Francis wants freedom to box, Fedor wanted freedom to do sambo - did UFC learned from past??

[StoneColdSteveAustin]

He said he left 7 million dollars on the table between the Stipe and the Gane fight.

The UFC offered Francis a much more lucrative contract, and he still turned it down.

Like I said, he could make much more in one high profile boxing match.

 

[Fergelmince]

The consequences of a lenient contract with ngannou will change the way most contracts are written for fighters for the foreseeable future. Either ngannou will have to compromise, or walk. I hope he walks.

 

[snackgod]

So, more or less 15 years latter indisputably best HW in the world is again in collision with UFC.

Fedor wanted freedom, Francis also!

Fedor said that he didn't want to be a slave, Francis also!

Fedor said that it is not just about the money, but about how UFC (Dana) was talking to him like he is not on same level as they are (as a person). Francis said the same thing, that he didn't like how Dana was acting (,,from power position").

UFC is still the same as before, as we can see.

Do you think that they will let another HW Goat go separate way, or will they be a little bit wiser (and more humain) this time??

2 things go Francis way :
1. UFC experience with Fedor, they all remember that they shit the bed in that one.
2. Francis is already their champion, so him leaving is worse than Fedor not coming in.

fedor and the ufc was about fedor manager was demanding to co promote fedors fights

fedor was controled bye teh mob so how did he not want to be a slave when the down fall of pride was the fight over fedor between the russisan mob and the traids gangs.

 

[milf_hunter]

Dana having nightmares about explosive francis looming over him

 

[Espresso]

Its no surprise Dana has a history with HWs. When two deadly, confident, alpha HWs clash... they fight for dominance

 

[mmaknight]

I don't think Fedor's contract disputes had anything to do with Sambo. It was b/c M1 wanted UFC to co promote if they gave up Fedor, to which Dana was unwilling to do.

Yup, that's how I remember that situation going down.

 

[Bork Neslar]

Maybe.

 

[DestinedAussie]

It's tough. From a human level and from the perspective of the fighters, of course I'd want these guys to have the freedom to be able to compete in other orgs while under contract. But looking at it from the perspective of both the UFC as a company/brand and a fan's perspective, the exclusivity in UFC contracts makes a ton of sense. It's tough to argue that they actually made the wrong decision with Fedor, when you look at how much the UFC has grown in popularity (and revenue) since that time. In fact, it pretty much proved Dana's theory- That the UFC as a brand is bigger than the individual fighters, and that they will stick to their guns and won't bend their rules for anyone (unless that person grows to a point in popularity where their brand is actually bigger than the UFC's, which Conor is the only one to achieve). Once they start bending the rules for a guy like Francis, it's a slippery slope and they start losing leverage and we start seeing situations like boxing where the best never fight the best. Dana knows the power in the UFC brand and it's hard to blame him for using his leverage and sticking to his business model that has been so successful up until this point.

This is why the UFC has so much power in neg. They just need to put on fights, in general names don't do that much to move the needle outside Conor. I would be curious how many buys for UFC 270 but I couldn't find anything. Wouldn't surprise me if it was around 500-600K which while decent isn't hard for UFC to achieve.

UFC lost nothing by not bending to Fedor and Ngannou is even less popular than him.
They are wise that's why they are not letting fighters screw them.
Btw Fedor made the right choice because if he were in the UFC, he would've ended like Ben Askren

They lost one big fight by not doing it. UFC didn't really need him as Fedor wasn't known to a lot of casual UFC fans at the time. All the hardcore fans wanted to see how he would go but Fedor wasn't a big enough name to ensure Conor like success.

 

[BFoe]

I don't think Fedor's contract disputes had anything to do with Sambo. It was b/c M1 wanted UFC to co promote if they gave up Fedor, to which Dana was unwilling to do.

Like @Sweater of AV said, it was a number of things. One thing that’s not mentioned as often is the champion clause that Ngannou has had issues with. Fedor wasn’t feeling that, plus the co-promotion issue and freedom to do sambo. Even today, Fedor retained some flexibility. Fedor recently mentioned how he could compete other places besides Bellator, provided the event was in Russia, which is kind of interesting. His current contract allows for that.