How is this argument still going on? Floyd Mayweather reacts to Conor McGregor’s latest racism remarks, the ex-boxing champion opened a can of worms here… In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, here’s an update in the seemingly never ending beef between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. The retired
How is this argument still going on? Floyd Mayweather reacts to Conor McGregor’s latest racism remarks, the ex-boxing champion opened a can of worms here…
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, here’s an update in the seemingly never ending beef between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. The retired boxing great lit up the internet with some comments about the UFC featherweight champion, claiming racism was still alive, and that McGregor’s popularity was proof of that. Clearly, these comments were as controversial as they were sensational, and the combat sports world awaited McGregor’s response.
Finally McGregor responded, and he was fired up, blasting ‘Money’ as a jealous has-been and challenging the unbeaten boxing champion to a fight once again.
McGregor’s response;
Floyd Mayweather, don’t ever bring race into my success again. I am an Irishman. My people have been oppressed our entire existence. And still very much are. I understand the feeling of prejudice. It is a feeling that is deep in my blood.
In my family’s long history of warfare there was a time where just having the name ‘McGregor’ was punishable by death.
Do not ever put me in a bracket like this again.
If you want we can organise a fight no problem.
I will give you a fair 80/20 split purse in my favour seen as your last fight bombed at every area of revenue.
At 27 years of age I now hold the key to this game.
The game answers to me now.
5. Media instigators/An Garda Siochana. I apologise for having the air-soft in public. I was simply rehearsing for a potential upcoming film role.
I understand that the more traffic a story can get the more revenue it generates. So I understand and respect that the media must create these stories and these situations even if at times it is at other people’s expense. We’ve all got to eat. And I eat well. So I will not complain.
6. My next fight. What can I say, it’s just another night of easy work for me.
I don’t just own the game. I run it too
It’s not over yet though, as Floyd Mayweather has responded again, and he’s as cocky as usual…
It has been 11 days since Ronda Rousey made her last title defense: a 34-second blitzkrieging of Bethe Correia at UFC 190. Eleven. Yet we still can’t stop talking about her.
Let me take that back a step. It’s not our inability to stop talking about her that is so frustrating — why would it be? She’s as charismatic and captivating a presence as we could ever hope for in our sport — it’s that we can’t stop talking about her for all the wrong reasons. Sure, she’s quite possibly the most dominant female athlete of all time, a budding movie star, a bestselling author, a marketing dynamo, a feminist icon, and an inspiration to an entire generation of new fans, but what we really need to know is: Could she beat Floyd Mayweather in a fight? How about Bryan Caraway? The resurrected corpse of Chief Jay Strongbow, maybe?
Just two days after Rousey’s win over Correia, Fox Sports ran with the above story. The author, Clay Travis, was wholeheartedly sold on the idea of having Ronda Rousey fight Floyd Mayweather because:
1.) It would make soooo much money, you guys
2.) The fans want to see it
3.) Rousey would probably win, which, yay! since Mayweather’s a d-bag
And truth be told, it’s hard to argue with any of Travis’ points, at least at face value. Rousey vs. Mayweather would almost certainly shatter pay-per-view records, and yeah, who wouldn’t want to see a convicted domestic abuser get his comeuppance at the hands of a woman? It’s that Jennifer Lopez movie come to life, y’all! (Matter of fact, can we have Rousey fight J-Lo after she’s through with Floyd? It would sell billions! BILL-YUNS!!!)
But here’s the problem with booking a fight between the greatest boxer of all time and a woman, aside from what I just typed: It’s short-sighted, hypocritical, unintentionally misogynistic, and completely asinine.
It has been 11 days since Ronda Rousey made her last title defense: a 34-second blitzkrieging of Bethe Correia at UFC 190. Eleven. Yet we still can’t stop talking about her.
Let me take that back a step. It’s not our inability to stop talking about her that is so frustrating — why would it be? She’s as charismatic and captivating a presence as we could ever hope for in our sport — it’s that we can’t stop talking about her for all the wrong reasons. Sure, she’s quite possibly the most dominant female athlete of all time, a budding movie star, a bestselling author, a marketing dynamo, a feminist icon, and an inspiration to an entire generation of new fans, but what we really need to know is: Could she beat Floyd Mayweather in a fight? How about Bryan Caraway? The resurrected corpse of Chief Jay Strongbow, maybe?
Just two days after Rousey’s win over Correia, Fox Sports ran with the above story. The author, Clay Travis, was wholeheartedly sold on the idea of having Ronda Rousey fight Floyd Mayweather because:
1.) It would make soooo much money, you guys
2.) The fans want to see it
3.) Rousey would probably win, which, yay! since Mayweather’s a d-bag
And truth be told, it’s hard to argue with any of Travis’ points, at least at face value. Rousey vs. Mayweather would almost certainly shatter pay-per-view records, and yeah, who wouldn’t want to see a convicted domestic abuser get his comeuppance at the hands of a woman? It’s that Jennifer Lopez movie come to life, y’all! (Matter of fact, can we have Rousey fight J-Lo after she’s through with Floyd? It would sell billions! BILL-YUNS!!!)
But here’s the problem with booking a fight between the greatest boxer of all time and a woman, aside from what I just typed: It’s short-sighted, hypocritical, unintentionally misogynistic, and completely asinine.
This isn’t even to mention the fact that the mere idea of booking Rousey vs. Mayweather glorifies domestic violence, whether unintentionally or not, in that it would allow Mayweather to directly profit off it. Tell me, what do you think the storyline would be heading into this intergender superfight? That both Rousey and Mayweather are the most dominant athletes in their respective (and oh yeah, completely different) sports, which is why we just have to see them duke it out? Or would it be that one fighter who’s been (briefly) jailed for attacking his wife might receive a little street justice? Do you honestly think Rousey — a fighter with the gift of gab unlike many others — wouldn’t use every opportunity in the build-up to lob barbs at Mayweather for his tainted past, while ironically posing for selfies with convicted rapist Mike Tyson afterwards? Whether it wanted to or not, Rousey vs. Mayweather would more or less promote the idea of domestic abuse, not challenge it.
In an excellent piece published by The Daily Beast, Emily Shire also argued that Rousey vs. Mayweather would additionally “only validate the false idea that physical strength is the true mark of a person’s strength.”
“The additional belief that a man beating a woman at a sport—or a woman beating a man at a sport—speaks to some larger truth about the right to equal protection, pay, or respect under the law is ludicrous” wrote Shire.
And yet, it is what permitted a chauvinist, money-hungry showman like Bobby Riggs to troll feminism by getting enough people to believe that beating Billie Jean King in 1973 would somehow prove that these “crazy” newfangled ideas about equality between the sexes were somehow lacking in merit?
King’s victory was emotionally satisfying and inspired many women—and this should not be discounted. As the New York Times put it, King’s victory “convinced skeptics that a female athlete can survive pressure-filled situations and that men are as susceptible to nerves as women.”
However, her win also didn’t fix the wage gap, improve access to birth control, or rectify many of the other challenges facing women.
In fact, it’s debatable what exactly it did prove.
This isn’t a battle of the sexes ala King vs. Riggs, which Travis also attempted to argue in his piece for Fox Sports, because these athletes aren’t even competing in the same goddamn sport. And beyond that, what would a Rousey win prove, exactly? That the most dominant female mixed martial artist can beat a man in a sport he knows next-to-nothing about?
“Tonight at 11: Serena Williams takes on Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the BE ALL-END ALL tennis match for gender superiority!!”
And oh yeah, what if Mayweather wins, you guys? What if he destroys Rousey before she can ever get close to him? Not only would we literally allow a man to profit off of beating a woman, but as Shire argued, “it would be yet another victory for a man who has already beaten the justice system.”
Though he has been convicted of violence against women five times, he has only been made to serve one sentence. Obviously, a sanctioned athletic activity is not remotely the same as his attacks against women in his personal life, but there is something utterly disturbing at the thought of serial abuser being paid millions to knock another woman, even a fellow fighter, out cold.
Mayweather has already, unfortunately, ‘won.’ No outcome in the ring will change that.
And that’s the sad reality of it. No matter how bad Rousey beat Mayweather’s ass, it wouldn’t change a thing for the women he has harmed in the past. God forbid it went the other way.
Is the UFC really so insecure in its ability to draw eyes that it needs to constantly loop in an outside entity to promote itself, or is this kind of rationalized sexism so ingrained in our cultural minutiae that we simply can’t allow a woman’s accomplishments to stand on their own without first comparing them to a man’s? Rousey doesn’t need to be validated by these cheap comparisons, because Rousey is an athlete who should transcend them. So compare her to Billie Jean King, or compare her to Mia Hamm. Just for the love of God, stop leaning on the idea of an intergender battle to prove what we already know about her dominance.
This neverending, ludicrous debate has gone on for far too long, you guys. It’s gotten to the point where Floyd Mayweather is starting to look like the only sensible one in this thing, for Christ’s sake. Just check out his response when asked about a potential fight with Rousey by FightHype:
I’m in the $100 million business, not the $100,000 business. I shouldn’t even be stooping to certain levels, because it doesn’t make any sense. People that’s in MMA, I wish them nothing but the best. I don’t have anything negative to say about them. The hand I was dealt in life, I was dealt a royal flush and I just have to be thankful and appreciative of the hand I was dealt.
I don’t have anything negative to say about anyone. I wish everyone of them nothing but the best.
Let’s talk about Miesha Tate. Let’s talk about Holly Holm. If you’re blessed with endless patience, let’s even talk about Cyborg. But one name that shouldn’t be mentioned together with MMA, ever again, is Floyd Mayweather. The final bell rang for that conversation some time ago.
Floyd Mayweather and MMA: a duo as complementary and universally beloved as peanut butter and motor oil. It seems as if “Money” has been teasing a crossover to mixed martial arts (in one capacity or another) for close to a decade now, with MMA fans and media members lapping up his every word like it was a dog dish full of Beyonce’s booty sweat. Because surely, a man who earns a greater payday in one boxing match than the UFC’s entire roster does in a year (exaggeration?) needs “the world’s fastest growing sport” to get dat premo Fight Pass dough.
But like I said, us MMA bloggers love to talk about old Floyd, no matter how obvious, apparent, or a third synonym it is that he’s trolling us. Take his recent interview with Fight Hype magazine, for instance, in which Mayweather discusses how he is, like, totally going to host an MMA event soon. For realz. Third person narrative abounds:
We believe in treating our boxers and our MMA fighters fair. I want a lot of MMA fighters to get in touch with you because Mayweather Promotions, I look forward to putting on my first MMA show also and having me some MMA champions. Like I said before, Floyd Mayweather loves to think outside the box. We’re not just one-dimensional. We’re very versatile, and we have an open mind. When I get into the MMA game, I want them to make more money than they’re making because from what I hear, they’re not being treated fair.
Floyd Mayweather and MMA: a duo as complementary and universally beloved as peanut butter and motor oil. It seems as if “Money” has been teasing a crossover to mixed martial arts (in one capacity or another) for close to a decade now, with MMA fans and media members lapping up his every word like it was a dog dish full of Beyonce’s booty sweat. Because surely, a man who earns a greater payday in one boxing match than the UFC’s entire roster does in a year (exaggeration?) needs “the world’s fastest growing sport” to get dat premo Fight Pass dough.
But like I said, us MMA bloggers love to talk about old Floyd, no matter how obvious, apparent, or a third synonym it is that he’s trolling us. Take his recent interview with Fight Hype magazine, for instance, in which Mayweather discusses how he is, like, totally going to host an MMA event soon. For realz. Third person narrative abounds:
We believe in treating our boxers and our MMA fighters fair. I want a lot of MMA fighters to get in touch with you because Mayweather Promotions, I look forward to putting on my first MMA show also and having me some MMA champions. Like I said before, Floyd Mayweather loves to think outside the box. We’re not just one-dimensional. We’re very versatile, and we have an open mind. When I get into the MMA game, I want them to make more money than they’re making because from what I hear, they’re not being treated fair.
You hear that, broke fighters and MMA agents? Floyd Mayweather will treat you fairly, because Floyd Mayweather is a kind, compassionate human being (exceptions: former employees, security guards, the mother of his children). Floyd Mayweather is versatile. Floyd Mayweather likes peanut butter, and Floyd Mayweather’s never been afraid to admit that. Bob. Dole. Floyd. Mayweather.
I don’t know about you, but Floyd Mayweather seems pretty serious here, and we should probably all start treating this half-committed aside as a serious news item. I shall wait on baited breath for Floyd Mayweather’s foray into our fine sport, as it will surely be the next evolution of MMA promotion when it totally happens in TBD, two thousand something or other.
Even as a big fan of Lytle’s, I cannot understand how this fight is possibly being considered. Lytle retired from MMA in 2011, has not boxed professionally since 2005, and is easily the smallest draw of any of the MMA fighters Jones has been linked to over the years. Say what you want about Lytle’s granite chin, or how much Jones’ skills have deteriorated, or how Lytle was 13-1 as a boxer with wins over…
This shit needs to stop. News flash, MMA fighters & Boxers: It isn’t 1993, and there is no longer a need to prove that one fighting style is better than another. We already know that MMA is superior, we know this, so why are we as a community so insistent on leveling the scales that were tipped in our favor following Toney vs. Couture? THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS, YOU GUYS.
(Ariel Helwani breaks the news of this potential freak show on MMA Tonight.)
Even as a big fan of Lytle’s, I cannot understand how this fight is possibly being considered. Lytle retired from MMA in 2011, has not boxed professionally since 2005, and is easily the smallest draw of any of the MMA fighters Jones has been linked to over the years. Say what you want about Lytle’s granite chin, or how much Jones’ skills have deteriorated, or how Lytle was 13-1 as a boxer with wins over…
This shit needs to stop. News flash, MMA fighters & Boxers: It isn’t 1993, and there is no longer a need to prove that one fighting style is better than another. We already know that MMA is superior, we know this, so why are we as a community so insistent on leveling the scales that were tipped in our favor following Toney vs. Couture? THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS, YOU GUYS.
With all due respect to Lytle, I must reiterate how terrible of an idea this is. The MMA vs. Boxing debate has long since lost all relevance in our society, and I point to the hilarious “debate” of Rousey vs. Mayweather as proof of this. Simply put, we do not need to add fuel to the fire by allowing Lytle, a consistently entertaining fighter, to get his ass whipped by one of the greatest boxers of all time.
How would this fight be billed, exactly? The average steadfast boxing fan barely knows who Anderson Silva is, let alone a guy of Lytle’s caliber. That “Light’s Out” has been retired for three years doesn’t exactly make things more enticing, especially when considering that Jones has fought as recently as December 2013, where he captured the vacant WBU Cruiserweight title.
In the octagon, we have seen Lytle outboxed by the likes of Marcus Davis, Robbie Lawler, and even Dan Hardy in his final MMA fight before rallying in the third round. Lytle is a power-puncher with decent footwork who relies on looping, home run swings of right hands that often leave him exposed to counter strikes (in his MMA career, at least). Roy Jones Jr. is perhaps the smoothest counter-puncher to ever step foot in the ring, next to Floyd Mayweather, with equally devastating offensive capabilities. So please, tell me how this will end in anything but a one-sided beatdown.
And God, how Jones would talk after defeating Lytle. We’d never hear the end of how Anderson Silva was “next” on his list, or how Rampage was “ducking him.” You guys remember all the nonsense Ray Mercer spat after destroying Tim Sylvia, right? How MMA fighters were all afraid of him, a 48 year-old former boxer, because he had knocked out an uncoordinated, past-his prime Fatty Boom-Boom who showed up to the fight some 40 pounds heavier than we had ever seen him? Think about the embarrassment you felt for our sport that day, Nation. Think long and hard (heh) about it before you offer an opinion on this fight.
Perhaps the most troubling angle of this fight is that Lytle is more or less viewing it as his final “farewell fight.” He’s no longer interested in MMA, but a boxing match with Jones is the one thing he apparently needs to call it a career (for seriously this time). Yahoo’s Kevin Iole recently wrote a great piece on the futility of these farewell fights, and his main point was simple:
The final act of so many fighters is not good. Retirement or so-called farewell fights should also be outlawed, because if a fighter isn’t fit to compete, then it makes no sense to go out and get kicked and punched in the head again in order to say goodbye.
On behalf of MMA fans and the sport in general, I’m begging you, Chris: Do not take this fight. You went out on possibly the highest note an MMA fighter has ever gone out on, and accepting a fight with Jones, an idol of yours he may be, will only tarnish that. You’ve got a wife and got kids who I’m sure would be just fine with the prospect of never seeing you fight again, and for good reason: MMA fans don’t need this fight, boxing fans don’t need this fight, and most importantly, you don’t need this fight.
The same goes for the rest of you, post-prime MMA fighters considering a fight with Jones. Let’s leave the MMA vs. Boxing debate where it belongs: Buried in a shallow grave and hidden from the sight of rational-thinking people.
You see, when I awoke yesterday morning, I was under the impression that MMA was still a sport with plenty of goings-on worth talking about, not a platform so desolate of intriguing discussion that its only current purpose in this world was to push energy drinks and stir up farcical “Who would win?” scenarios like a goddamn episode of Deadliest Warrior. “There are *two* UFC events alone going down this week,” I said to myself, “Not to mention an *actual* TUF premiere, a Bellator event, and who knows what else. Surely there is plenty of real-life, newsworthy information to be had today.”
So you can imagine my surprise when I awoke to find “Joe Rogan says Ronda Rousey would beat Floyd Mayweather Jr.” as the headline dominating manyanMMA site and even some that aren’t. And even worse, nearly all of these articles were flooded with the hundreds of comments from people who actually found it necessary to offer their insight into this absolutely imbecilic piece of non-news. (Rousey vs. a cheetah in sweatpants: Who’s the better dancer?”)
“Every fight starts standing, and we all know Floyd’s not afraid to hit women,” joked a commenter who vehemently expressed his outrage over the idea of allowing Fallon Fox to continue fighting just months earlier. “Floyd’s speed would be no match for Ronda’s armbar,” said another who had chastised his favorite MMA publication for daring to waste his time with a breakdown of the Undertaker’s signature move days prior.
I bit my tongue at first, because I don’t exactly have a foot to stand on when it comes to publishing news items that are ever-so-tangentially related to MMA. But the tipping point occurred during last night’s TUF Nations Finale broadcast, when during yet another time-killing session in the FOX studios, Karyn Bryant posed the same question to Daniel Cormier and Anthony Pettis.
“This is ridiculous,” said Pettis before declaring that Floyd would easily win. Unfortunately, it appeared that the idea of a woman beating a man in a fight was what Pettis found ridiculous, not the question itself as I had hoped.
(Joe Rogan talks Rousey vs. Mayweather on ESPN’s SportsNation, because it’s not like there was an actual event worth discussing or anything.)
You see, when I awoke yesterday morning, I was under the impression that MMA was still a sport with plenty of goings-on worth talking about, not a platform so desolate of intriguing discussion that its only current purpose in this world was to push energy drinks and stir up farcical “Who would win?” scenarios like a goddamn episode of Deadliest Warrior. “There are *two* UFC events alone going down this week,” I said to myself, “Not to mention an *actual* TUF premiere, a Bellator event, and who knows what else. Surely there is plenty of real-life, newsworthy information to be had today.”
So you can imagine my surprise when I awoke to find “Joe Rogan says Ronda Rousey would beat Floyd Mayweather Jr.” as the headline dominating manyanMMA site and even some that aren’t. And even worse, nearly all of these articles were flooded with the hundreds of comments from people who actually found it necessary to offer their insight into this absolutely imbecilic piece of non-news. (Rousey vs. a cheetah in sweatpants: Who’s the better dancer?”)
“Every fight starts standing, and we all know Floyd’s not afraid to hit women,” joked a commenter who vehemently expressed his outrage over the idea of allowing Fallon Fox to continue fighting just months earlier. “Floyd’s speed would be no match for Ronda’s armbar,” said another who had chastised his favorite MMA publication for daring to waste his time with a breakdown of the Undertaker’s signature move days prior.
I bit my tongue at first, because I don’t exactly have a foot to stand on when it comes to publishing news items that are ever-so-tangentially related to MMA. But the tipping point occurred during last night’s TUF Nations Finale broadcast, when during yet another time-killing session in the FOX studios, Karyn Bryant posed the same question to Daniel Cormier and Anthony Pettis.
“This is ridiculous,” said Pettis before declaring that Floyd would easily win. Unfortunately, it appeared that the idea of a woman beating a man in a fight was what Pettis found ridiculous, not the question itself as I had hoped.
Despite the vast majority of MMA fans claiming to be “purists of the sport” who will blow a gasket at the slightest mention of the WWE and it’s transparent, lowball, and shamefully fabricated product on an MMA site, the discussion of how Ronda Rousey — a female, MMA fighter, with less than 10 professional contests to her credit — would fare against Floyd Mayweather Jr. — a male, professional boxer, considered to be one of the greatest in the sport’s history — in an MMA contest has somehow managed to infiltrate message boards far and wide and warrant hundreds of comments from these very same people. Baffling, is it not?
I know this piece of absolutely imbecilic (apologies for the repetition, but I find it necessary in this case) non-news is nothing worth flying off the handle over, but this is the Internet after all. My biggest problem with the idea of Rousey vs. Mayweather is why we are so insistent on pushing this impossible fight in a universe where guys like Renan Barao and Jose Aldo exist. You know, guys who are guys and whose names would therefore make more sense as opponents in the ain’t-no-way-never-gonna-happen prospect of Floyd Mayweather becoming an MMA fighter. The downside of being the only “the biggest star the UFC’s ever had,” perhaps?
It’s all about how much time Floyd has to prepare, because he will really have to work on his takedown defense. That would be the big thing. If Ronda got a clinch on him, it’s not just about worrying about being taken down to the ground, it’s worrying about knees to the body. It is worrying about her manipulating his body in ways that he doesn’t understand.
Those were actual words spoken by the typically sane Joe Rogan when seriously discussing (for all intents and purposes) the idea of Rousey vs. Mayweather. Ronda Rousey, who fights Alexis Davis in a couples months at UFC 175. UFC, the promotion that is putting on two fight cards this week including “the most exciting card in network history” at UFC on FOX 11 tomorrow night.
Look, I’m not asking you to openly express your disapproval with the thought of Rousey vs. Mayweather (I’ve already done it for you!), nor am I asking you to blame the MMA media for validating the half-witted discussion of Rousey vs. Mayweather with a plethora of blog posts. I’m simply asking that the next time you see or hear someone make a comparison between MMA/the UFC/Bellator and the WWE, think about how you reacted to this “news” item before you speak. Think about it and add it to the list.
(“So if you win, your salary doubles from $22,000 to $44,000? And if it’s the best fight on the card, they give you a $50,000 bonus? Wow. That’s adorable, man.”)
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s record $41.5 million guarantee for facing Canelo Alvarez in September elicited a series of reactions from the MMA community. Some fighters like Tito Ortiz made ridiculous comparisons (“What am I doing different from [Floyd Mayweather Jr.]?”). Others, like current UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones knew it was more politically expedient to downplay any direct comparison between revenues in boxing and MMA (“Boxing has been around over 100 years…The foundation is set and the money is there. MMA is so new.”). But the question looms large — why is it that boxing can boast stratospheric paydays whereas MMA’s purses are deliberately obscured from public knowledge?
We could talk about the structure of modern boxing where there is competition between promoters (Bob Arum, Golden Boy, etc.) and TV networks (HBO, Showtime, etc.), which drives boxing purses up. Or we could focus on the formula for self-promoting fights that Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. derived tremendous benefit from. The fact remains that with its limited 20-year history, MMA has much more in common with the monopolistic and mafia-controlled boxing of the 1950s and ‘60s than it does with modern boxing.
What the industry tends to ignore is that the passage of time is not what leads to progress. It was five years ago in 2008 that Jon Fitch was tossed overboard by the UFC for refusing to sign away his likeness rights away in perpetuity. While managers and fighters could have drawn a line in the sand, squared up with Zuffa and said “You’ve taken enough from us,” their response to the likeness rights situation was completely muted.
Thus, the precedent was set. MMA managers acting out of fear negotiated with the UFC by giving up something in exchange for nothing.
(“So if you win, your salary doubles from $22,000 to $44,000? And if it’s the best fight on the card, they give you a $50,000 bonus? Wow. That’s adorable, man.”)
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s record $41.5 million guarantee for facing Canelo Alvarez in September elicited a series of reactions from the MMA community. Some fighters like Tito Ortiz made ridiculous comparisons (“What am I doing different from [Floyd Mayweather Jr.]?”). Others, like current UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones knew it was more politically expedient to downplay any direct comparison between revenues in boxing and MMA (“Boxing has been around over 100 years…The foundation is set and the money is there. MMA is so new.”). But the question looms large — why is it that boxing can boast stratospheric paydays whereas MMA’s purses are deliberately obscured from public knowledge?
We could talk about the structure of modern boxing where there is competition between promoters (Bob Arum, Golden Boy, etc.) and TV networks (HBO, Showtime, etc.), which drives boxing purses up. Or we could focus on the formula for self-promoting fights that Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. derived tremendous benefit from. The fact remains that with its limited 20-year history, MMA has much more in common with the monopolistic and mafia-controlled boxing of the 1950s and ‘60s than it does with modern boxing.
What the industry tends to ignore is that the passage of time is not what leads to progress. It was five years ago in 2008 that Jon Fitch was tossed overboard by the UFC for refusing to sign away his likeness rights away in perpetuity. While managers and fighters could have drawn a line in the sand, squared up with Zuffa and said “You’ve taken enough from us,” their response to the likeness rights situation was completely muted.
Thus, the precedent was set. MMA managers acting out of fear negotiated with the UFC by giving up something in exchange for nothing.
*****
Boxing was corrupt in the ‘50s — the mafia having gained control of the industry during the prohibition of the sport from 1830 to 1920 — and most fighters were simply objects to be used and discarded. (Of many available examples, 110% of Joe Louis’s purses were committed to other people, and the IRS still needed to be paid on top of that).
There were still people who pushed back, playing the dicey game of making certain compromises while maintaining a larger strategic aim. One such man was legendary trainer Cus D’Amato, understood to be the driving force behind world champions Floyd Patterson, Jose Torres and Mike Tyson. In Confusing the Enemy: The Cus D’Amato Story, a new biographical novel by Scott Weiss and Paige Stover, the strategy and tactics of D’Amato throughout different eras of boxing are explained — ideas that still apply to the embryonic mixed martial arts game today.
From 1949 to 1958, the International Boxing Club (IBC), led by Jim Norris, ruled the major divisions of boxing. From fixing matches to slicing and dicing up the fighter’s purses, Norris and the IBC ruled the roost with the compliance of shadowy organized crime figures in the background.
As Cus D’Amato groomed Floyd Patterson to be heavyweight champion of the world, he avoided opponents who were controlled by the IBC. Jim Norris of the IBC wanted a 50% interest in Floyd Patterson in exchange for headlining cards at Madison Square Gardens; D’Amato had no interest in serving Patterson up to the IBC on a silver platter.
Fortuitously, the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) and the US Senate began putting heat on the IBC. D’Amato walked into Jim Norris’s office for a sit-down to get Floyd Patterson the big fights he deserved: “By keeping this fight out of the Garden and off of network television, we’re both leaving money on the table…How long are we gonna keep this up? Neither of us is getting where we wanna be.”
D’Amato and Norris worked out a compromise, but it was clear that the IBC was losing ground. When Rocky Marciano vacated the heavyweight title, D’Amato used the hard sell — bluffing a potential Patterson-Marciano fight with another promoter — to negotiate for Patterson to fight for the world title in November of 1956 for the staggering sum of $150,000. Eventually, the IBC was declared a monopoly by the courts and ordered dissolved.
D’Amato had earned scorn for opposing the IBC monopoly because his tactics kept both Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres inactive or facing unranked opponents. In the end, however, he prevailed, not just in that both Patterson and Torres became champions, but because in retirement, their careers extended beyond boxing: Patterson became chairman of the NYSAC and Jose Torres a respected writer and author.
*****
With the right representation at the right time, a talented MMA fighter can secure a better deal. PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko went from earning paltry purses of $15,000 to $20,000 under Russian Top Team manager Vladimir Pogodin to clearing $200,000 per fight plus win bonuses throughout 2004 thanks to agent Miro Mijatovic.
Fedor had been unhappy with Pogodin for quite a while, as Pogodin had been skimming money off the top. Mijatovic promoted Fedor’s fight against Yuji Nagata at Inoki-Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, giving Fedor a purse of $150,000. PRIDE was so terrified of the prospect of losing their heavyweight champion — and more importantly, the threat of competition from a new promotion — that the yakuza (organized crime) who ran PRIDE held Mijatovic hostage at gunpoint in order to extort the rights to Fedor of him.
Throughout 2004, Mijatovic was part of the management team that guided Fedor to record purses ($200,000 per fight plus win bonuses) and the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix title. When the PRIDE brass attempted to bribe Mijatovic at the end of 2004 in order to control Fedor’s earnings, he refused and was dumped from Fedor’s management team by Vadim Finkelstein. The rest of this story, including PRIDE’s demise is, as we say, history.
The lesson throughout eras in combat sports is simple — when you control the consensus heavyweight champion, you can control the sport. This was not lost on Cus D’Amato, and it certainly wasn’t lost on Miro Mijatovic.
*****
Just about the only force that can reform MMA involves government intervention, the same way the US Senate investigated boxing. California attempted change in 2012 through Assembly Bill 2100, which was designed to prevent promoters from claiming unreasonable future merchandising rights, prevent unreasonable restrictions on fighters’ seeking outside sponsors and prohibit other onerous contract provisions.
While the legislation was doomed from its inception due to a variety of factors, the anti-AB2100 speakers are worth noting because of what they tell us about the current MMA landscape. Ronda Rousey adopted Zuffa’s stance and spoke out against the bill due to the simple matter of self-preservation: In 2012, she was champion in the sinking ship known as Strikeforce; in 2013, she became the champion of the newly-created women’s bantamweight division in the UFC. Matt Hughes, who spoke positively about Zuffa’s influence on the sport to the California Assembly, was rewarded for his loyalty by being hired in January 2013 as the UFC’s VP of Athlete Development & Government Relations.
The Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into Zuffa’s acquisition of Strikeforce fared no better than AB2100, with the case being closed in February 2012. It’s hard to believe that the Feds got a clear picture of the current MMA scene — limited leverage for negotiation; zero transparency into a promotion’s financials; no legit rankings for organizational titles; and no agency on the part of fighters no matter how big they are.
The irony is clear: Name brand Zuffa fighters with the most to gain from Federal intervention into MMA are conditioned from all sides to maintain a code of silence that diminishes their position.
*****
When Cus D’Amato first met 13-year old Mike Tyson, he was clear about his vision for Tyson’s future, “If you listen to me, I can make you the youngest heavyweight champion of all time.”
In an excerpt from Mike Tyson’s new autobiographyUndisputed Truth, Tyson reminisced on how D’Amato began conditioning him to overcome his fears, “Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning,” D’Amato tells him. “But fear is your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you let it work for you. If you don’t learn to control it, it’ll destroy you and everything around you.”
Tyson overcame his fears to win the undisputed heavyweight title. No one knew better than Cus D’Amato that having the premier heavyweight in boxing meant that D’Amato could change the way the game was played, just as he had done before with Floyd Patterson. Tyson’s management team of Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton helped solidify his financial status behind the scenes. But when Cus D’Amato and Jim Jacobs passed on, Tyson was rudderless in rough seas and succumbed to the vile influences of boxing, including Don King’s machinations.
Today, of course, the lessons from those bygone eras of boxing have been lost on today’s MMA fighters and managers. Instead of building up a fighter from the ground-level with emotional intelligence and a strong sense of self-worth, we see Ronda Rousey insecure to the point where she believed she’d be cut from her coaching gig on The Ultimate Fighter. We have Georges St-Pierre delicately trying to articulate his feelings about not being supported by Zuffa for attempting to get Johny Hendricks to go through with the VADA drug testing Hendricks had already agreed upon. We see Jon Jones being thrown under the bus by the Zuffa brass over the cancellation of UFC 151 in a way that diminished his market value by inciting the fans to further hate him.
Fighters and managers might win battles like getting a women’s division in the UFC or Jon Jones (supposedly) out-earning his NFL brothers, but they have lost sight of the war. In another five years, the only difference will be the influx of many new contenders to push out the current crop of Zuffa fighters, the same way Jon Fitch and Yushin Okami were kicked to the curb in 2013.
Instead of waiting for the sky to open up and the gods to bestow change upon the MMA landscape, fighters and managers have to look at ways to organize and start pushing back in a strategic manner at the right junctures. If more men like Cus D’Amato come along, they can outfox and out-hustle the dark forces of the industry, perhaps improving the sport (or forever changing it, as Miro Mijatovic did with PRIDE) for generations to come.
