June - 2015
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
42
money work harder instead of
asking for hand me outs.” The
only problem is, working hard-
er won’t get you all that much
more. Yes, you have to keep
winning, so in that sense, work
hard — but it could take years
for some fighters just to get
back to where they were. Re-
member, this is a cultural shift
for the UFC. They’re asking
fighters to switch from scraping
together their own sponsors,
to taking only the scraps that
are given, and for many, going
it on their own may have been
better than the alternative. The
grass is always greener, right?
Only in this case, it wasn’t.
Aside from Schaub, Matt Mi-
trione has come out strongly
against the deal. “Congrats
@Reebok, you got the deal of
the century. Unfortunately, it
was at the cost of the fighters.
Hope the bad press is worth
it.” Tim Kennedy is another.
Kennedy, who has spoken out
about fighter pay in the UFC be-
fore, stating in the past that he
could earn as much working as
a garbage man, tweeted in the
UFC’s direction “Am I to un-
derstand that for my exclusive
apparel sponsorship I’ll make
$2,500? I’ll pass. Thanks for
the generous offer. #reebok”
before adding a second tweet
that was even more telling. Di-
rected at Bellator MMA CEO
Scott Coker, Kennedy sent out
“Hey Scott, miss your face.”
Kennedy, of course, worked
under the Strikeforce banner
for Coker. And while he would
technically make more than
$2,500 under the Reebok deal
based on his number of fights
(he’d be in the $5,000 tier at
first glance), the message is
clear: Bellator, who have been
steadfast in their refusal to in-
terfere with fighters obtaining
sponsorships, suddenly looks
like the better option.
A lot of this goes back to fight
culture, and the idea of pro-
moters vs. leagues. Few pro-
fessional sporting leagues have
sponsors, other than official
ones. Zuffa, and the UFC, want
to position the promotion as a
league, without the pesky issue
of a fighter’s union. Yet tradi-
tionally, fighters have been
able to be sponsored, more or
less, by who they choose (de-
pendent upon UFC sponsor tax
rules). This is a major change,
and apparently not a popular
one. While a guy like Scott Jor-
gensen is thrilled, and rightful-
ly so, he’s in the minority with
over twenty fights.
There is another section of
the UFC payroll that likely will
benefit from the Reebok deal:
new fighters just entering into
the promotion, who would
have had to hustle and bustle
to secure sponsors with little
to no name recognition, and
who now get an easy $2,500.
Champions and big names will
also come out fine thanks to
deals like that of VanZant and
the higher pay for champions
and challengers.
The critical demographic? At
risk, if you’re the UFC? That’s
the mid-card, outer top ten
and top fifteen guys. And that’s
where Bellator could win out.
Phil Davis already jumped ship,
opting to sign with Bellator
when his UFC contract expired.
While it doesn’t seem like the
UFC went out of their way to
re-sign him and don’t appear
to be matching Bellator, make
no mistake, they did make an
offer. Now, Davis is free to sign
whatever sponsorship deals
he wants, and other fight-
ers left out in the cold by this
deal may see that, and make
the jump. Especially those who
were making more money off
sponsorships than fight purses.
What about a Myles Jury, who
has a bit of a personal beef
with Reebok, who he was pre-
viously in negotiations with to
secure a direct sponsorship?
Guys like Mitrione, Kennedy,
and Schaub, all of whom have
enough of a name to draw rat-
ings in Bellator, and could ben-
efit from exposure on Spike
TV?
While the UFC isn’t at risk of
losing all its talent overnight, it
wouldn’t be surprising to see
some defections moving for-
ward, so in the end, Bellator
wins, and as for fighters, it’s
tough to say who got the bet-
ter deal — unless you’re one of
those looking at a massive pay
cut. Then it’s pretty clear.
