Dana White vs. Ryan Jimmo: The Reebok Deal
UFC president Dana White and light heavyweight Ryan Jimmo offered remarkably different views on the recently announced Reebok Deal.
UFC president Dana White appeared recently on LA’s Power 106, and defended the Reebok Deal, while acknowledging that many fighters were unhappy with it.
“The fighters aren’t thrilled about it,” said White as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting.com. “I don’t know, man. These guys don’t get it. These guys are short-sighted sometimes. It’s good for the industry. It’s good for everybody. You want to have a deal like this.
“Let me tell you what’s going on. Our weigh-ins are live on TV. You see some of the underwear these guys wear? Guys in like SpongeBob SquarePants underwear. We need to take this thing to the next level and have them in all Reebok gear.”
“Some of these sponsors, one guy, I’m not kidding you, ‘NoHo Hangover’ is one of his sponsors. 1-800-radiators. Condom Depot. I could go on for days. DNL Deli Market. The Tire Barn. These are some of the sponsors these guys have.
“Reebok has stepped up. These guys have spent a lot of money. We’re giving every dime of the money that’s coming in to the athletes.”
White had a simple explanation for the concern voiced by a number of fighters.
“Change,” said White. “Change freaks everybody out. Listen, these guys can all keep their sponsors. They can all have them. They just can’t wear them in the octagon. That’s no different from any other sports organization on earth. NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball. It was the next step for the evolution of the sport. It had to be done, but nobody likes change.”
“If this thing goes right and it does well, there could be a Michael Jordan for Reebok in this group of guys and girls. It could be Ronda. It could be this one or that one that could have a long-lasting relationship with Reebok for the rest of their life. It’s a good thing.”
“To tell you the truth, Ronda is actually one of the most sponsored people in the UFC. She makes millions of dollars in sponsorship. She’s never worn one in the Octagon, ever. She wears UFC stuff. It’s part of the evolution of the sport.
“For the toughest guy’s and girls in the world, this thing’s like a hair salon. Everybody freaks out and starts gossiping and freaking out. It’ll blow over.”
One fighter not ready to let the deal blow over quietly is UFC light heavyweight Ryan Jimmo, who fights Francimar Barroso on May 30 after a year long layoff while he recovered from injury. In an extended interview with John S. Nash for BE, Jimmo launched the harshest attack on the deal heard to date.
JSN: So how would you describe the current relationship between the UFC and its fighters?
RJ: One thing with the UFC, this is almost like an abusive relationship. You know if we look at Johnny and Suzy and we think they’re a happy couple but then Suzy shows up one day for work with a black eye, and she says, “Oh, I walked into a door.” Well everyone thinks it’s nothing, she walked into a door. A couple of weeks later she shows up with a bruise on her arm and she’s like “I tripped over the lawnmower” and everyone is oh, she tripped over the lawnmower. Then before you know it Suzy is in the hospital with a broken nose and the police are involved and it turns out that Johnny got mad at her for burning dinner and he put her in the hospital, and all those things people ignored before, now they turn out to be obvious indicators that she was in an abusive relationship.
And that’s what we’re seeing now. The broken nose is the Reebok deal coming out. Everyone went “oh my god, this is a horribly abusive relationship between the fighters and the UFC.” And all the little things people heard about fighters complaining about before, about pay, or a bout agreement, or fighters angry about this or that, it became obvious that those were symptoms of an abusive relationship the whole time. People were dismissing it before because they like the UFC. Now that these Reebok numbers have come out, well it’s kind of obvious that this is a horribly unbalanced relationship that needs to be changed so it can be a little more fair and equal.
JSN: So what do you think the solution is? We see there is a lawsuit against the UFC. There’s always talk of a fighters union, or an association to be more accurate. Are those the answers? Is it something else?
JR: In an idealistic world I would just like to see Dana and the Fertittas and the owners of this literally be the greatest Santa Clauses in the world and just double everyone’s pay. But I doubt they do that. Big corporations don’t tend to do that. What’s the solution? I would say a fighter’s association first and foremost has to happen.
The company I work for, I hope it doesn’t become crippled and go bankrupt and out of business because of the lawsuit. But because of that lawsuit and the resistance shown by fighters pushing back I’m hoping it leads to a fighters association. That would be a great first step.
And it’s not something that is going to be solved overnight. This is a long going problem. The things I want to see changed, if I can make that happen, I probably won’t see the benefits. It’s for the next generation. Making an association is a risky endeavor but it’s going to pay off for the next generation.
There is more and more rumblings underground about it and I think it’s a difficult thing to get going but I also think we are right on the cusp of seeing it happening. I think we are seeing a paradigm shift, where people were afraid but now we are seeing a tipping point and the Reebok numbers were a large tipping point. And we’re thinking we do not want to take this anymore and it’s time to stand up as a group and fight for our future opposed to getting bread scraps. To not end our careers as a broken fighter with nothing to show for yourself. Not even our own image rights. I think it’s time to change the environment.