It appears Tim Kennedy had a change of heart.
Earlier this week, the former Strikeforce title contender and soon-to-be UFC fighter slammed the UFC for its pay scale.
Now, in a statement obtained by Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting (via Shaun Al-Shatti), Kennedy is backtracking on his earlier comments, saying they were “not properly informed.”
I recently made comments regarding fighter pay. The intent of these statements was to highlight that professional fighters incur significant expense associated with their preparations to fight and that fighter compensation is still not on par with other major sports. While I am fortunate to have various revenue streams associated with my business interests, most fighters do not have that luxury. When you spend training camps with great guys with amazing talents and you see them barely making ends meet, while simultaneously seeing athletes in other sports with far less character and a far smaller work ethic making exponentially more, you can get frustrated.
Kennedy would then go on to praise Zuffa and give the typical, “my quotes were taken out of context” line that we’ve seen so many times before.
Unfortunately, I made statements that alluded to how the UFC in particular pays its athletes. This was particularly offensive as Zuffa has taken better care of me than any other organization, even giving me a bonus for being amusing on Twitter. My choice of words was poor, not properly informed, and did not match my intent. Additionally, my comments were taken out of context. I can tell you that I have been fighting longer than most people and I remember all too well the days when there was no regulation or standard for an MMA promotion. I fought many times in Mexico where the rules were negligible, there were no physicals, and being paid was a luxury we didn’t expect. Our sport was shunned and was considered ‘human cockfighting.’ Today, we are on Fox. We have doctors and insurance. We make more money than the average American. And we get these things by playing a sport we love. The only reason this is possible is because of Zuffa. They have legitimized the sport and taken better care of the athletes than any other organization, and the trend is only improving, with athletes making three times what they made on average five years ago.
Kennedy finished by apologizing directly to Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and Joe Silva for his comments.
This is basically a public relations rescue attempt by Kennedy. His initial breakdown of how his expenses are laid out drew quite a bit of criticism from fans and surely didn’t help his standing with his new employers.
Kennedy hasn’t even fought for the UFC yet and is already making himself look bad not only to fans but also to the UFC brass. I understand where he’s coming from; fighters do make tremendous sacrifices to perfect their craft, but it’s something that comes with the territory.
Everyone knows what they’re getting themselves into when competing in MMA. There isn’t a lot of money to be made and for a guy making $50,000 for his first UFC fight, it would seem Kennedy doesn’t have a lot of room to complain.
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