Ed Ruth isn’t just an athlete. He’s one of the most accomplished active wrestlers in the western world today. As a four-time NCAA Division I All-American, three-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion and 2016 Olympic hopeful, he is a rare pro-ready option for high-level mixed martial arts and can be expected to have at least a fair degree of success against solid competition on Day 1.
Ruth is the kind of fighter MMA promotions traditionally trip over themselves to pursue and the kind of fighter any organization would be lucky to have. And on Monday, he likely became the first of many to openly pass on the opportunity to join the UFC because of the Reebok deal.
For those who missed it, the UFC has established a new uniform policy, which will go into effect in July. The deal, as it stands today, will require fighters to exclusively wear Reebok apparel during virtually all event-related functions including weigh-ins, the taping of promotional material and fight night. It disallows any outside sponsors and bars them from being displayed, be it on shirts, banners or trunks.
In return, the majority of fighters are given a fixed amount of money, between $2,500 and $20,000, on a per-fight basis, determined by their total number of fights under the Zuffa umbrella. Champions receive $40,000 per fight, title contenders receive $30,000 and individually sponsored fighters like Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Anthony Pettis receive an undisclosed amount.
The payouts, by and large, are substantially lower than what fighters are currently making, which has caused a great deal of tension over the last two weeks.
For Ruth, who would have landed in the bottom tier for his first five fights, that $2,500 ceiling was a deal-breaker. Via his interview with Bleacher Report’s Scott Harris:
As much work as I want to put in and the number of people I want to reach, I felt I could do that best right now in Bellator. I don’t really understand the tier system [of the UFC-Reebok deal], but for so many people to be so upset, it just seemed like it wouldn’t be a great beginning for me…In Bellator, I can select my own sponsors.
In a vacuum, Ruth joining Bellator wouldn‘t be particularly noteworthy, and he fits the same mold as Michael Chandler, Joe Warren and Ben Askren.
Needless to say, the signing didn’t occur in a vacuum. It happened in an MMA landscape where a record number of UFC fighters are lashing out against their employer. Top-10 light heavyweight Phil Davis up and left, and another uber prospect, Aaron Pico, chose to sign on with Bellator.
While neither Davis nor Pico have discussed the Reebok deal, it’s hard not to connect the dots. The same goes for the sudden uptick of call-outs from high-ranked fighters in the UFC and the never-before-seen glut of talent outside of it.
It isn’t just hot prospects and its own talent that the UFC will have trouble locking down, either. Just as importantly, the UFC’s days of overpowering rival promotions for free agents are likely done.
Fighters like Carla Esparza, Jan Blachowicz and Eddie Alvarez were all champions in other organizations, but joined the UFC only to be immediately buried in the bottom Reebok bracket because they hadn’t been fighting under the Zuffa umbrella, and the whole world has likely noticed.
The UFC’s ability to cull talent from other promotions has been slipping for years now, and fighters like Bibiano Fernandes, Mamed Khalidov and Shinya Aoki slipped through its fingers even before it started cutting off revenue streams for its fighters. Now, it feels unlikely that the UFC would be able to pull off the power plays it once made to add top-notch free agents like Hector Lombard and Jake Shields.
As it stands, the UFC’s new uniform policy is poised to alienate a huge portion of the current pool of MMA talent, in and out of the organization. Whether or not it tries to remedy that, or whether it chooses to simply look to build a promotion around a handful of its biggest names could be the story that defines the UFC in 2015.
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