It seems like all I’ve done lately is write about all the injuries that have occurred in MMA in the past two weeks. I find myself in the role of “bearer of bad news,” and quite frankly I’m getting kind of tired of it. I’m tired of getting excited for fights and cards only to have them unceremoniously called off because of injuries.
In fact, in all my time as a fan of MMA, I can’t remember the last time that the UFC has suffered such an awful string of injuries. Sure, every so often an undercard fighter would get injured in training, but no one decides to pass on a card because Evan Dunham or Byron Bloodworth pulls out of a fight. I can handle seeing an undercard fight get rearranged. It’s just the nature of the business.
So, when the UFC gets hit with a plague of injuries, how am I supposed to react? Am I supposed to think that it’s all just coincidental? That all of these fighters just happen to be getting injured all around the same time? Or, is there a deeper reason for fighters such as Vitor Belfort, Brian Stann and now Jose Aldo to pull out of their headlining fights?
Through various talks with friends involved in the industry in some capacity, the discussions always seem to come back to the same thing: Zuffa’s fighter insurance.
When it was first announced, it was praised by fans and detractors as a huge step forward for MMA. Here was a promotion that was looking out for their fighters and ensuring they wouldn’t have a stack of medical bills and debt should they get injured in training.
It appears now that the announcement that advanced the sport may be the the UFC’s worst enemy. Prior to offering insurance, fighters literally couldn’t afford to pull out of fights.
The cost was just too great—not just because of the medical expenses, but because after paying for an entire training camp, they relied on their fight purses to survive until their next booking.
Any nagging injuries could be covered up until post-fight when the UFC covered the cost for any nagging injuries. The only catch is that they couldn’t talk about these injuries on social media or disclose them to the commission in their pre-fight medicals.
With the UFC now covering medical bills, fighters are less inclined to fight hurt. The industry’s advancement in fighter pay and sponsorship has also ensured that fighters can get by longer in between fights without entering the cage.
Dana White told Ariel Helwani after UFC on FX 3 that he believes fighters are getting injured because they’re training too hard. While that may be the case, they’re also pulling out of fights because the UFC is covering their bills.
As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. The UFC is finding that out the hard way.
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