Heavyweight Shawn Jordan is currently a free agent, and he wants to get the money he thinks he deserves or he could just leave the sport altogether.
If you follow the heavyweight division closely at all, you likely know the name Shawn Jordan. While he hasn’t ventured into the upper echelon of the UFC’s biggest division, he has consistently put on exciting fights during his time there and has won some performance bonus money in the process.
But now he’s a free agent, and he wants the type of money he thinks he deserves, or he could just give up on the sport of MMA. He spoke to MMA Fighting about what he wants and what other options he has:
“I prefer to fight and make money, but I graduated from college. I have degrees. I can go to work tomorrow and get a job.”
He does know that the outcome of his last fight, a dull loss to Ruslan Magomedov in October, hurt his negotiating power with the UFC though:
“Had I come out with a win there, the negotiating power would be in my court. Since I lost, then they can bully me around. But that’s fine. I’ll sit around and wait.”
The sitting around and waiting part refers to the UFC’s matching clause in his contract, which lasts for a year according to him. That means what it sounds like – that if he is offered a contract by a different promotion, the UFC has the right to match it to keep his services.
In terms of money, he seems like a little frustrated with the fact that uber-prospect Sage Northcutt is making so much money already:
“Nothing against him, but he comes with his second fight in the UFC and they give him 40 and 40,” Jordan said. “They don’t pay half the veterans that.”
Like heavyweights Alistair Overeem and Matt Mitrione, along with guys like Ben Henderson, he decided that going to free agency was the only real leverage he had left. The lack of a union doesn’t help:
“It’s one of those things you have to kind of suck it up and let them use you up,” Jordan said. “It gets a little frustrating. Guys are fighting their contracts out in order to get competitive [offers]. At some point, there’s gotta be a fighter union.”
Jordan (18-7) went 6-4 in 10 UFC fights, with only two going to decision. His six TKO wins and three performance bonuses place him in the higher end of UFC heavyweights in those categories. Will the promotion end up paying him what he wants, or will he move onto greener pastures? It may take him a while to find out.