Pre-Reebok: Bigfoot gets a $126K car from outside sponsor. Reebok: Bigfoot gets $5K.

A shocking post by Lucifer Alpha that deserves its own thread.

Pre-Reebok: 'Bigfoot' Silva gifted $126,000 Maserati Gran Turismo by sponsor after Alistair Overeem knockout win at UFC 156

Reebok: Antonio Silva ($5,000)

Why should you, the MMA fan, care?

If you want MMA to attract the best athletes on earth, you should.

Right now, MMA remains a niche sport where part-time fighters (Carwin) and accountants with 4 years' training (Correia) can become title challengers. We want the best athletes to be able to dedicate their lives to the sport. No young, talented kid is going to take up a sport whose leading organization pays chump change. The kid is going to go do something else.

The greedy UFC is hogging the sponsorship money so that it can make money in the short term, while hurting the sport in the long term. Dana is doing the very thing that he accused boxing promoters of doing.






PS: Lots of UFC sockpuppets have been responding, so I summarize their replies, and my rebuttals, below.

1. But..but...the fighters can still get sponsors, just not for the fight itself!

The fight is the one time that all eyeballs are on a fighter. Do you seriously believe that a sponsor is going to pay real money for a fighter to talk up his product on twitter a few times or get his picture taken on instagram with it?

2. But...but...what about people like Sharapova, who gets sponsored by Tag even if she doesn't wear their watches to court?

Sharapova, Tiger Woods and athletes like them are very special cases because they are popular enough to be mobbed by paparazzi and have the spotlight on them even when they're not competing. There isn't a single UFC fighter that has the same kind of 24/7 media attention on their lives.

3. But..but...the NFL and other leagues have mandatory sponsored uniforms!

In these leagues, the apparel sponsor payouts were negotiated between the player's unions and management. In the UFC's case, the UFC arbitrarily decided to keep the lion's share for themselves and dole out the rest in pittances to the fighters.

4. But..but..the UFC is responsible for growing the sport, they invested all the money to publicize it and bring eyeballs on events. It's only fair that they should get the lion's share!

The fighters make an investment in each event as well - with literally their blood, sweat and tears. The fighters barter away their future well-being. In this "partnership," the UFC contributes money. The fighters contributes the years taken from their lives.

5. It's a free market. The fighters can go do something else if they want.

Right, It's a free market. So a future Jon Jones is going to go to football, not MMA, because this market pays chump change.

A future Rich Franklin is going to remain a math professor because it will pay steadier money, and this market pays chump change.

A future Shogun is going to play soccer instead, because this market pays chump change.

If you are a true fan, you want the greatest athletes in the world doing glorious combat, not being the best at shooting balls through hoops, or wasting their talent in some desk job.

To attract the greatest athletes, the sport has to make it worth their while.

They put themselves through inhumanly grueling training camps that would break 99.99% of human beings. They get their bones broken and their faces shattered. In this sport, the purest sport of all, the fighters embody the greatest virtues of humanity - bravery, courage, grace, and determination. To ask a human being to make that kind of sacrifice, that dedication, that commitment - you should pay him well.

 

Is normal

 

[YT]Ur4XJCm3deQ[/YT]

 

He doesn't get $5000 cash, he gets some of that in stylish Reebok apparel, you goof.

 

The frittata and Dana won't be here in the long term.

 

They've been there 15 years...

Bigfoot should speak up and talk about how much bullshit it is. I'm sure he won't get Stitched.

 

That's crazy and I think all MMA fans agree this Reebok deal is BS.

But receiving a Maserati as a gift is not typical. It would be more fair to compare a regular contractual sponsor payout than a gift given for a spectacular upset-win KO. I doubt Bigfoot would have been given a $126,000 car for this fight if the Reebok deal didn't exist.

But yeah, I hope some big name fighters boycott the Reebok deal or move to Bellator in protest

 

Dude a car is one thing but he might of been given a Conor McGregor fight kit. That shit is currency.

 

We want the best athletes to be able to dedicate their lives to MMA. I don't want to see part-time fighters (Carwin) and a former accountant who've been training for 4 years (Correia) challenge for the title again.

 

To be fair the discussion is pointless when it happened before the deal was in place.

 

To add insult to injury, Reebok don't even make shoes that fit Bigfeet.

 

If you read the article, it wasn't a "gift." It was an added incentive so that Bigfoot would agree to renew the contract with the outside sponsor, Sienna Motors.

Even assuming that these big payouts are only given for spectacular performances, the point is that Bigfoot no longer has the opportunity to earn them through such performances. Even if he were to send an opponent flying bodily out of the cage with an uppercut, he would get the same measly pocket change every time from the sponsor.

 

The UFC always hated how they weren't getting any of that sponsorship money from the fighters.

Then not too long ago (2013) the UFC started taxing sponsorship.

And now this Reebok deal, so sad.

 

But his earning potential is limitless if he sells enough kits!!















Ya goof

 

You are the one missing the point.

Before Reebok, the fighters could maximize their income from outside sponsors.

Under Reebok, a deal imposed without any consultation with fighters, the fighters now make peanuts.

In every single professional sport except the UFC, the top players make far more in sponsors than they do from actual winnings.

What this means for the UFC is that we will continue to get part-time fighters (Carwin) and accountants with 4 years' training (Correia) as title challengers.

 

And free Reebok merchandise!

 

the reebok deal wouldn't stop them giving him another car now, would it?

 

check
&
mate.





watch the zuffa haters ignore this flawless logic!

 

Well he technically can still be sponsored by other companies. NFL and NBA players must wear uniforms but can still appear in TV commercials and what not.

At the end of the day the UFC is paying him to fight, and they pay for the cameras that gave his old sponsors advertising, so it's tough, but if he wants another Maserati he can save up and buy it or find a higher paying job just like you and I.

 

He gets Reebok wrist bands too you goof.