Media The UFC's "Opportunity" Re-evaluated by Gray Maynard

[LincolnHawk1]

I was on Max's website last night. He seems to be stepping up his merch designs. I think I might buy something from there.

Max has a lot of cool new merch for sure. I like a lot of the new t shirts on there.

 

[rjmbrd]

Nothing will change unless it's court ordered.

Bullshit.

Broadly bad publicity has already influenced things, the more it heats up the more pressure will be applied.

1,000 threads won't make a difference either way.

Big disagree. Virtually every day someone on here gets educated about how bad the fighter split of revenue is. There are lots of paying customers who have no idea where their money is actually going until the read it here or on an MMA media site.

The class action would never have happened if it weren't for the publicity it could generate. Continuing publicity is what makes the process honest. The spotlight is a big part of how this all works.

 

[avenue94]

That's a very valid point Conor raising the ceiling, but then again, most fighters aren't willingly going to get that opportunity. Then again, the UFC isn't all that transparent with what they pay. A lot of it is speculation.

Yeah they won't, but practically speaking, increasing fighter wagers has to come top down. Not because trickle down economics, but more just lower tier fighters are so interchangeable and don't generate revenue individually. Best you can do is just shorten contracts and allow more free agency access and movement up and down the rankings (and pay) ladder.

 

[rjmbrd]

I don't want to sound ridiculous... but isn't that the purpose of every job in the entire world? Bezos is worth billions... his 100K employees aren't rich... Bill Gates is worth billions... his whatever ex employees aren't rich... so on... so forth... etc... etc... this is just bitching about capitalism... its better than socialism... at least with capitalism I can be wealthy from hard work...

The UFC has gone to extraordinary lengths to classify fighters as independent contractors. They are specifically NOT employees and cannot be compared to Amazon or any other companies employees.

Full time employees at Microsoft get health benefits, PTO, bonuses and stock options as part of a comprehensive compensation package.

The UFC has these guys exchanging brain damage for 18% of the money they generate. They get none of the benefits of being an employee but with a ton of restrictions.

 

[avenue94]

Idk if that is true... did this ppv sell?

A so-so selling PPV that does 500k views is still more than $25 million in UFC revenue. People have been so conditioned by PPV points that they don't understand how lucrative events are with just gate and a few hundred thousand PPV buys.

 

[neandertal]

How nice of the 5+ billion dollar company.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Max has a lot of cool new merch for sure. I like a lot of the new t shirts on there.

I thought it was a big step up from his initial run. The "Daddest Man on the Planet" grill set gave me a good laugh.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Bullshit.

Broadly bad publicity has already influenced things, the more it heats up the more pressure will be applied.



Big disagree. Virtually every day someone on here gets educated about how bad the fighter split of revenue is. There are lots of paying customers who have no idea where their money is actually going until the read it here or on an MMA media site.

The class action would never have happened if it weren't for the publicity it could generate. Continuing publicity is what makes the process honest. The spotlight is a big part of how this all works.

Just from the perspective of the forum, I think about 95% of this forum is aware of the fighter pay issues. I still think it's going to take a lot more than threads on the Dawg to provoke any change but I'll happily be wrong.

 

[C0NCH3TO]

Maynard wished me a happy bday years ago. All the best to the man….

 

[Sausage_Carius]

I was on Max's website last night. He seems to be stepping up his merch designs. I think I might buy something from there.

Fighters need to hire talented artists to make kick ass logos and get that shit on t-shirts/hoodies. Some of them are ok but so many are just sad or non-existent.

Don't know how the market works for artists. Would fighters need to pay them a % of their merch for the design? No clue but that might explain why they have shitty designs.

 

[LincolnHawk1]

Just from the perspective of the forum, I think about 95% of this forum is aware of the fighter pay issues. I still think it's going to take a lot more than threads on the Dawg to provoke any change but I'll happily be wrong.

That’s why when people shitting on jake Paul (and I get it he is a YouTube kook trying to attack our sport) , but he had a point and seems to legit care about mma fighters pay. He has spoken out on it many times. He is bringing attention to it. I think the majority hopes the fighters start getting paid like they should. Especially since we all know most of them are going to have major health problems down the road from being mma fighters.

 

[froggyluv]

Bullshit.

Broadly bad publicity has already influenced things, the more it heats up the more pressure will be applied.



Big disagree. Virtually every day someone on here gets educated about how bad the fighter split of revenue is. There are lots of paying customers who have no idea where their money is actually going until the read it here or on an MMA media site.

The class action would never have happened if it weren't for the publicity it could generate. Continuing publicity is what makes the process honest. The spotlight is a big part of how this all works.

This. Theres no question this issue is snow balling and aint going away - with the fighters all behind it -why would it? And now they are in a quandary because ESPN, the premiere Sports NEws outlet and part owner of UFC -must report on their own story -ahahaha!

Anyone who thought this was just a little Jake Paul media stunt was dead wrong- its only gotten bigger and worse -with even the great BaldyLocks MIA from his own major Event . The HW belt..unreal

 

[rjmbrd]

Just from the perspective of the forum, I think about 95% of this forum is aware of the fighter pay issues. I still think it's going to take a lot more than threads on the Dawg to provoke any change but I'll happily be wrong.

You just made a wild assumption based on ... your own personal whimsical fancy.

OK if thats how you are organizing your thoughts, go for it.

 

[Substance Abuse]

You just made a wild assumption based on ... your own personal whimsical fancy.

OK if thats how you are organizing your thoughts, go for it.

Well, that's dramatic, lol.

 

[rjmbrd]

This. Theres no question this issue is snow balling and aint going away - with the fighters all behind it -why would it? And now they are in a quandary because ESPN, the premiere Sports NEws outlet and part owner of UFC -must report on their own story -ahahaha!

Anyone who thought this was just a little Jake Paul media stunt was dead wrong- its only gotten bigger and worse -with even the great BaldyLocks MIA from his own major Event . The HW belt..unreal

It is common sense the story is starting to snowball, just look at the media coverage and overall discussion taking place across multiple mediums.

This is also the backdrop to an on going class action, you get bet the farm the media attention helps keep the process fair. The judge can't afford to make questionable rulings without open scrutiny of it. Completely changes the paradigm.

 

[Volador]

IMO the best solution is a player's association, like other sports have. They just need to band together, get someone to put their balls on the table, hire a good lawyer, and figure that shit out. Organize collectively and start making demands as a group. Basic things like being able to wear their own sponsors would be huge, even if salaries stayed the same. Individually they have no leverage, but if a group of influential fighters bands together I believe they would. The UFC would be trash without 4 or 5 of its big champions + 4 or 5 big names, I don't think it would take much of the roster to make some noise. Take away the top 3-4 guys in each division and they're basically Bellator, and I'm pretty sure sales would plummet and Daner would panic.

Not sure about the practical, concrete aspects of how the whole thing could be established. The tough thing is no one wants to give up their spot to benefit the next generation of guys, that's the tricky part.

 

[Kryptt]

Grab yer flags and go...

You wont and threads on a vestige of the past forum wont do shit either.

But keep at it...

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Respectfully, you're seeing the change happen. You're just assuming the status quo will remain, somehow.

You're a fantastic mod on a forum I've grown in love with, but this "nothing will change unless it's court ordered" is wrong.

They've just lost their top fighter, the most marketable guy in the company's historic heavyweight division, to boxing.

I know these threads will probably get merged into a super thread, but that would be sad.

I legitimately think this forum can play it's part.

Brock is the most marketable guy the UFC HW division has ever seen. they didn't lose Ngannou to boxing, they lost him for 1 super fight, if that even happens, and that's it.

where is this change we're seeing happening? fighters have been griping about pay for years.

 

[Dreyga Hates You Sherbums]

I think the Ali act is the only thing that will instill immediate change. If not, it will take a long time for things to open up. Yes, there will be one offs like Conor/Floyd but until the UFC is made to change, the percentage of income the fighters will receive may only change minimally. Bellator and ONE don't have the money to play the long game and change everything as an alternative.

Now, any movement forward is positive, but MMA fighters have proven that they will not bite the hand that feeds them and almost refuse to group together.

Have you read the Ali Act? It was written to issues very specific to boxing. It doesn’t really apply to MMA. This sport would need entirely different legislation to fix entirely different issues.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

IMO the best solution is a player's association, like other sports have. They just need to band together...

and that's where your solution fails. they never will, it's not like all of a sudden in 2022 the fighters realized how UFC's business model works. it's been like this for decades and still, new fighters sign every single time.