Episode 31 discussion: John Nash stops in to discuss Luke Rockhold’s fighter pay comments, how athletes can get leverage, ONE Championship finance, bonus content on the death of movie theaters.

Welcome to Crooklyn’s Corner, the podcast that’s basically a hodgepodge of topics focused on the combat sports and entertainment community. The show will feature special interviews, fantasy matchmaking/analysis and whatever else we can come up with to keep our listeners steeped in fresh and engaging content. The show is hosted by Stephie Haynes and airs when needed to fill gaps in our Bloody Elbow Presents podcast network.

June M. Williams

Here is a summary of the topics discussed or questions asked. Time stamps won’t always be available as our conversations tend to be very fluid and bounce back & forth frequently. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as we enjoyed recording it.

EPISODE 31

• Fighter pay has been the hottest topic over the last two weeks because of Luke Rockhold going full scorched earth with the UFC and Dana. Give your thoughts on what Luke said, especially the part where he mentioned Dana basically being given the reins to run the UFC however he sees fit.
• We’ve spoken on this before but Luke Rockhold’s comments still raise the theory that things were so much better for the fighters under the Fertittas. Were they or is that a bunch of smoke and mirrors?
• Luke mentioned leverage and how the UFC has it all. How can the fighters get leverage outside of some sort of solidarity movement/strike etc? Are there other things they can do to leverage themselves, and I’m talking about fighters from the entry level floor all the way to champion level.
• Ariel recently had Sean O’Malley on and you just can’t watch that interview without coming away thinking Sean has done a complete 180. I saw on your timeline you agreed with some things Ariel was saying. Would you elaborate a bit for our listeners on the parts you agree with and your take on O’Malley’s comments.
• Paulo Costa says he only made $35K for the Vettori fight. I was absolutely aghast when I saw that. Paulo is 11-2 and has been in a title fight. How in the world does something like this happen?
• You’ve had the opportunity to look at several UFC contracts. Do they all have escalators built in? Like is that a standard for all contracts or just for the ones savvy enough to ask for it?
• The infamous Dana White vs. MMA Media went back up recently and I saw a comment you made that said there was no mention of fighters having to waive gross negligence on the UFC’s part before they could return to the octagon. Please elaborate on that.
• Another topic that’s been on fire is interim titles. Give your take on whether they’re a good thing, a bad one, or maybe a little bit of both.
• What’s your take on James Krause doing an official UFC betting show while actively training fighters?
• One Championship made its debut tonight on Amazon Prime. I couldn’t help but notice that there wasn’t a hashtag trend big enough to even show up in sports trends, much less the main portion of Twitter. Is that indicative of anything, or am I reading too much into that?
• I saw that they recently moved all their shares to a Grand Cayman Islands entity, essentially re-domiciling there. Please explain what re-domiciling means and why this is sort of a big deal.
• Oleksandr Usyk is on track to be the highest boxing earner this year. How did he manage that?
• Deontay Wilder said that boxing isn’t really a sport, it’s just a business. Would you agree with his assessment?
• It’s almost a forgone conclusion that Saudi Arabia will get Fury-Usyk. Is there a real gain for them to continue dumping massive money towards sportswashing?

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