Why hasn’t anyone stood up to the UFC and its business

[Qays Stetkevich]

You dont hear Conor crying about the pay. Fighters need to learn how to promote themselves and stop whining.

Yes, more like WWE please!

 

[wwkirk]

Also would push hard for fighters to be considered independent contractors.

I don't get it. Isn't that their present status?

 

[Qays Stetkevich]

It seems like the guys that are actually draws get paid pretty well. The ones bitching about money are the ones people don't really care to watch. Turns out you get paid based on how many people care to see you fight. Just an observation.

If you make them nice money, you get a share of said nice money. Name value comes when people pay to see a card based on your name. If you don't have that, you can't expect to get rich off fighting. Just because the money is there doesn't mean you deserve a share of it. If it isn't coming in because of you, imo, you need to stfu and earn your name value. The money will come when people start paying to see you fight.

Or, you know, model other successful, traditional sports. Raise the tide, and even allow for mega yachts, but don't rationalize why you should only hand-pick a select few boats to lift up: that's horrible for long-term investments.

 

[MakeSherdogGreatAgain]

Or, you know, model other successful, traditional sports. Raise the tide, and even allow for mega yachts, but don't rationalize why you should only hand-pick a select few boats to lift up: that's horrible for long-term investments.

Most other traditional sports are team sports. You wouldn't win a super bowl with JUST a quarterback. They have to spread the money around.

Mma is an individual sport. It's up to you and you alone to build your name value and make yourself worth the big bucks. If you're boring and people don't care to watch you fight when the money is mostly based off ppv buys, you're not worth big money.

Traditional sports also have cable networks behind them. Their model isn't ppv based.

 

[AerialPingPong]

I'd pay not a single fighter more than 10k a fight.

Retired Joe Silva confirmed a Sherdogger
@The Chosen

 

[D'z]

I see shills(like you) on here all the time.

 

[Lee_]

You have a lot of optimism in the speed of the judiciary

It could end up taking longer, or there could be some sort of settlement sooner. The more important point is, that lawsuit is the most likely thing to change the UFC, even though it may stand only a medium chance of changing anything significant. The current situation is that the UFC has the sport by the balls; competition alone is unlikely to come along and take a bite out of it. The UFC has swallowed up every organization that tried in the end. B leagues like Bellator are not going to make a dent. They are all the fighters the UFC doesn't want to pay anymore, or doesn't yet want to invest in. There really isn't a very big talent pool for MMA compared to other sports, that's why these cards are always full of no names; not enough good fighters to fulfill the ESPN contract in terms of number of events.

 

[Equinox Shadow]

Seems like every thinks the UFC is bad. Pays fighters bad and needs to be changed. Why hasn’t anyone come along and taken them down yet? And what would YOU DO, if you had billions to “reinvent” the sport of mixed martial arts.
Go.

Pay fighters more $$$
Get rid of cage and bring back a Ring.
More rules like Pride had.
Implement doctor prescribed PEDs if fighters want to enhance and/or have access to recovery help drugs.
Less professional fighters and matches. Make it more difficult to make it to the elite level.

 

[chitoortiz]

Which part of the Ali Act worries you?

As a fan...the possibility of all the top fighters being spread out over multiple organizations is what worries me.

That we won't see as many top 5 matchups anymore.

Other than that I really have no worries. If the Ali Act comes in and the top fighters and still fighting the top fighters...then I'll all in.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

If I had billions to reinvent the sport, I'd make the sport a lot more similar to wrestling in how people qualify for top level competition, i.e. more region based rankings. Also would push hard for fighters to be considered independent contractors.

Fighters ARE independent contractors

 

[3rdAccount]

I always forget how big Cain is until I see him standing beside another fighter.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Seems like every thinks the UFC is bad.

Well, I think this is a solid example of oversimplification and of groupthink. "The UFC is bad" has been Sherdog orthodoxy for ten or fifteen years now. But far from everyone thinks that.

I think the UFC should increase fighter pay, but just saying they are bad as a blanket statement is pretty dumb for an MMA fan. Not only are they the most important driving force behind the growth of MMA worldwide, but they have also done more than any other group to incrementally raise fighter pay. It's not enough imo, but ignoring that they pay better than every other promotion is not a constructive position for critics.

 

[mangokush]

Instead of complaining on social media the fighters should go on strike and protest on the streets the attention alone from the mainstream media would be worth it.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

The WHOLE roster needs to act as one if they are truly interested in change. If they were to walk out and refuse to fight. The UFC just couldn’t go out and hire 600-700 scrubs to replace them. Nobody would pay to watch that. It’s really that simple. But the top guys are generally happy with their pay. And the bottom guys might think it too risky. Until the fighters actually act as one. There is very little hope for change.

Sad but true.

Barring actual legislation, of course.

Hasn’t every major North American pro sport had strikes, or lockouts? That’s how unions work. You strike until you feel you are being treated fairly. And though these leagues have even tried to hire scabs. It’s never worked for the owners in the long run.

The UFC could replace the entire roster and with the UFC's PR machine they wouldn't skip a beat. Stop and really think about it for a second. The public doesn't know who 90%+ of the roster is. You go outside your living situations and the first person you see ask them if they know who RDA, Cyril Gane, Frankie Edgar, Stephen Thompson or Anthony Smith is. You'd be lying if 2/10 people recognized 1 name let alone all of them.

The UFC is bigger then every fighter barring Conor McGregor and the UFC has lawyers to keep him in line.

 

[Baba Ghanoush]

This thing lost all its credibility the second Rebney was involved lol.

 

[blaseblah]

To change the UFC pay structure would require several of the top draws to come together and fight for a union. Jones could have helped do this when he was in his prime but he chose not to.

 

[Bubba32]

last year the highest earning athlete in all of sports was a ufc fighter (conor mcgregor). All the complaining about the ufc is just sour grape.

 

[Huligani]

Well there's that class action lawsuit.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

They did, but we just kept watching the ufc

 

[lsa]

They did, but we just kept watching the ufc

no regrets.