How much leverage the UFC have on it's fighter ?

[Deleted member 580830]

Sometimes, somethings looks pretty shady if you pay attention. But what's the truth ?

We all know that the UFC like four types of guys :
-Who sell high on PPV
-Who's performance is entertaining
-Who save the card by signing in short notice
-Who take big risk by never refusing a fight

But, often fighters wont, or just can't submit to these criteria for whatever reason.
So here are my question :

How much leverage the UFC have on it's fighter ?
What could happen to a figher if he sign with another organization while being in contract ?
How can a fighter break his contract, is it easy ?
Is the UFC taking care of it's fighter ?
Who could make a fighter union ?
Are fighter live a little bit controlled by the UFC ?
Big star who sell on PPV have more privilege ?
Can the UFC force a fighter to resign ?
Do the UFC respect it's contract ?

I've got interesting stuff to read :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulgi...-of-their-expiring-contracts/?sh=463f470c7ef0
https://sports.yahoo.com/dana-white-escalates-feud-oscar-de-la-hoya-hes-liar-phony-043645478.html


What's your point on that matter ?

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

Dana and his goons played Leon Edwards like a fiddle to get him to fight Chimaev by removing him from the rankings, and only reinstating his rank after he signed the contract

Since the UFC is the biggest MMA organization by far, I would say they have a lot of leverage, especially on younger, upcoming fighters who need the exposure and fans.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

This is not a career, it's an opportunity.

 

[DS66]

The UFC has most of the leverage with the majority of fighters, as the UFC brand is the draw. There are some fighters that rise above this (See: Conor) and their brand becomes bigger than the UFC, and those fighters gain a ton of leverage. But for the vast majority of fighters, they're not moving the needle a ton when it comes to viewership/PPV buys. So the UFC can pretty much pay them what they want, and if they don't play ball, they'll move on to the next guy up.

 

[linvillegorge]

Honestly, Conor is the only fighter who has even come close to achieving the level of stardom to hold legit leverage against the UFC. They pretty much have everyone else by the balls.

 

[Deleted member 580830]

I would love to see someone being a Wolf and fighting on his own promotion like Floyd did in Boxing.
Being your own boss and offering better opportunity to younger fighters is far better than that Dana "No Money" White.

 

[Murder_KickHC]

Fighters need to stop complaining about the pay and do something about it.
Reason why Conor McGregor makes Infinite times more money than rest of the fighters deserve is because he doesnt just talk the talk but also walks the walk.

 

[Deleted member 580830]

Fighters need to stop complaining about the pay and do something about it.
Reason why Conor McGregor makes Infinite times more money than rest of the fighters deserve is because he doesnt just talk the talk but also walks the walk.

The law of attracting the casual can sell on PPV, it made him only a more valuable pawn.
Connor will be discarded as fast as he retire, everyone is expendable. He got some leverage with his whiskey, publicity here and here, sponsor here and here but outside of that he is just a big name.

Never defended his title. Did not want to give a rematch to Aldo and Diaz.
He picked Cowboy and ducked Justin.
Since he lost to Khabib, lost confidence against wrestler.
Ali told to Connor that he have a title shot against Usman if want to, he gave no response.
Never call out Colby and Usman when he moved to WW.
Asked to fight an unranked 41 years old Diego Sanchez.
He is clearly cherry picking fighter.

He got famous by trash talking and party, not by his skill. He claimed to be a Goat but never was, Connor will never be the real deal.
There is a day and night difference between the mindset of a true champion and a vegas hooker.

“I don’t like to talk trash just to be able to sell fights. What I do is I train hard and do my talking in the ring. I want people to respect me and to follow my fights, not because of what I say but what I do.” Canelo Alvarez.

#khabib & canelo bless

 

[RustyShacleford]

Honestly, Conor is the only fighter who has even come close to achieving the level of stardom to hold legit leverage against the UFC. They pretty much have everyone else by the balls.

I'd say GSP too, since they let him walk in and cherry pick the easiest possible title shot.

But yeah, overall so much leverage and so much punishment. Like when Fabricio was pissed cause he wasn't getting paid or included in the mini hw tourney they made (Randy, Brock, Nog, Frank-he could have beat all of them), so they made the last fight on his contract against a then unknown JDS to fuck his rep on the way out.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

How much leverage the UFC have on it's fighter ? lots
What could happen to a figher if he sign with another organization while being in contract ? won't happen because UFC would sue and win, org wouldn't be able to sell tickets or online, there is no upside for the fighter or the org. the variable here of course is Russia, but it hasn't been tried yet.
How can a fighter break his contract, is it easy ? no
Is the UFC taking care of it's fighter ? too vague a question. if you ask more specific follow up questions I'll try to answer them.
Who could make a fighter union ? UFC has and will do everything in it's power to stop it.
Are fighter live a little bit controlled by the UFC ? no, just their livelihood.
Big star who sell on PPV have more privilege ? yes
Can the UFC force a fighter to resign ? no, but they can and do use lots of leverage, including only offering them challenging fights
Do the UFC respect it's contract ? they unilaterally change the 'rules' around contracts (For example, it used to be that when a fighter was injured, the contract continued. UFC unilaterally change it so that injury time doesn't count toward a contract), so i would say no, they don't respect them. But they certainly leverage them for all they're worth.

 

[accolyte1022]

The law of attracting the casual can sell on PPV, it made him only a more valuable pawn.
Connor will be discarded as fast as he retire, everyone is expendable. He got some leverage with his whiskey, publicity here and here, sponsor here and here but outside of that he is just a big name.

Never defended his title. Did not want to give a rematch to Aldo and Diaz.
He picked Cowboy and ducked Justin.
Since he lost to Khabib, lost confidence against wrestler.
Ali told to Connor that he have a title shot against Usman if want to, he gave no response.
Never call out Colby and Usman when he moved to WW.
Asked to fight an unranked 41 years old Diego Sanchez.
He is clearly cherry picking fighter.

He got famous by trash talking and party, not by his skill. He claimed to be a Goat but never was, Connor will never be the real deal.
There is a day and night difference between the mindset of a true champion and a vegas hooker.

“I don’t like to talk trash just to be able to sell fights. What I do is I train hard and do my talking in the ring. I want people to respect me and to follow my fights, not because of what I say but what I do.” Canelo Alvarez.

#khabib & canelo bless

Don't feed him.

 

[Siesta]

Sometimes, somethings looks pretty shady if you pay attention. But what's the truth ?

We all know that the UFC like four types of guys :
-Who sell high on PPV
-Who's performance is entertaining
-Who save the card by signing in short notice
-Who take big risk by never refusing a fight

But, often fighters wont, or just can't submit to these criteria for whatever reason.
So here are my question :

How much leverage the UFC have on it's fighter ?
What could happen to a figher if he sign with another organization while being in contract ?
How can a fighter break his contract, is it easy ?
Is the UFC taking care of it's fighter ?
Who could make a fighter union ?
Are fighter live a little bit controlled by the UFC ?
Big star who sell on PPV have more privilege ?
Can the UFC force a fighter to resign ?
Do the UFC respect it's contract ?

I've got interesting stuff to read :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulgi...-of-their-expiring-contracts/?sh=463f470c7ef0
https://sports.yahoo.com/dana-white-escalates-feud-oscar-de-la-hoya-hes-liar-phony-043645478.html


What's your point on that matter ?

The ufc will always do what’s it it’s best interest. Big names that bring in big revenues will get treated better than fighter that don’t, until they get too much of a big head.(Conor, Jones, Henry)

 

[suffersystem]

The law of attracting the casual can sell on PPV, it made him only a more valuable pawn.
Connor will be discarded as fast as he retire, everyone is expendable. He got some leverage with his whiskey, publicity here and here, sponsor here and here but outside of that he is just a big name.

Never defended his title. Did not want to give a rematch to Aldo and Diaz.
He picked Cowboy and ducked Justin.
Since he lost to Khabib, lost confidence against wrestler.
Ali told to Connor that he have a title shot against Usman if want to, he gave no response.
Never call out Colby and Usman when he moved to WW.
Asked to fight an unranked 41 years old Diego Sanchez.
He is clearly cherry picking fighter.

He got famous by trash talking and party, not by his skill. He claimed to be a Goat but never was, Connor will never be the real deal.
There is a day and night difference between the mindset of a true champion and a vegas hooker.

“I don’t like to talk trash just to be able to sell fights. What I do is I train hard and do my talking in the ring. I want people to respect me and to follow my fights, not because of what I say but what I do.” Canelo Alvarez.

#khabib & canelo bless

Listen, I'm not a Conor fan, but none of those things really matter, as he still became and is one of the biggest PPV stars they have. So even though I imagine it took a while to type that out, the people still paid for his fights, which is what matters in his case. Don't forgot, UFC doesn't really give a fuck about the hardcores on Sherdog, they are not the ones usually paying the money to watch the fights, the every day Joes are. You think Joe Blow from Idaho is not buying a PPV because Conor called out Diego?

 

[Deleted member 580830]

Don't forgot, UFC doesn't really give a fuck about the hardcores on Sherdog, they are not the ones usually paying the money to watch the fights, the every day Joes are. You think Joe Blow from Idaho is not buying a PPV because Conor called out Diego?

"If the money is right, the fight is always right" Calvin Ford.

Looks like money is the strongest leverage that one can have against the UFC.

 

[suffersystem]

"If the money is right, the fight is always right" Calvin Ford.

Looks like money is the strongest leverage that one can have against the UFC.

I can def agree with that for the most part, hence why once alot of these guys get the big bucks they have more leverage in regards to who and when and how much they fight for.

 

[skylolow]

In a nutshell the UFC holds 99% of the leverage over most the roster. Just like in most sports. It's just other sports everything that goes into the contract has been negotiated by both sides for the basis of a standard contract. Where as the UFC creates 99% of the wording for the standard contract.

The UFC honors the contract most of the time. Now is contract completely fair, not really. But they do honor it. Case in point, Diaz boys. The UFC must present them x amount of fights each year to honor the contract. But if the fighter and UFC wants to go their separate ways the UFC has repeatedly granted the release. But the UFC doesn't allow fighters to use that as leverage. Like someone like Jones tweeting about letting me go then. That isn't going to get the UFC to grant you a release.

A lot of the UFC contracts have never been challenged in court. Currently, the case going through is looking fairly good at this point for those fighters. Now will it change anything, I doubt it. It isn't easy suing a multi billion dollar company over wording of contracts and to boot very expensive. But would give fighters who would want to challenge the UFC in the future a better and easier path to potential victory if the fighters win this case.

The thing is, most fighters don't bitch about the contract itself. They bitch about the pay in the end. We all think we are worth more. So no matter what happens in the future fighter pay will still be an issue.