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Fighter uniforms: The UFC tightens its grip

UFC are tightening their grip on sponsorship dollars. (Image: Supplied).
Roar Pro
3rd December, 2014
5

The unsurprising and long awaited announcement that the UFC has signed a ‘Fighters Uniform’ contract with a major sports apparel company was announced this week.

It could possibly have far reaching consequences for any athlete who competes under it’s banner.

By restricting what the fighters are allowed to wear, and by the same token eliminating all outside sponsorships in the cage, the UFC has taken control of its roster of athletes to a new level, possibly hitting a few of them in the wallet at the same time.

It is a well known fact that fighting in the UFC does not pay big bucks, many fighters regularly fight for $3000 to show and $3000 to win. Hardly retirement pay.

What has helped to alleviate this problem in the past was the addition of sponsors, who in return for the publicity, supplemented the income of the official fight purse.

In recent years the UFC has sought to benefit from the existence of sponsors, fighter Nate Quarry spoke about the gradual intrusion of the promotion into something which was exclusively the fighters preserve.

“When I signed with the UFC this is what I was told, ‘We can’t pay you much but you can get any sponsors you want’,” he said.

“Then: We need to approve your sponsorships. Then: You can’t have any conflicting sponsors. Then: You can’t thank your sponsors after fights.

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“Then: We are not approving sponsors that we don’t like their product. Then: Your sponsors have to pay us a fee of $50 000 for the pleasure of sponsoring you. Then: Your sponsors have to pay us a fee of $100 000 for the pleasure of sponsoring you.”

It is easy to realise how the last two measures affected fighters. Basically, the UFC was receiving money which would otherwise go directly to the athlete. Though there have been few fighters to publicly comment negatively on the issue (Josh Barnett and Felice Herrig being notable exceptions) there is a groundswell of opinion that this will benefit the UFC more than individual fighters.

Despite the announcement that all proceeds from the deal would be returned to the competitors it is another restriction on a fighter’s choices which has been eroded.

The UFC is the pre-eminent MMA organisation in the world and clearly feels comfortable in this role to be able to make unpopular decisions like this. Time will tell if this is beneficial to competitors, but rest assured, as long as they are number one the UFC will be pulling the strings.

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