Cung Le: I am with MMAFA not PFA

There are currently at least two efforts underway to unionize elite mixed martial arts fighters.

The first is Rob Maysey’s MMAFA which has advocated for a players union for nearly a decade, as well as the explicit legal extension of the Muhammad Ali Act to MMA, among other issues. It has the vocal support of a small but prominent number of fighters including Randy Couture, Jon Fitch, and Cung Le. Earlier this month, the Professional Fighters Association announced it’s formation, via press release.

The PFA is solely directed at the UFC, and not elite professional MMA generally, including the Viacom-owned Bellator MMA. The PFA is headed by long-time baseball agent Jeff Boris, who has represented over 500 pro baseball players including Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Rickey Henderson. Second in command is sports attorney Lucas Middlebrook, who represented Nick Diaz vs. the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Borris works for the Ballengee Group, a sports agency founded by Texas oil billionaire James Ballengee, that represents both Nick and his brother Nate.

Boris did not extend the MMAFA the courtesy of a call before announcing. However it was intended, after 10 years in the trenches, a Hank Shrader look alike stomping into the sport and talking about how much of a fighter he really is, without so much as a single call, was perceived as an FU.

Former UFC middleweight Cung Le has been a strong supporter of the MMAFA, and in a recent interview with FightHub, he reaffirmed his support, and voiced his displeasure at the money he made in the sport, vs. that made by UFC co-owner and long time president Dana White.

In the late 90s, White had been driven from Boston by minions of terrifying gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, who wanted more protection money from his fitness boxing business than he in fact had. So White moved to Vegas, and ended up managing the MMA careers of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.

The UFC was then doing about as well as a dinosaur post meteor strike. White convinced high school buddies Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who were then expanding the family’s casino business, to buy the failing league for $2,000,000. White got 10% of the “business” and a closet for an office.

The trio lost tens of millions trying to make the new sport catch on, and were looking for buyers when they tried one last thing. The brothers bankrolled a reality television series, The Ultimate Fighter.

The series finale between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar was so unbelievably great that every minute more people watched until many millions were glued to their set, and finally the sport had a future.

This year, the UFC sold for over four billion dollars. It was the largest sports sale in history. White is believed to have made $360 million, and gets 9 percent of net profits per year for the next five years to continue as president.

Le’s last fight he made $150,000 in losing a brutal fight to Michael Bisping. Afterwards he was suspended for elevated levels of HGH. The testing process was flawed and Le’s suspension was rescinded, in a debacle that led to the UFC selecting an independent drug testing agency. Le asked to be released from his contract, which was denied. Le joined an anti-trust action against the company, and retired in January of 2015.

But he is still fighting.

“There’s two unions,” said Le, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “One’s been around for ten years. I’m with that one. MMAFA. Behind Rob Maysey. I’m behind MMAFA. The other union, they just came on. Why did they just pop up? They haven’t been doing ten years worth of work. MMAFA is for the fighters and for the Ali Act. The other union, they don’t care for the Ali Act because eventually they want to have certain control on fighters. That’s what I believe.

“They haven’t been around. They haven’t been pushing the Ali Act. All I know is, you’re only as good as what your actions were yesterday, or your previous actions. MMAFA is always cranking and I’m part of it.”

“It’s just a matter of time. It has to happen. You can’t have promoters take advantage of fighters. That’s just wrong. The UFC sold for $4 billion – 4.2 sorry – and Dana White’s made more than all the fighters in UFC history combined. That’s just wrong. Good for him but it’s not right.”

“Everything I do I work hard. Whether I get paid like shit which – Ultimate Fighter China, I wasn’t a coach. I was the Dana White over there. I held it down. You see Dana White talking on ESPN News that if it wasn’t for me that show would have went under, belly up. I got paid like shit.”

“If you think about it, with my effort and what the UFC China crew did out in China, we created enough awareness to have a Chinese investor bid for $4 billion and that’s why William Morris came on and outbid them for 4.2 [billion]. If I was never in the picture, if all these different shows would have never happened, what kind of outcome would have happened for Dana and for the Fertitta brothers. They wouldn’t have had this outcome.”