Middle teir fighters retiring early the best form of pay protest

[Inashikacho]

Anderson Silva is 40 and has 40 fights on his record. It's less about the age than about the amount of time you spend in the ring. Mein isn't a 25 year old rookie, he's a guy who's fought more than the vast majority of fighters in the UFC.

Comparing Mein to the typical 25 year old in the UFC is silly.

I don't think wear and tear is the case. I just looked at Mein's fight record and while the guy has 39 fights total, 19 of his fights were first round wins, and 2 of his losses were first round submissions, leaving only 17 of his fights to make it out of the first round in his career. To break it down a little further, 7 of his fights ended in the second round, and 10 were decisions, of his remaining losses he's only been finished by strikes three times and subbed once. Also 26 of the guys he fought had no wiki pages, indicating to me that they were likely cans.

I admit I didn't follow Jordan Mein closely, but unless he took too much punishment in training, or he took a ton of damage in many of his bouts that I never saw, I find it hard to believe that his body could be so worn out at the age of 25. Unless he comes out and explains his reasoning for retiring, I don't buy what you're saying.

 

[Malthian]

39 fight camps is a lot, even if they're short fight camps.

 

[Inashikacho]

39 fight camps is a lot, even if they're short fight camps.

I doubt they were real fight camps though. If you look at his first 15 fights, he was averaging once a month most of the time, and a couple of them only had 2 week gaps. A lot of those smaller promotions match people up at the last possible moment as well, making an actual camp for a guy with no wiki page impractical. He would have had to do normal training for many of these fights that he would have done anyway even if he wasn't scheduled for a fight. I could see it, but from what I saw of that record, it doesn't seem too likely to me.

 

[MilesAbove]

My favorite part of this is not that guys are retiring or whether it is/is not about the Reebok deal. My favorite part is how many posters are running to UFC/Reebok's defense.

 

[The_Renaissance]

My favorite part of this is not that guys are retiring or whether it is/is not about the Reebok deal. My favorite part is how many posters are running to UFC/Reebok's defense.

Don't you design the Reebok shirts?

RIP MilesAbove - the first StitchDuran of the clothing industry and the first StitchDuran of MMA message boards!


Look out brother, they're coming for you!

His first fight ever was against the Red King when they were like 15 and 16

There we go. His career has been hell really, thinking about it, for such a young dude.

 

[trblesome1]

Nobody has retired and said it was because of pay though so there is no progress being made there

People retire very young from every sport, NFL had a few guys retire recently who were very young and good players too, it certainly wasn't because of pay some guys just really don't want to put their body through the punishment

Bisping sits there and bashes that guy for it on TV while one eye is looking at the camera and his other eye is pointed back towards England, enough said

 

[Kinku]

Nobody has retired and said it was because of pay though so there is no progress being made there

People retire very young from every sport, NFL had a few guys retire recently who were very young and good players too, it certainly wasn't because of pay some guys just really don't want to put their body through the punishment

Bisping sits there and bashes that guy for it on TV while one eye is looking at the camera and his other eye is pointed back towards England, enough said

If it was a about ufc pay or reebok deal they can say whatever they want now since they retire. Which they haven't so far

 

[Toxxus]

If it was a about ufc pay or reebok deal they can say whatever they want now since they retire. Which they haven't so far

These two guys didn't, but Schaub has already basically said if he ever fights again it'll be for the fans since the money is no longer there.

A couple guys have already headed over to Bellator and said they're getting paid better.

It's not exactly a mass exodus or anything, but the loss of sponsor money is a very real factor. Another factor is the roster being so bloated that guys can't even count on 2-3 fights a year.

We'll see more retirements and more guys heading to Bellator as their fight contracts expire. The Reebok deal is a poison pill.

 

[rjmbrd]

Nobody has retired and said it was because of pay though so there is no progress being made there

I can think of one example - John Cholish who was a Cornell grad that announced his retirement on twitter prior to his final UFC fight. He was 26 years old.

After he retired, he publicly lobbied for the UFC to increase fighter pay, and tried to raise awareness of how difficult the risk -vs- reward proposition is in the sport.

A pretty rare case for sure, but it happened. Most of the guys signed to the UFC don't have a high level education and job as an alternative, which means they don't have a voice.

 

[rjmbrd]

These two guys didn't, but Schaub has already basically said if he ever fights again it'll be for the fans since the money is no longer there.

.

Schaub is such a curious case. In almost any other scenario, Zuffa would drop the hammer. They are in a precarious situation with Schaub, because he has a platform.

It is incredibly ironic that his podcast didn't blow up until Joe Rogan told him to retire. I had no idea Schaub was doing a podcast for two years prior leading up to that point, now he's getting millions of downloads per month. Getting KO'd (and being friends with Joe Rogan) was the best thing to happen in his career.

So Zuffa can't cut him, because he'll go full YOLO. Meanwhile, he's gotten more and more comfortable taking shots at their missteps, especially Reebok.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[LongTermLurker]

Do you think he would be retiring if his pay was not cut by the Reebok deal?

Did he say money was a major factor (non-rhetorical question)? If not, maybe he can't remember things already and is worried about his life post fighting. Lots of reasons guys leave in/near their prime. A bunch of SF players in the NFL retired due to injury fears this off season. Pay was not an issue for them.