Last week former Bellator President and CEO Bjorn Rebney and five of the UFC’s biggest stars in mixed martial arts (MMA) today, including No. 5-ranked welterweight Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, announced the formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA), in effort to fight for better working conditions for fighters in the UFC. The announcement comes
Last week former Bellator President and CEO Bjorn Rebney and five of the UFC’s biggest stars in mixed martial arts (MMA) today, including No. 5-ranked welterweight Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, announced the formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA), in effort to fight for better working conditions for fighters in the UFC.
The announcement comes at the horizon of ‘Cowboy’s’ scheduled meeting with Matt Brown at this weekend’s (Saturday December 10, 2016) UFC 206 pay-per-view (PPV) event from Toronto, as Cerrone is on an impressive three-fight finishing streak since making the jump up to 170 pounds.
During a recent media scrum after the open workouts at Massey Hall earlier today (Wednesday December 7, 2016), courtesy of MMA Fighting, Cerrone stated that he didn’t know he was sitting on a board when he accepted the invitation from Georges St-Pierre and Tim Kennedy to be a part of the MMAAA:
“As far as the Association goes man, Georges [St-Pierre] and Tim [Kennedy] called me and asked me to be part of it,” Cerrone said. “I didn’t know I was sitting on a board. That kind of took me by surprise, sitting there like, oh wow. I spoke to Dana [White] today on the phone. He’s coming to town, and we’re going to go out to dinner and talk. There’s a lot of things I think this sport needs, you know, retirement pension, health care, things I think we need.”
Cerrone still plans to stand beside his MMAAA brethren and fight for better work accommodations from the UFC such as health care and retirement pension. Despite this, ‘Cowboy’ claims that he and the UFC’s relationship is still a great one and that he is on good terms with UFC President Dana White who he revealed at one point paid for ‘the best lawyers you can pay’ and got him out of a ‘bind’ he found himself in:
“I wasn’t sitting there saying, ‘we’re moving forward today, we’re going on strike, we need more money,” he said. “That wasn’t coming out of mouth at all. There were a couple of people that were there that I don’t plan on working with and being a part of, not mentioning any names. I was there mostly just, not saying I’m leading a board or I’m sitting on a board, but more voicing my opinion of what this sport needs.
“Moving forward, I’m still going to stand strong with those and say this is what I believe we need. I believe as a whole we need health care, we need some kind of pension for retirement. The UFC has been nothing but great to me. I can’t complain, they give me what I want. And like Dana said, I called him and he helped me out. That’s true, man. I was in a bind, he got the best lawyers you can pay, and saved my ass.”
‘Cowboy’ says he has spoken to White since the announcement of the MMAAA was made public, and that the UFC President wishes he would have called him first instead of being ‘back-handed in the face’ by the announcement out of left field:
“He said, listen kid, you can do anything you want. We have a good relationship him and I, and he’s right I probably should have called him and said, ‘hey man, I’m going to do this,’ instead of getting back-handed in the face.”
For now Cerrone’s focus will be set on Brown for their co-main event collision this weekend, which could have title implications if the dominoes fall down correctly, and will resume his fight alongside the MMAAA afterwards.
Cerrone and Brown will meet in the co-main event of UFC 206 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada this Saturday (December 10, 2016).
While the UFC recently released a statement on the formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association, UFC President Dana White has remained relatively quiet on the news up until now. In an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (via MMA Mania), however, White opened up about the formation of the association, which is led
While the UFC recently released a statement on the formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association, UFC President Dana White has remained relatively quiet on the news up until now.
In an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (via MMA Mania), however, White opened up about the formation of the association, which is led by former Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney as well as Georges St. Pierre, Tim Kennedy, Donald Cerrone, TJ Dillashaw and Cain Velasquez:
“The only thing that I need to know is that the biggest scumbag in the history of combat sports, Bjork, is involved in this thing,” he said. “Listen, there are three unions out there right now battling against each other. And, if you’re a fighter, all these guys are looking to get in your pocket — it’s a business where guys are going to make money. As a fighter, if this is what you want to do, you need to figure our whose hand you want in your pocket. And I guarantee you don’t want Bjork’s hand in your pocket.”
While White clearly isn’t a big fan of Rebney, he said that he wasn’t necessarily mad at the fighters on the board, although he was a bit surprised at “Cowboy’s” presence within the group considering he supposedly helped Cerrone out when he was in a legal bind a few years back:
“I’m not mad at all [at the fighters],” he said. “At the end of the day here is the reality: The fighters can go out and do what they want to do — they are all grown men. We all have paths to walk down in life and this is what these guys [decided to to].”
“I was shocked that [Donald] Cerrone didn’t give me a call,” White said. “He has headlined three [UFC events]. Never held a title in WEC or UFC. And, a couple of years ago, he was on his boat and gets into a beef with a guy on another boat and he’s in big trouble. Who does he call? He calls me. What do I do? I go out and find him the best criminal defense lawyer and spent $100,000 of my own money. So, when I see ‘Cowboy’ standing up there I’m like, ‘really?’ Listen, no one has thicker skin than me. So, it just gets to a point where it’s, ‘whatever.’ It’s all good.”
What do you make of White’s comments about a fighter who has been nothing but willing to fight anyone on short notice in order to save a card?
Since the sale of the UFC for a whopping $4.2 billion to WME-IMG, fighter treatment has been magnified further. As high-ranking fighters either jump ship, or take a stand against allegedly unfair payment or treatment by their employers, many questions have been raised. By no means a new issue, the working conditions of the employees
Since the sale of the UFC for a whopping $4.2 billion to WME-IMG, fighter treatment has been magnified further. As high-ranking fighters either jump ship, or take a stand against allegedly unfair payment or treatment by their employers, many questions have been raised. By no means a new issue, the working conditions of the employees under the UFC banner is now hotter than ever. After 16 years of the new UFC era, perhaps we are now seeing a reboot and the beginning of the second phase.
Following the announcement of the MMAAA (mixed martial arts athletes association) many feel the winds of change are coming. Helping that potentially powerful gust come around are a number of well-known current fighters. Ex-champions TJ Dillashaw, Cain Velasquez and Georges St-Pierre, as well as Donald Cerrone and Tim Kennedy lead the association. Also fronting the march on the ‘tyranny’ of the UFC is ex-Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney.
Rebney Hates Bullies
As the former boss of the UFC’s biggest rival, Bellator MMA, Bjorn Rebney has heard and witnessed first hand the complaints of former UFC talent. Arguably the biggest harvester of jilted UFC fighters, Bellator now houses numerous ex-champions from the premier organisation. Speaking during his recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Rebney said he’s sick of seeing the UFC bully the hard-working fighters. Transcription by Marc Raimondi:
“I hate racists and I hate bullies more than anything on Earth,” Rebney said. “They’re bottom feeders. And WME-IMG and UFC today — that conglomerate — they’re bullies. And it may not be with their hands, but it’s with their money and it’s with their power and it’s with their influence.”
“That ($4.2 billion) didn’t come from Dana or Lorenzo,” Rebney said. “That came on the backs of fighters, who packed the arenas, drove the pay-per-view buy rates, drove the international and domestic television, the sponsorship, the closed circuit, etc., etc. They deserve to get paid what’s fair. And to be able to fight that fight, to be able to be in the middle of that and also to be able to Superman punch bullies in the back of the head, that’s a very attractive proposition for me just given my personality.”
Backlash
Although he is now helping fighters in their battle with the UFC, Rebney is facing some backlash. Jon Jones’ manager said he was not interested in joining the MMAAA if Rebney was involved, calling the ex-Bellator man ‘anti-fighter.’ Rebney said this kind of negative feedback comes as no surprise:
“I expected it,” Rebney said. “I was the second largest mixed martial promoter in the world for a number of years. I didn’t expect people would look at me and go, ‘Oh my god, what a natural transition that is.’”
“I didn’t expect people to go, ‘Oh that’s awesome, what a great dude,’” Rebney said “I expected people to go ‘Ahh, why is he doing this? That guy was part of the problem. Why is he now part of the solution?’ Yeah, I expected that. The good news is the negative vibe has been focused on me, which is exactly where it should be. But the better news is that the reaction has been big.”
Per Haljestam for USA TODAY Sports
“No Aftercare”
“There’s nothing in place and this is the most violent sport on the face of the Earth,” Rebney said. “The repercussions for a mixed martial artist far surpass those from hockey or football or, for god sakes, even boxing. Even boxing. And boxing has got a real ugly progressive step for its athletes. And you’ve got nothing in place? No.”
“I see what happens to combat sports athletes when they’re 35 and 40 and 45,” he said. “And it’s frightening. Not for everybody, but for a lot of these guys that evolution is a very, very scary evolution.”
There’s a difference between a union and an athletes’ association like the MMAAA announced last week. But according to a new interview with MMAAA advisor and Bellator MMA founder Bjorn Rebney, that line may blur soon. Rebney spoke to former Inside MMA correspondent Amy Dardashion for a feature at Bloody Elbow, where he dropped the bomb that “We will have to become a union.”
“We are coming out as an association,” he said. “[I]f we wanna speed this up, if we wanna fix this in the next 24 months…we wanna drive this to a position where it’s worked out…that’s what we have to do.” Rebney went on to explain that there is a benefit for the UFC in this, which is that the company could get an antitrust exemption from being declared a monopoly. Those are only available to companies that bargain with unions.
“We recognize that if the UFC is going to resolve their differences, resolve these problems… that they are never going to do so without securing for themselves an antitrust exemption,” he explained. “Once they’ve agreed to our demands and we’ve reached an agreement, they are gonna want that and they would deserve it at that point. At that point we would become a union.”
Rebney also added that he thinks that the UFC not having any collective bargaining could harm them in seeking a new, more lucrative TV contract. . “I know full well that if I’m going to a buyer and saying ‘please pay me a premium for this content’ and simultaneously that buyer is going online and seeing the biggest stars in my organization say ‘I’m extremely unhappy, I have no protection, I have no safety net, I have no pension, I’m not being paid fairly,’ over and over again. That will serve as a huge detriment, huge detriment to my ability as a seller to be able to effectuate top dollar.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWnygShSBhE
There’s a difference between a union and an athletes’ association like the MMAAA announced last week. But according to a new interview with MMAAA advisor and Bellator MMA founder Bjorn Rebney, that line may blur soon. Rebney spoke to former Inside MMA correspondent Amy Dardashion for a feature at Bloody Elbow, where he dropped the bomb that “We will have to become a union.”
“We are coming out as an association,” he said. “[I]f we wanna speed this up, if we wanna fix this in the next 24 months…we wanna drive this to a position where it’s worked out…that’s what we have to do.” Rebney went on to explain that there is a benefit for the UFC in this, which is that the company could get an antitrust exemption from being declared a monopoly. Those are only available to companies that bargain with unions.
“We recognize that if the UFC is going to resolve their differences, resolve these problems… that they are never going to do so without securing for themselves an antitrust exemption,” he explained. “Once they’ve agreed to our demands and we’ve reached an agreement, they are gonna want that and they would deserve it at that point. At that point we would become a union.”
Rebney also added that he thinks that the UFC not having any collective bargaining could harm them in seeking a new, more lucrative TV contract. . “I know full well that if I’m going to a buyer and saying ‘please pay me a premium for this content’ and simultaneously that buyer is going online and seeing the biggest stars in my organization say ‘I’m extremely unhappy, I have no protection, I have no safety net, I have no pension, I’m not being paid fairly,’ over and over again. That will serve as a huge detriment, huge detriment to my ability as a seller to be able to effectuate top dollar.”
Bjorn Rebney isn’t known for playing nice. As one of the faces of a new move toward fighter unionization, he’s not curbing that behavior now.
The former head of the Bellator MMA promotion company, who as of last week officially co-directs the Mixed Mar…
Bjorn Rebney isn’t known for playing nice. As one of the faces of a new move toward fighter unionization, he’s not curbing that behavior now.
The former head of the BellatorMMA promotion company, who as of last week officially co-directs the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA), went on The MMA Hour broadcast Monday and told host Ariel Helwani he was prepared to fight his past and current nemesis: the big, bad UFC and their owners, WME-IMG.
“I hate bullies more than anything else on Earth,” Rebney said. “They’re bottom feeders. And the UFC and WME-IMG, today, that conglomerate, they’re bullies. It may not be with their hands, but it’s with their money and it’s with their power and it’s with their influence.”
Welterweight GOAT and current (alleged, according to MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi) free agent Georges St-Pierre, former UFC champs Cain Velasquez and T.J. Dillashaw and current welterweight Donald Cerrone, among Rebney and others, form the nucleus of the new association. No one has yet revealed who initiated the MMAAA‘s formation, and Rebney declined Monday to name them. But Rebney‘s inclusion has ruffled feathers among some who say that he, during his time running Bellator, was not a pro-fighter presence. On Monday, he tried to put a brave spin on the reaction while steering the conversation back toward the union.
“I didn’t expect people to go, ‘Oh that’s awesome, what a great dude,’” Rebney said. “The good news is the negative vibe has been focused on me, which is exactly where it should be. But the better news is that the reaction has been big.”
Rebney focused many of his comments on WME-IMG, the UFC’s new ownership, and attacked MMA honchos for what he suggested was exploitative behavior.
As you start diving into it, and you start to look at the numbers. … I said, ‘This is insane, this is unethical, it’s outrageous, it’s despicable.’ I’ve been around combat sports athletes since I was six years old. I see what happens to combat sports athletes when they’re 35, 40, 45 years old. And it’s frightening. Not for everybody, but for a lot of these guys that evolution is a very, very scary evolution.
MMAAA leaders are hoping for a financial settlement for active and retired fighters, greater revenue sharing and more collective bargaining power. Rebney told Helwani Monday:
There is no way mixed martial arts can continue down this trajectory and survive. It can’t. And that’s not hyperbole, that’s not a threat, that’s not me sending out a message to [WME-IMG co-CEO] Ari Emanuel. That’s the god’s honest truth. It will not survive. It has to change. … I can’t stress enough how vitally, vitally important this is. So I felt it was time to say something.
Former Bellator MMA Founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney has aligned himself with top UFC stars Georges St-Pierre, Tim Kennedy, Cain Velasquez, Donal ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, and TJ Dillashaw to form the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) in an effort to fight for fair rights for fighters who compete in the UFC. Last week a near two hour
Former Bellator MMA Founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney has aligned himself with top UFC stars Georges St-Pierre, Tim Kennedy, Cain Velasquez, Donal ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, and TJ Dillashaw to form the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) in an effort to fight for fair rights for fighters who compete in the UFC.
Last week a near two hour conference call was held by Rebney and the fighters to discuss the formation of the new Association and let everyone know what exactly they’re all about. Earlier today (Monday, Dec. 5, 2016) Rebney joined Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour to further discuss his role with the association, first detailing what the first step in the whole process was to get the ball rolling on the MMAAA:
“The first step in the whole process basically — and I don’t want to sing my own praises but I have a lot of experience in this space in another sport, another business, another law surrounding the business — I know the athletes, and about two years ago, probably four and a half or five months, maybe not even that long, after Tim and I had split from Bellator, I was asked by some really smart people who I have enormous respect for to basically create a plan of attack. A plan of attack to force to UFC to completely reverse its outrageous and despicable treatment of its athletes.
“So at that stage, and I was working on some other cool stuff I was working on a great tech venture and an OTT project and some really cool stuff that was unrelated to all the time I spent in combat sports, but I started really digging. The first step for someone like me when you start digging is you do an enormous amount of due diligence, fortunately and thank god I could step back and do a lot of due diligence cause I had the time and wherewithal and the access points to understand the numbers, because we’d all heard it for years. Now you’d heard it, you’d talked about it, we’d all heard it as a promoter who’d done pay-per-view (PPV) and cut deals in 140 countries around the world, etc.”
While Rebney was the frontman at Bellator MMA, he couldn’t really focus on the big picture of what he is fighting for now, as he was more focused on the competitive aspect of beating the UFC. Now that he and the promotion have parted ways, he is able to see the ‘despicable’ nature which the UFC is treating its fighters, so he said he’ll do everything in his power to put a stop to it:
“You hear about it, but you don’t hyper-focus on it because you’re not trying to build a company or promotion that’s trying to compete with the UFC. So I wasn’t sitting there saying to myself ‘Okay, I need to know backward and forward every UFC number and the dynamics and the percentages of what they’re doing and what they’re not. I was more engaged of the competitive aspect of ‘What do we do next to try and take a step up this ladder’, but as you start diving into it and as you start looking at the numbers two plus years ago,
“I thought ‘Okay, well, this is insane, it’s unethical, it’s outrageous, it’s despicable, If you know the sport, you know what happens long-term. Its got wrongful on it in so many different ways, then I said ‘Okay screw it.’ To do this, and to do it right, for the people who’d reached out to me, first of all you got get some of the biggest names in the space of the UFC to step up.”
Having such huge names such as GSP, Velasquez, ‘Cowboy’, Kennedy, and Dillashaw is certainly a plus for the MMAAA’s fighting chance to make some serious change between fighters and the UFC. That change won’t come quickly, and it’s something Rebney says he has been in conversations with St-Pierre to form the MMAAA for years:
“We’re fortunate enough to have Georges, and Tim, and Cain, and ‘Cowboy’, and TJ onboard. And I started talking, I started talking to Georges, years ago, and Tim — and I don’t remember how long ago cause it was so very very long ago, and you secure that. You secure their understanding, you secure the relationship with Georges, Tim, TJ, and Cain, and you sit down and say ‘Here is what’s at stake, here’s what’s going on, here’s how the other leagues work, here’s how a real sports enterprise is supposed to function.’
“And you get them to understand it very clearly, and then you figure out ‘Are they going to be willing to engage? Are guys at that level with those type of names going to be willing to put themselves out to say that this matters and this is important?’
Rebney also pointed to hiring the best legal teams, PR firms, and marketing teams also play a huge factor in one day reaching their ultimate goal:
“Then you have to have legal backing, so you find the greatest attorney literally in this type of legal matter and it’s Jim Quinn. Who has written the book on sports related matters, representing athletes, representing athletes associations, he is responsible for creating and crafting law that governs how the NFL does business. I’m like, ‘Can you get Jim Quinn onboard?’
“And then you go out and you get strategic PR firms to handle both general market and sports related, then you get a team of marketing specialists onboard, then you get key strategic advisors onboard, a whole meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting, and you get money behind it because a fight like this is not a fight like you just send out a few Tweets and say ‘Wow this is really important, let’s get it done.’ You’ve gotta have real support behind it.”
St-Pierre, Velasquez, Kennedy, Cerrone, and Dillashaw aren’t the only fighters apparently on board with the MMAAA. Rebney says there are a whole lot more people involved with the movement, however, they have asked to remain nameless for the time being:
“The people who came to me initially, they have asked to remain nameless Ariel, I said it on the thing and I’m going to respect that. Guaranteed on my eyes there will be a time, without any question, where I am able to introduce them, they will be proud as crap when I can introduce them because — I did not sit back and say ‘This situation is a disaster, I wanna fix it. Who do I put in place?’ People came to me and said ‘This situation is a disaster.’ As I used to say a ‘cluster f*ck’.
Rebney strongly believes that if the sport of MMA continues down the road it is currently on at the moment, it will not survive without any short-term or long-term protection for its fighters:
“And somebody has to fix it, somebody has to make this right because as TJ and I said when we were at the press conference, I don’t remember if he said it first or I said it first, but we both said basically the same thing. If this doesn’t get fixed, we don’t have a sport in ten years. There is no possible way that mixed martial arts (MMA) can continue down this trajectory, and survive. It can’t. And that’s not hyperbole, that’s not a threat, that’s not me sending out a message to Ari Emanuel, that’s the God’s honest truth.
“It will not survive. It has to change. You ask these guys to give up that kind of sacrifice, to give up what these guys are giving up long and short, short-term and long-term, you have to have protections in place. You gotta have pensions post-career, health care, etc. You put that in place, and once those things are in place, you know building something like this out is not just about filing a law suit, it’s not just about making some plans to go visit guys in gyms and talk about the issues, it’s about a legitimate strategy.
While Rebney has equipped himself well for a fight against the big guys at the UFC, he knows he’s in for quite the challenge going up against WME-IMG and the UFC who have a joint $10 billion worth between them, but feels he has executed his strategy perfectly up to this point:
“WME-IMG is a $6 billion company. They are one of the two most powerful agencies in the entire world across the sports and entertainment spectrum. They’re a huge, monstrous, powerful conglomerate. The UFC is now a $4 billion enterprise. Between WME-IMG you’re talking about 500,000 plus employees, monster power, monster influence. You gotta be ready to put a strategy in place. You’re gonna fight somebody like that?
“That’s not jumping out of the seat at a smoker somewhere at going ‘screw it my training went well for the last week I’ll jump in when somebody bounces out of a fight.’ You gotta be prepared. You have to have everything conceivable in place. The backing, the support, the people, the brains, all of it. And that’s what I charged myself with organizing and putting together. And it’s in place.”
With some big names involved and some of the best lawyers, PR firms and marketing specialists already onboard with the MMAAA the future for the association is looking rather bright. How do you believe they’ll fare in their battle against the UFC?
![Donald-Cerrone-[1]](http://cdn.lowkickmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Donald-Cerrone-1.jpg)
‘Cowboy’ says he has spoken to White since the announcement of the MMAAA was made public, and that the UFC President wishes he would have called him first instead of being ‘back-handed in the face’ by the announcement out of left field:
Bjorn 
While Rebney has equipped himself well for a fight against the big guys at the UFC, he knows he’s in for quite the challenge going up against WME-IMG and the UFC who have a joint $10 billion worth between them, but feels he has executed his strategy perfectly up to this point: