But of course, CagePotato is just a mid-level MMA blog trying to find its way in this world with zero access to Zuffa executives. The crazy part is, the UFC’s own stars are still in dark about what the sponsorship agreement will mean for their finances, two weeks after the announcement was first made.
Case in point: MMAJunkie published an interview with Demetrious Johnson yesterday, in which the long-reigning flyweight champion wondered aloud what the UFC’s new sponsorship landscape will mean for his existing sponsorship with Xbox, which is now basically deceased; Johnson will not be able to wear Xbox logos in the Octagon when the UFC/Reebox partnership officially kicks in next year. Johnson’s comments were somewhat shocking, because it seems like he knows as little about the Reebok deal’s specifics as we do. Here are some choice quotes…
A guy like Nick Diaz, for example, comes out with all his Metal Mulisha, all his sponsorships,” Johnson said. “Let’s say from those sponsorships he makes like $80,000 to go in the octagon. That’s a nice payday just for wearing sponsorships.
“Lets say the UFC says, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to wear Reebok tomorrow.’ And he says, ‘OK, that sounds good. Here are all my pay stubs and my contracts for my last fight. They’re paying me $80,000, so what’s Reebok going to pay me?’ They say, ‘You’re ranked second in the world, so we’re going to pay you $2,000 to wear Reebok.’ For me, I think that’s not necessarily fair because there’s basically $78,000 that’s unaccounted for. If UFC’s going to compensate me with the same amount, that’s fantastic. If not, that’s a big boo-boo”…
But of course, CagePotato is just a mid-level MMA blog trying to find its way in this world with zero access to Zuffa executives. The crazy part is, the UFC’s own stars are still in dark about what the sponsorship agreement will mean for their finances, two weeks after the announcement was first made.
Case in point: MMAJunkie published an interview with Demetrious Johnson yesterday, in which the long-reigning flyweight champion wondered aloud what the UFC’s new sponsorship landscape will mean for his existing sponsorship with Xbox, which is now basically deceased; Johnson will not be able to wear Xbox logos in the Octagon when the UFC/Reebox partnership officially kicks in next year. Johnson’s comments were somewhat shocking, because it seems like he knows as little about the Reebok deal’s specifics as we do. Here are some choice quotes…
A guy like Nick Diaz, for example, comes out with all his Metal Mulisha, all his sponsorships,” Johnson said. “Let’s say from those sponsorships he makes like $80,000 to go in the octagon. That’s a nice payday just for wearing sponsorships.
“Lets say the UFC says, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to wear Reebok tomorrow.’ And he says, ‘OK, that sounds good. Here are all my pay stubs and my contracts for my last fight. They’re paying me $80,000, so what’s Reebok going to pay me?’ They say, ‘You’re ranked second in the world, so we’re going to pay you $2,000 to wear Reebok.’ For me, I think that’s not necessarily fair because there’s basically $78,000 that’s unaccounted for. If UFC’s going to compensate me with the same amount, that’s fantastic. If not, that’s a big boo-boo”…
“I think everyone would hope (they’re paid the same or more as before), whether they’re the champion or not,” Johnson said. “I would hope the person on the prelims card who is ranked 20th in the UFC, if they’re making $10,000 from Dynamic Fastener, I believe they have the right to be paid that. That’s just me being an honest person.
“If the person can show what they are making and this Reebok deal isn’t making the same, they should be making it right. That’s my take on it. I support the UFC, I’m happy for this deal, and I hope it helps out a lot of fighters, including myself”…
“I think it’s a good thing to where people don’t have to run out and struggle to find sponsorships and all that stuff,” Johnson said. “But at the end of the day, I just don’t want people to be stripped of what they can bring in. That’s my biggest thing about it. If a person is getting paid $80,000 for something and they’re told they can’t wear it anymore and they’re losing that money, then something needs to happen about that…We won’t know how good the deal is until we see the actual fine print.”
Disclaimer: Demetrious Johnson doesn’t know how much money Nick Diaz actually receives from Metal Mulisha, or how much a prelim fighter makes from Dynamic Fastener, and even we’re not pessimistic enough to think that #2-ranked UFC fighters will only earn $2,000 per fight from Reebok. Essentially, this is just nervous chatter from someone who has no idea what’s going on.
The problem is, that “someone” is a UFC champion and frequent headliner. Having Demetrious Johnson voice these concerns in the media is a public relations black eye for the UFC, and it could have been avoided if the promotion actually explained to its fighters what impact this would have on their income, preferably before the Reebok deal was even announced.
The UFC’s lack of communication and transparency on this issue tells us all we need to know. If the promotion’s top stars stood to earn a lot more money from Reebok than they were earning from their existing sponsorships, the UFC would be pushing that narrative as hard as possible. Instead, they’re silent — and champions like Demetrious Johnson have every reason to be nervous.
Before the main card action was underway this past Saturday night, we had a pretty eventful weekend already.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale saw a new women’s strawweight champion crowned, as Carla Esparza submitted Rose Namajunas in the final, after a string of pretty decent fights.
Then came UFC on FOX 13, headlined by a heavyweight fight featuring Junior dos Santos against Stipe Miocic. The prelims were strange but sufficient, Henry Cejudo winning his debut, younger-than-he-looks Joe Riggs suffering an injury in his Bellator superfight against Ben Saunders, John Moraga being dropped by Willie Gates after complaining about a low blow to the official, last-minute food poisoning for Derek Brunson, Jamie Varner retiring after a loss with hopes of starting a fighter union, Ryan Jimmo’s terrible seats, Phil Baroni’s shlong, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk outpointing Claudia Gadelha (who pulled a Paul Daley in the heat of the moment, but apologized right away) to go on to face Esparza in the near future.
Before the main card action got underway this past Saturday night at UFC on FOX 13, we had seen a pretty eventful weekend already.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale saw a new women’s strawweight champion crowned, as Carla Esparza submitted Rose Namajunas in the final, after a string of pretty decent fights.
Then came UFC on FOX 13, headlined by a heavyweight fight featuring Junior dos Santos against Stipe Miocic. The prelims were strange but sufficient, with Henry Cejudo winning his debut, younger-than-he-looks Joe Riggs suffering an injury in his Bellator superfight against Ben Saunders, John Moraga being dropped by Willie Gates after complaining about a low blow to the official, last-minute food poisoning for Derek Brunson, Jamie Varner retiring after a loss with hopes of starting a fighter union, Ryan Jimmo’s terrible seats, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk outpointing Claudia Gadelha (who pulled a Paul Daley in the heat of the moment, but apologized right away) to go on to face Esparza in the near future.
All those happenings revolved around a huge story that broke in the afternoon courtesy of Bloody Elbow, but don’t worry, we’ll get to that in a bit.
The stage was set for the remaining four fights on prime time television, featuring three heavyweight battles and a lightweight battle consisting of one dude that apparently makes heavyweights shit their pants.
Speaking of which, Nate Diaz was buried by the UFC as soon as the show got underway, with footage of the Stockton fighter walking out on his pre-fight interview. And frankly, we can’t blame him, because who wouldn’t get sick of answering how you’re going to topple your foe for the past seven years?
Let’s get the two opening fights out of the way, as Matt Mitrione excelled in somewhat of a crossroads fight, knocking out Gabriel Gonzaga in two minutes. Mitrione’s performance couldn’t have been any better, as he clocked Gonzaga and followed up with fight-ending blows, and even had to deliver the last kiss when referee Herb Dean failed to stop the fight and allowed Gonzaga to take one last brutal shot that clearly knocked him out.
It was great to see a healthy Stefan Struve compete again after his fainting spell at UFC 175, and it’s safe to say nearly everyone that was familiar with that story felt a little nervous about the “Skyscraper” stepping inside the cage again. There were no conditioning issues, but unfortunately, Struve suffered his fifth knockout loss in the UFC at just 26 years old. Alistair Overeem brutalized his fellow Dutchman with ground-and-pound, leaving his younger opponent on the receiving end of a beatdown.
It’s hard to say where this leaves the “Demolition Man,” but at least the K-1 Grand Prix champion isn’t in hot water, and will most likely take on Mark Hunt or the night’s main event winner.
Back to Diaz, he came in nearly five pounds overweight for his lightweight tussle against Rafael dos Anjos, meaning the battle was contested at a catchweight. It was as one-sided as they get, with the Brazilian brutalizing Diaz’s lead leg, forcing the former 155-pound title challenger to limp early. In the end, dos Anjos was better than Diaz everywhere, and even mauled him on the ground for what it’s worth.
At the post-fight presser, UFC President Dana White, who was already not fond of his fighter’s actions, expressed his concerns about Diaz’s future, citing he gets serious or retires. We don’t have crystal balls, but chances are Diaz won’t retire, and that thought is laughable, since White is more or less suggesting the younger Diaz brother — who always “played the game” unlike his older brother — doesn’t have options elsewhere. His manager Mike Kogan is buddies with Bellator boss Scott Coker, not to mention the promotion’s new matchmaker. The case of Diaz will presumably develop in the coming days, yet if there were ever a time for a fighter to lash out after his company tried to put a suit and tie on him, it’s now.
The main event saw Junior dos Santos defeat Stipe Miocic by unanimous decision, although the two 49-46 scorecards were downright terrible. The firefighter clearly won the opening two rounds, clocking the Brazilian with his crisp boxing and had the former heavyweight champion in a bit of trouble. The Brazilian came on strong for the remainder of the fight, dropping his foe, but took the same amount of damage in the five-round slugfest.
It was one of those fights where you can’t have a problem with JDS winning, or losing, for that matter. It was a close fight, and although MMA blowhards are susceptible to call robbery every time they don’t agree with the judges, this was one of those “either/or” cases. The criteria to be a judge must be a high school degree and 48 hours of community service working at a Salvation Army, yet we already knew that. However, the fight wasn’t exactly an instant classic, as some journalists would have called it. It was damn good, and maybe one that needs a rewatch on Monday morning with a few slices of leftover pizza for breakfast. But please, refrain from saying it was “one for the ages” and all that jazz.
Who knows where this leaves JDS, though, if Cain Velasquez beats Fabricio Werdum in the next few months. Werdum has a loss to dos Santos, so that’s compelling, but Velasquez mauled the Brazilian twice, so it’s kind of senseless. It’s a question that will be relevant until his next fight is announced (which could be against a former rival in Overeem), so let’s not dwell on specifics and let the chips fall where they may. Still, there’s a growing concern for how much damage dos Santos takes. Some bust and bleed easy, however, he’s starting look a tad like Miss Piggy.
So, all in all, UFC on FOX 13 proved to be a damn good night of fights, capping off a weekend where the promotion crowned a new champ and Rousimar Palhares held on to Jon Fitch’s leg for too long elsewhere. Credit the UFC for the latter half of 2014 being relatively awesome, as they are currently on a good run of exciting fights these past few months minus a crop of fights being canned due to injuries.
With a new sponsorship deal and controversies like failed drug tests, a rankings overhaul done by “proper” media, and domestic abuse not far away, 2015 can’t come any sooner, with news breaking yesterday about a class action lawsuit against UFC officials, with their own fighters (and managers) challenging them in the court. Apparently, it’s for $100s of millions of dollars, stemming from the promotion “abusing their market power to intentionally and systematically cripple the free market,” and cites the Reebok deal, too.
There have been plenty of game changers in the past, but this one is huge. And it couldn’t have come at a better time, with the UFC inching closer to dominating the whole landscape of fighting, while the fans and observers have to resort to keeping up with over 40 events a year. Just when we thought this carnival sport had stolen our souls (let’s face it, it did), there’s actually hope for the future.
That’s how UFC lightweight Jamie Varner describes his trials and tribulations during the past year, in which he got knocked out by Abel Trujillo in a fight that he was winning, then suffered a TKO loss by ankle-injury against James Krause — in another fight that he was winning.
Varner’s back is against the wall as he returns to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 13, which takes place this Saturday, December 13th, in Varner’s hometown of Phoenix. In this candid interview with CagePotato.com, Jamie Varner opens up about the UFC’s controversial new partnership with Reebok, how he’s trying to rebound from a tough 2014, and his upcoming opponent, Drew Dober. (“I didn’t know anything about him. I still don’t.”) Enjoy, and follow Jamie on twitter and sqor.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: Since it’s such a hot topicthese days, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the UFC’s uniform deal with Reebok. Overall, do you think it’s a good thing, a bad thing, or is it still too early to tell?
JAMIE VARNER: It’s a little too early to tell. The organization is becoming more mainstream, the overall operations are becoming more corporate, and I think it’s time to implement some sort of fighters’ union, just to make sure that everything is fair and evenly distributed among the fighters. Because for me personally, about 30-40% of my income comes from sponsorships, and with the way their tier system has been announced, it’s like, champions get the most, #1-5 [ranked UFC contenders] get the second-most, 6-10 the third-most, 11-15 the fourth-most, and then all non-ranked fighters are going to be on the same level.
For a guy like me, I’m not in the top 15, but I’ve beaten a couple guys who are — Edson Barboza is ranked like #11 [Ed. Note:He’s actually #6 now] Donald Cerrone is top 5. So I’ve beaten guys in the top 12. And I have a pretty good audience and presence when I fight, people like to tune in to watch me throw down, so I don’t think that I should be making the same amount as a guy who has never fought on a main card, never got a Fight of the Night bonus. I just don’t really understand how this is all going to work out. I can’t really comment on whether I’m upset or happy with the way everything is. I do like the fact that we are all going to look nice. I like the fact that there is going be a little more structure, and we’re going to be more mainstream by having the uniforms, but the fighters need to be appropriately compensated.
That’s how UFC lightweight Jamie Varner describes his trials and tribulations during the past year, in which he got knocked out by Abel Trujillo in a fight that he was winning, then suffered a TKO loss by ankle-injury against James Krause — in another fight that he was winning.
Varner’s back is against the wall as he returns to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 13, which takes place this Saturday, December 13th, in Varner’s hometown of Phoenix. In this candid interview with CagePotato.com, Jamie Varner opens up about the UFC’s controversial new partnership with Reebok, how he’s trying to rebound from a tough 2014, and his upcoming opponent, Drew Dober. (“I didn’t know anything about him. I still don’t.”) Enjoy, and follow Jamie on twitter and sqor.
CAGEPOTATO.COM: Since it’s such a hot topicthese days, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the UFC’s uniform deal with Reebok. Overall, do you think it’s a good thing, a bad thing, or is it still too early to tell?
JAMIE VARNER: It’s a little too early to tell. The organization is becoming more mainstream, the overall operations are becoming more corporate, and I think it’s time to implement some sort of fighters’ union, just to make sure that everything is fair and evenly distributed among the fighters. Because for me personally, about 30-40% of my income comes from sponsorships, and with the way their tier system has been announced, it’s like, champions get the most, #1-5 [ranked UFC contenders] get the second-most, 6-10 the third-most, 11-15 the fourth-most, and then all non-ranked fighters are going to be on the same level.
For a guy like me, I’m not in the top 15, but I’ve beaten a couple guys who are — Edson Barboza is ranked like #11 [Ed. Note:He’s actually #6 now] Donald Cerrone is top 5. So I’ve beaten guys in the top 12. And I have a pretty good audience and presence when I fight, people like to tune in to watch me throw down, so I don’t think that I should be making the same amount as a guy who has never fought on a main card, never got a Fight of the Night bonus. I just don’t really understand how this is all going to work out. I can’t really comment on whether I’m upset or happy with the way everything is. I do like the fact that we are all going to look nice. I like the fact that there is going be a little more structure, and we’re going to be more mainstream by having the uniforms, but the fighters need to be appropriately compensated.
You mentioned that 30-40% of your income comes from sponsorships. Has that number held steady in recent years, or have you personally seen the market for sponsors in this sport dry up?
I was making more money, sponsorship-wise, back when I was in the WEC. That was also before you had to pay the [UFC sponsor] tax. But I was able to get big money from sponsors on fight night, and as soon as they implemented the sponsorship tax, money has definitely gone down. As well as the dilution of the sport — I mean there’s over 40 UFC events a year, so the sponsors aren’t paying as much money as they used to because there’s so many shows. So I’ve noticed that with the dilution [of events], the prices have kind of come down a little bit, but nevertheless, just because I’ve been a fan favorite and I’ve been around a long time and I have a great agent — Oren [Hodak] with KO Reps does right by me — I still have been able to make about 30-40% of my income from sponsors. So let’s say I make $20,000 in a fight, I can almost count on having $10,000-$15,000 in sponsorship money. At the end of the year, it totals out to be about 30-40% of my income, from sponsors.
I’d like to talk about the year you’ve had, which has been challenging at times, to say the least. That ankle break you suffered against James Krause looked terrible. In terms of the injury itself and the recovery, is it safe to call that the worst injury of your career?
No, it wasn’t the worst injury of my career. The worst injury of my career was definitely when I broke my hand and broke my foot against Donald Cerrone when I was in the WEC back in 2008 — but [the ankle injury] is #2. Yeah, this year’s been a tough year, man. I lost to Abel Trujillo in a fight that I was dominating. It was my first time ever being knocked out in my career. I’ve never even been dropped in training, in sparring, and I spar with monsters like Ryan Bader, CB Dollaway, Carlos Condit. I spar with some tough, tough guys, some pro boxers, and I’ve never gone down with a head shot.
To see the look in Abel’s eyes, to see that he had quit in that fight, that he had given up, that he had accepted defeat, and getting caught the way I got caught, with my hands down? It really sucked. Seriously, I looked into his eyes and he was done, and I was just waiting for the ref to come in and stop the fight. And the next thing I know I’m picking myself up. So kudos to Abel for toughing out the fight, but yeah, this year’s been a tough year. Breaking my ankle in the first minute of the first round with James Krause, and still being able to win the round, but losing that fight. Losing a tough split-decision to Gleison Tibau — I mean that fight I felt like I clearly won. Honestly, dude, I’m the best fighter with the worst luck, but I’m just gonna keep on fighting and keep on bringing it.
As you grow older in the sport, is there anything different you need to do in terms of physical preparation or recovery? Are you doing anything different lately to take better care of your body and prevent further injuries?
I’ve been doing this sport a long time, and plus I was wrestling and boxing in college, so I have a lot of wear and tear on my body. I took a different approach this training camp, which was a little bit longer than some of my past training camps. I used to do 6-8 weeks, and I did 8-10 weeks this time around, and I’ve only been doing two-a-days. I used to do three-a-days, Monday through Friday, and take Saturday and Sunday off. Now, I do two-a-days Monday through Thursday, one workout on Friday, and one workout on Saturday. But the Saturday workout is only an hour long, and I pretty much get the whole day to recover, then I get all day Sunday to recover. As far as being beat up and having injuries during training camp — because that’s when most of our injuries occur, is during training camp — I can’t tell you the last time I had a fight and I wasn’t injured going into it. Before I fought Ben Henderson, I had tore my MCL, I was just going off of cortisone shots in my knee just to survive the training camp and get through that fight, and then pretty much every fight since then I’ve had some sort of injury. From what I hear, most fighters are the same way. You go into almost every fight banged up, a little injured, and that’s the way it is. It’s such a hard sport on your body
You’ll be fighting at UFC on FOX 13 against Drew Dober, a guy who had floated around the regional promotions for a while before getting a UFC contract last year. Had he been on your radar before this fight was announced? Did you know much about him?
I didn’t know anything about him. I still don’t. I’ve seen three fights of his. One of them was against a southpaw so I just turned that fight off after a little while. Another one was against a guy at 170 pounds who was about six inches taller than me, so that fight doesn’t really make any sense. The only fight that really made any sense was a fight that he did about a year ago in a regional promotion that I watched. It went three rounds and he ended up winning the decision, but he got dropped twice in the first round with punches and was put full on into a triangle choke, completely locked up, and was still able to fight his way out and come back and win that fight. So he’s a tough, durable dude that’s gonna be another tough test for me, but I also expect this to be Fight of the Night. It’s gonna be like “Clash of the Titans,” we both like to move forward, we like to throw punches and kicks, we both like to command the center of the ring.
Alright Jamie, it’s lightning-round time. At this point, what do you consider to be the greatest fight of your career?
Rob McCullough and Edson Barboza, those two were the best fights of my career.
That was UFC 68, and no I have not about bringing that back.
I’ve seen photos on social media of the “green drink” that you make. What exactly goes into that, and are there any special tricks to making it taste good?
There are no tricks into making it taste good. It’s Lacinato kale, a half a Granny Smith green apple, and a half a cucumber, and that’s it. The Granny Smith apple sweetens it up enough to just make it bearable.
Is there anything else you’d like to say before I let you go?
Yeah, I just want to give Body Fortress a shout-out, they’re my main sponsor, and they’re not even allowed in the UFC. They’ve been sponsoring me for two years now — I’m going into my third year with them — and they’re a great company to work for. I use all of their products, off-season and when I’m training for a fight. Their whey isolate and their glutamine are my top two that I use in training camp, and then out of training camp I use their advanced whey protein, their creatine, and their NOS.
For more than seven years, welterweight Jon Fitch built a reputation as one of the UFC’s toughest fighters. He fought a who’s who of the world’s best at 170 pounds—and beat almost all of them. Over the course of his tenure in the Octagon he went 14-3-1 with one no-contest. As records go, they don’t […]
For more than seven years, welterweight Jon Fitch built a reputation as one of the UFC’s toughest fighters. He fought a who’s who of the world’s best at 170 pounds—and beat almost all of them. Over the course of his tenure in the Octagon he went 14-3-1 with one no-contest. As records go, they don’t […]
Over the past 24 hours, many words have been written about the UFC’s new “athlete outfitting policy.” Many words will be written in the future, as athletes, managers and the UFC figure out how to tread this rocky new ground. I don’t know what the UFC’s move to a standard uniform means for the athletes […]
Over the past 24 hours, many words have been written about the UFC’s new “athlete outfitting policy.” Many words will be written in the future, as athletes, managers and the UFC figure out how to tread this rocky new ground. I don’t know what the UFC’s move to a standard uniform means for the athletes […]
(“The org in the long run will only be as strong as the fighters it develops and makes the audience care about.” Photo by Cody Pickens/Fortune)
Although the UFC and Reebok officially revealed their uniform partnership on Tuesday morning, many observers were tipped off to the impending announcement by a Monday night tweet from Dethrone Royalty, an apparel brand that has served as a longtime sponsor of UFC fighters including Cain Velasquez and Gilbert Melendez. “Heard uniform announcement coming tomorrow,” the tweet read. “We were never about all looking the same. We’ll stay that way, thanks. #goodluckreebok”
Late Wednesday night, Dethrone/Zappos co-founder Nick Swinmurn posted an open letter on the UG, laying out his feelings about the ongoing changes in the UFC sponsorship landscape — of which the Reebok deal is only the latest step. It’s very insightful, and if you’re interested in hearing how this deal will affect the companies that have been putting money into UFC fighters’ pockets through sponsorships, it’s required reading. Give it a look below…
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No idea why posting this other than temporary boredom, but getting ripped to pieces after might be entertaining enough.
1) We knew this was coming. We weren’t “investing in a UFC future” when we paid the sponsor tax each quarter, we were just paying for the right to be able to pay guys to wear our stuff on UFC broadcasts for the next 90 days. In some cases trying to support a good guy, sometimes trying to align ourselves with a fighter we hoped would move the needle for us, sometimes just trying to get some air time on a good card, and sometimes even we couldn’t figure out why we did it.
2) We have nothing negative or positive to say about the UFC. We don’t really know anyone who works at the UFC and have never had any real interactions with anyone from the UFC other than an annual email from Mike Mersch (legal) with renewal form for sponsor tax. It’s a platform. I just watched Sons of Anarchy but doesn’t mean I feel a personal connection with FX. On the few occasions we’ve interacted with Mike on tax related questions he’s been nice and to the point. We sat at a table with Lorenzo once for five minutes and he was nice. Dana was at the table as well but too many texts for him to look up so can’t technically say we’ve ever met him.
3) We’ve developed a lot of personal relationships with UFC fighters and their managers over the past five years and will always be rooting for those guys in and out of the cage no matter what uniform they wear. We consider a lot of them to be friends.
(“The org in the long run will only be as strong as the fighters it develops and makes the audience care about.” Photo by Cody Pickens/Fortune)
Although the UFC and Reebok officially revealed their uniform partnership on Tuesday morning, many observers were tipped off to the impending announcement by a Monday night tweet from Dethrone Royalty, an apparel brand that has served as a longtime sponsor of UFC fighters including Cain Velasquez and Gilbert Melendez. “Heard uniform announcement coming tomorrow,” the tweet read. “We were never about all looking the same. We’ll stay that way, thanks. #goodluckreebok”
Late Wednesday night, Dethrone/Zappos co-founder Nick Swinmurn posted an open letter on the UG, laying out his feelings about the ongoing changes in the UFC sponsorship landscape — of which the Reebok deal is only the latest step. It’s very insightful, and if you’re interested in hearing how this deal will affect the companies that have been putting money into UFC fighters’ pockets through sponsorships, it’s required reading. Give it a look below…
**********
No idea why posting this other than temporary boredom, but getting ripped to pieces after might be entertaining enough.
1) We knew this was coming. We weren’t “investing in a UFC future” when we paid the sponsor tax each quarter, we were just paying for the right to be able to pay guys to wear our stuff on UFC broadcasts for the next 90 days. In some cases trying to support a good guy, sometimes trying to align ourselves with a fighter we hoped would move the needle for us, sometimes just trying to get some air time on a good card, and sometimes even we couldn’t figure out why we did it.
2) We have nothing negative or positive to say about the UFC. We don’t really know anyone who works at the UFC and have never had any real interactions with anyone from the UFC other than an annual email from Mike Mersch (legal) with renewal form for sponsor tax. It’s a platform. I just watched Sons of Anarchy but doesn’t mean I feel a personal connection with FX. On the few occasions we’ve interacted with Mike on tax related questions he’s been nice and to the point. We sat at a table with Lorenzo once for five minutes and he was nice. Dana was at the table as well but too many texts for him to look up so can’t technically say we’ve ever met him.
3) We’ve developed a lot of personal relationships with UFC fighters and their managers over the past five years and will always be rooting for those guys in and out of the cage no matter what uniform they wear. We consider a lot of them to be friends.
4) The good managers always get the short end of the stick. They provide a valuable service to their fighters but unfortunately its in an ecosystem that would prefer they didn’t exist which makes their job difficult and seems to be forgotten that this is their livelihood too. There are also dipshit managers who give everyone else a bad name.
5) The fighters should always be the stars and focus. In the long run they always will be, it’s an individual sport. The org in the long run will only be as strong as the fighters it develops and makes the audience care about. Watching two people fight isn’t about the icon on the mat or corner of screen, it’s about watching two people fight and the more you know about either or both of them as characters, the more likely you are to be interested. Once a fighter signs with an org he’s generally stuck there like it or not (any org). Which org leads the pack over the coming years will depend on where the next generation of talent decides to sign from the start of their careers. It can be expedited by where stars in their prime decide to sign their next contract. They have choices, the money and audience will follow the best fighters over time. It can’t happen overnight.
6) Saying “if they don’t like it go fight somewhere else” is annoying to read. They can rarely (never without a hassle or being forced to sit out a good chunk of their short career window) get their release (from any org).
7) We had anticipated the uniform happening and understood (even though we didn’t agree with the execution) the logic of getting rid of the clutter and brands that might in some eyes be negative for image as top tier league.
If the house is messy and I have guests coming over, I don’t just throw away all my wife’s stuff and tell her sorry, house was messy, didn’t want to take the time to clean it up in a way that makes sense for both of us, easier to just throw all your valuables away and get you a new outfit, hope g-string and pasties works for you, your crap was probably worthless anyway. She would wonder if her opinion mattered and leave me when she had the chance, or at least she’d think about it.
Why not allow approved non-competing sponsor logos of fighters choice on 1-3 areas of the uniform and restrict to white logos only with no background fill. that way you get clean, consistent look and fighter maintains some ability to decide what he/she is worth $ wise at the pinnacle of their career exposure. at minimum when you eventually decide to slap a red bull logo on each fighters reebok uniform let them at least opt out of wearing that ad (and forfeiting any red bull related pay) if they have a competing energy drink deal outside the octagon.
9) The only way to take control of your career in current ecosystem is to fight out your contract and then test the waters. Gilbert wrote the script, would be crazy for everyone not to follow it. He was the only one with the balls because he’d spent most of his career in different orgs and probably realized fuck, fighting in UFC is cool, but not cool enough to limit how much i get paid. what’s the point of reaching the “big leagues” if it’s not the highest paying league? it’s not his job to fulfill fan’s wishes for him to fight certain guys. it’s his job to make as much money fighting as he can while fulfilling his dreams. if the UFC wouldn’t have matched he’d be making the same money as he now does in UFC but as Bellator champ instead, living the same life with his family, getting the same amount of eyeballs on his fights (and able to charge whatever he wants from sponsors). [This is just our opinion, we didn’t talk to Gilbert about any of this obviously].
10) When we sent the Reebok tweet to be honest we’d heard so many people casually talking about it as a done deal for months we were surprised the reaction was we’d broke some news. What’s crazy is the comments we got saying “what a dick, why would you ruin the UFC announcement?” WTF? The UFC would be the first to say we aren’t “partners”, Dana would say that what we pay in tax is less than a hand of blackjack and that we’re meaningless to them and the fighters. The only reason we were in the UFC was because of the fighters and the only reason the UFC tolerated having to deal with brands like us is because of the fighters. It’s our job to maximize our exposure and get people talking about us, not to keep a secret that we’re being eliminated.
11) This doesn’t mean we’re going to go and pay Bellator guys double what we would have paid them yesterday. We’d certainly like to align ourselves with a new batch of fighters in others orgs, but we can only offer them what makes sense for our business and they can only agree to deals that make sense for them. That’s how it should be. There will still be times when they say fuck dethrone they only offered me X and there will be times when we say what the fuck, how can he ask us for Y? Neither of us are forced to accept each others demands, that’s the point.
12) We’ll still continue to have paid relationships with UFC fighters. The only good news about a single brand being on every single fighter is that it becomes somewhat invisible because everyone has it. We just need to continue to find ways to capture attention.
Been typing so damn long might as well hit send. Will try and answer any questions in the morning if there are any.
Why not allow approved non-competing sponsor logos of fighters choice on 1-3 areas of the uniform and restrict to white logos only with no background fill. that way you get clean, consistent look and fighter maintains some ability to decide what he/she is worth $ wise at the pinnacle of their career exposure. at minimum when you eventually decide to slap a red bull logo on each fighters reebok uniform let them at least opt out of wearing that ad (and forfeiting any red bull related pay) if they have a competing energy drink deal outside the octagon.
