I'm going to leave out the fact that tennis and golf doesn't involve brain damage in virtually all preparation and play.

Maybe athletes can become pro golfers and do mma on the side as a hobby.

 

[Sickbro69420]

Dana is a piece of shit and mma is super dangerous. Those are definitely the stakes. That doesn't mean it's alright these guys get fucked over but young and impulsive men will fight until they are brain damaged for some money. I think it was shitty and lame that dana grouped himself in with the guys that are suffering from cte. Sure he could of been more compassionate but he wouldn't be the dirt bag that he is.

 

[Jabbathehook]

I'm glad that the UFC is so regular and available but Dana really is an abhorrent piece of shit. It's true that nobody gets super rich without being a selfless individual.

Not only is he content to have active fighters scrapping for crumbs of the organisations total revenue, he is now dismissive of degenerative brain disease they acquire whilst shedding blood for his profit.

 

[560ti]

The UFC has paid an average of 15-19% - I'm not a whiz at maths - but I believe that is less then 30%.
.

Yeah that was my point. All 3 play less than 30% ??? (not really sure what point your trying to make).

Now Google how much PGA tour players make in sponsorship money, which they wear on the tour. It is an order of magnitude more then the abysmal Rebok deal.

To be fair they also play on national TV and do 20-25 events a season. Even with Reebok being shit there not comparable to some C-level program performing 1 or 2 events a year

I'm going to leave out the fact that tennis and golf doesn't involve brain damage in virtually all preparation and play.

Um okay ? Not sure what that has to do with all contractors sport not having retirement or long term insurance. UFC is scummy don't get me wrong but there not really any different from comparable leagues (people can't compare them to employee based union leagues that play on national TV, not the same structure)

 

[tasticles]

He's right, but he shouldn't put it that bluntly

what is he supposed to say, brain damage is a rare thing in contact sports? I try to be articulate when possible. How would you word it?

 

[rjmbrd]

Yeah that was my point. All 3 play less than 30% ??? (not really sure what point your trying to make).

This moronic logic. You have two job offers: one is for 90k/year, the other is 50k/year.

You describe both jobs as "less then 100k a year." Virtually identical, Joe! This is so stupid I honestly can't believe I'm typing this.

To be fair they also play on national TV and do 20-25 events a season. Even with Reebok being shit there not comparable to some C-level program performing 1 or 2 events a yea

None of this is material to the UFC paying their athletes table scraps. 18% of revenue is a joke, the fact that tour golfers get to also make millions on their own sponsorship deals just highlights how absurd.

Not sure what that has to do with all contractors sport not having retirement or long term insurance.

The UFC is subject to a recently class authorized class action suit, which at the very heart is treating the fighters with many if not most requirements of employees, but classifying them, possibly illegally, as contractors for their own enrichment.

It is common sense 18% is a poor revenue split and the classification of contractors is to subvert the responsibility of offering practical benefits like insurance and a pension.

UFC is scummy don't get me wrong but there not really any different from comparable leagues (people can't compare them to employee based union leagues that play on national TV, not the same structure)

Bullshit. This is demonstrably untrue.

The UFC has a "different structure" by design. It was designed by billionaires making money off fighters. Now each and every owner of the UFC is a multi-hundred-millionaire, who are getting lopsided returns based on paying the fighters lopsidedly bad deals. That has got to change.

 

[superpunch]

I think some of the onus of Spencers problems could be put on the training style at MFS. Back in the day at gyms like MFS, Chute Boxe, Lion's Den, and Golden Glory it was literally kill or be killed gym wars. That hard sparring meathead style of training is pretty much gone, which is obviously for the best. Sure he took damage in his actual UFC fights but I'd argue the majority of damage was done getting his head contiuously bashed in day after day over the course of 10+ years during sparring.

Guys like Robbie Lawler trained that way for years at MFS and eventually stopped sparring altogether when he left to train in Florida....pretty sure he saw the writing on the wall.

Fighters trained that way back in the day because no one knew what actually worked in MMA yet. Should we train karate or muay thai? Do we need to train boxing too? What boxing techniques work and which ones don't? We don't have a muay thai fighter from Thailand so how can we emulate muay thai? So they found out in practice by beating the shit out of each other. They don't have to do that anymore. But without Chute Boxe and Lion's Den and those guys paving the way..

 

[superpunch]

The NFL has both lifetime health insurance and a pension. The players get to collectively bargain so they don't get shafted in lopsided deals.

I LOVE what Dana has accomplished with the UFC and MMA. There is no way to overstate how incredible the sport has grown specifically because of Dana.

That being said, it is common sense to recognize fighters deserve basic terms like health insurance and a retirement plan. Other sports have it and far more equitable deals on revenue sharing.

Even if you don't think fighters are underpaid, you have to acknowledge its a travesty a guy like Fisher doesn't have health insurance despite being a 17 fight veteran of the UFC. They have all the requirements of employees but get treated like the 'contractors' the minute the UFC is done with them.

Spencer Fisher is a legend in the sport and was an absolute company man. He deserves better then this.

That's not the UFC's responsibility to take care of them when they're old men, or to provide them with healthcare. The UFC isn't their mom. That's the their government's responsibility. It's completely unreasonable to expect the UFC to provide their healthcare, especially given its artificially bloated cost; it's 19% of your GDP vs the worldwide developed countries' average of 8.5%. That stupid high cost isn't the UFC's fault, and it's not their responsibility to take the fall for it.

The UFC has a huge roster of foreign fighters whose governments already give them healthcare too. So, the money to cover the American fighters' healthcare would come indirectly from their salaries and they wouldn't see any benefit from it. It would be unfair to foreign fighters.

It's not the UFC responsibility to provide healthcare, it's not their responsibility to take care of them when they're old men, and doing so isn't fair for foreign fighters.

 

[johnyboy]

I agree with him. If you are a fighter you gotta realize that you are gambling your health. There's also way more info and support for fighters now then there ever was.