With two of the five board members of the new MMA Athletes Association fighting this weekend at UFC 206 and two more fighting at UFC 207 three weeks later, it’s only natural that the Association is a topic of conversation at the fighter media engagements. What wasn’t necessarily expected was a major development, and we got one on Wednesday at a media day in Toronto. According to an account from MMAFighting, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone told the assembled media that until he heard about it during the MMAAA conference call, he had no idea he was sitting on the Association’s board.
“As far as the Association goes man, Georges [St-Pierre] and Tim [Kennedy] called me and asked me to be part of it,” Cerrone explained. “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.”
To hear Cerrone explain it, he was there more to support the message of fighter benefits than anything else, rather than present himself as an official part of a group with advisor Bjorn Rebney and fellow board members Kennedy (his teammate at Jackson-Wink MMA), St-Pierre, T.J. Dillashaw, and Cain Velasquez. He explained that”I wasn’t sitting there saying, ‘we’re moving forward today, we’re going on strike, we need more money. 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.” He specified those needs as “health care” and “some kind of pension for retirement”
Cerrone was highly complimentary of the UFC and Dana White throughout, saying that “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 [with legal issues]. That’s true, man. I was in a bind, he got the best lawyers you can pay, and saved my ass.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PVp1Q6x0L0
With two of the five board members of the new MMA Athletes Association fighting this weekend at UFC 206 and two more fighting at UFC 207 three weeks later, it’s only natural that the Association is a topic of conversation at the fighter media engagements. What wasn’t necessarily expected was a major development, and we got one on Wednesday at a media day in Toronto. According to an account from MMAFighting, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone told the assembled media that until he heard about it during the MMAAA conference call, he had no idea he was sitting on the Association’s board.
“As far as the Association goes man, Georges [St-Pierre] and Tim [Kennedy] called me and asked me to be part of it,” Cerrone explained. “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.”
To hear Cerrone explain it, he was there more to support the message of fighter benefits than anything else, rather than present himself as an official part of a group with advisor Bjorn Rebney and fellow board members Kennedy (his teammate at Jackson-Wink MMA), St-Pierre, T.J. Dillashaw, and Cain Velasquez. He explained that”I wasn’t sitting there saying, ‘we’re moving forward today, we’re going on strike, we need more money. 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.” He specified those needs as “health care” and “some kind of pension for retirement”
Cerrone was highly complimentary of the UFC and Dana White throughout, saying that “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 [with legal issues]. That’s true, man. I was in a bind, he got the best lawyers you can pay, and saved my ass.”
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.”
