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News UFC Dana White are SAVAGES (Sunset Clause)

I’m not reading all that. I’m just gonna sssume jon Jones snorted an 8ball and powerbomed a disabled, pregnant woman down a flight of stairs. Give me a like if I’m right please.
 
Such shady tactics from the UFC. Making me lose respect for them.

If you are the best and most highest paying promotion fighters naturally would want to be loyal and remain with you.

First they took away sponsorships and now they trying to tie you in for years longer than your contracted length. You essentially cannot wait out your contract anymore. They can keep extending and keep you locked in.

This should be illegal.
 
Morning Star said:
There should be no such thing as a sunset clause let alone being able to extend it with any flimsy excuse. UFC is an extortion racket. Honestly hope the fighters get paid the fuck out and those who want it can void their shitty contracts.
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The sunset clause is the only reason Ngannou was able to get out his contract. It says that after 5 years the contract is over, no exceptions. The issue is that the UFC is trying to change it to prevent fighters from doing what he did.

Ideally you wouldn't need a sunset clause but under the current contract it's the only thing they have to get out.
 
blaseblase said:
The sunset clause is the only reason Ngannou was able to get out his contract. It says that after 5 years the contract is over, no exceptions. The issue is that the UFC is trying to change it to prevent fighters from doing what he did.

Ideally you wouldn't need a sunset clause but under the current contract it's the only thing they have to get out.
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Ngannou's case i think still beats whatever change they seem to have added to it, he had no fights left, this would prevent fighters on a 1-2 fights left with the UFC but on the brink of a payday outside so they seem viable to just wait for their contract to expire so they dont have to fight and just wait while declining on legit fight offers, Nate Diaz probably was in this case so he just said fuck it and took the Chimaev fight to be done with the UFC. Its all shady tactics, if a fighter signs for 5 years, its 5 years unless some form of suspension stops fighter from competing for a long time, thats on the fighter, extending a contract on injury seems unfair imo.
 
I do think Jones fucked up if money is the most important thing to him. He has a fight with Stipe, which is presumably his last fight since he doesn't want to fight the younger guys.

So yeah, if he had been able to get out of his contract he could have fought Ngannou or boxed, both of which would have earned him more than the Stipe fight. He's locked in now. Only way he gets another big payday is if Dana lets him box but he will have to split profits with the UFC.
 
Jason7227 said:
https://bloodyelbow.com/2023/11/01/ufc-using-francis-ngannou-to-help-case/

New contract change allows UFC to ‘pause’ sunset clauses

John Nash explains the brand new changes to the sunset clause in UFC contracts and why Jon Jones might have lost out on a generational wealth payday against Francis Ngannou.
Similarly, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou, who PFL signed in May 2023, indicated in the press that PFL offered him more compensation than any other competitor MMA promotion, including UFC. Moreover, it has increasingly drawn athletes away from UFC directly rebutting Plaintiffs’ theory that “elite” MMA athletes would not be willing to leave UFC for competitors. If plaintiff’s allegation in this case and Johnson regarding allegedly exclusionary contracts were correct, UFC fighters would not be signing contracts with competitors.”

*Note: The “Johnson” they refer to is the second antitrust case that Kajan Johnson, C.B. Dollaway, et al launched to cover contract dates that were effective after July 1, 2017.

That’s their argument and it basically means if the UFC had an exclusionary contract and were a monopsony, their fighters couldn’t go and sign contracts with the competitors. Nash figures this could be a stalling tactic by the promotion:


“It just strikes me as an attempt that if the appeal process fails, if the appeal isn’t picked up by the Ninth Circuit, they’re trying to delay the case even longer. I thought it was well written, but if you follow the business, if you follow MMA, the arguments they make don’t quite line up with the reality of how the business, the state of the industry is actually like.”

Brand new change to the sunset clause to prevent another Francis Ngannou
It’s important to remember that Francis Ngannou was able to leave the company by waiting out the sunset clause in his contract. That sunset clause was introduced as a response to the Le et al. v Zuffa antitrust lawsuit and ensured that the promotion couldn’t continuously extend the terms of fighter contracts indefinitely, capping those terms at the five year mark. Before 2017, it did not exist.

Since its inception, the clause has undergone changes, and most recently, a significant change all but ensures the contracted fighter cannot just wait out the length of their contract for release. Nash provides some information and context to the new adjustment:


“The first set of changes to the clause was noted when Taila Santos’ contract was made public after it appeared in an unrelated court case. Two alterations were clear:




    • The five year sunset provision would now kick in on the date of the first fight on the contract, rather than the previous iteration where it began the day you singed the contract
    • The contract could be ‘paused’ in cases of suspension (could possibly include medical suspensions)
A further change has appeared in the newest contracts Nash has been made privy to, as well:

“On top of those changes, a brand new one is here, and it’s even more restrictive. Basically, what it says is that if you turn down fights and the UFC doesn’t think you have a legitimate enough reason to turn down said fights, they can again pause the five year period. Let’s say it’s the third year of a fighter’s contract and they decide, ‘You know what, I don’t like what I’m being offered, I’m just going to wait out my contract’. Well, the UFC can say that you are refusing to take a legitimate offer, and that five year period will be paused. So it ruins the whole purpose of a sunset clause.”

and Francis Ngannou talks were in the earliest stages a few years ago, Dana White was quick to throw Jones under the bus for asking for an “absurd amount of money” to fight the Cameroonian. Ngannou would champion Jonny’s cause, though, echoing the need for a purse bump for the superfight.

champion of the world and took him to a contested split decision where many thought he won. Jon Jones, by comparison, signed another restrictive contract and locked himself out of the biggest fight MMA—maybe even all combat sports—has to offer.

Nash figures the odds of that superfight happening are between none and a snowball’s chance in the hot place:

“They’d have to co-promote with PFL. That’s never going to happen. They will never co-promote. The next step would be if Ngannou somehow get out of his PFL contract in a reasonable time and then with the UFC, he’s going to want something akin to what he’s making in boxing, right? That might be too much for the UFC to give him because they don’t want to break their business model other step would be for Jon Jones to get out of his contract. The problem is, he just re-signed. My understanding is he probably had a sunset clause and could have waited until next year, been out of that contract, and then fought Ngannou. Everybody I’ve talked to in the industry, they all say that fight is huge. It’d be huge even outside the UFC because of the interest level in it.

If someone fumbled a bag, it might be Jon Jones, because if that fight sells as much as people think, like 1.5 million buys, 1.6, just a huge number of buys that people think it would do, like one of the biggest MMA fights, perhaps the biggest ever, he would have not only doubled what he’s making with the UFC, but quadrupled what they’re paying him. So, he lost out on a generational wealth match and possibly a rematch if they wanted to do it again.”
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FFS I'm a busy man, I'm not reading all that!
 
TLDR;

Jon Dwight Jones dropped the ball, for over 3 years,
and is still fuckin' up ... by staying with the UFC.

<WellThere>
 
So do these changes to the sunset clause apply to existing contracts or is it just on new contracts?

You should not be able to pause a sunset clause indefinitely especially for turning down fights. That defeats the purpose of the clause.
 
ThePimblettEra said:
Brb in about 10 years while I read through all this.
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Took me about 5 minutes to read and interpret (maybe I'm gifted or something). If you take the time, the article gives a lot of insight on just how shitty the UFC, Dana White, Fertitas etc., can be. Not only that but the few obscure names involved in the initial case along with Francis Ngannou show that there is merit in fighting for yourself even if you are a nobody.
 
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So basically there's a limit to the period of time the UFC can hold fighters to their contracts. But also, the UFC wants to be able to pause that period at any point for little to no good reason.
 
The UFC can get out of the contract whenever they wants , or maintain it as long as they want.

The fighter can never decide when the contract ends, and if he tries to wait it out, the UFC will destroy years of their career and only releases them when their stock is at the lowest.

That's slavery.
 
Josh Nash has always been retarded, but he's never said anything as retarded as saying Jon vs Ngannou would've done 1.6M PPV buys.

Jesus Christ.
 
I'm fine with these changes. Fighting out your contract like Francis did is one thing and is perfectly acceptable. He signed for X fights and delivered them, then left once he could with the expiration of the clause in his contract. Perfectly fine.

Refusing fights you still have on your contract is another thing entirely. You still owe the UFC fights, why would you be allowed to refuse them and get off scott free? You're occupying a spot on their roster and benefits without benefitting them. It's one thing to not like a fight and propose other reasonable ones you'll do instead, and very different than just refusing all fights in general.

If anything I'd be harsher and would implement fines or sanctions for fighters trying to do this.
 
dana might just buy them a lambo or ferrari under the table tho
 
makes sense to pause it with injury time off

otherwise fighters will take advantage of that
 
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