Hayabusa responds to Reebok Deal, sponsoring GLORY kickboxing
Ben Fowlkes spoke with Hayabusa co-president Craig Clement, Dethrone founder Nick Swinmurn, and Bad Boy CEO Robin Offner about the Reebok Deal.
Most questions about the Reebok Deal have focused on its effect on fighters. Ben Fowlkes looked in depth at how several companies are responding to the sponsorship landscape after International Fight Week on July 7. Fowlkes spoke with Hayabusa co-president Craig Clement, Dethrone founder Nick Swinmurn, and Bad Boy CEO Robin Offner.
Instead of simply looking for other fighters to sponsor, Hayabusa looked for another organization.
It found what it was seeking in GLORY kickboxing, Clement said. Beginning in August, Hayabusa will be the exclusive provider of gloves in all GLORY bouts, thanks to a three-year deal that Clement hopes will more than make up for what his brand is losing with the UFC, if only because this will allow Hayabusa to show more of what it’s actually selling.
We get a lot of calls from UFC fighters wanting to wear our equipment to train in, Clement said. It happens all the time, guys calling and saying, ‘Can you please send us your stuff?’ We never got to show that on the (UFC) broadcasts. We’re known for all our equipment, but especially our gloves. GLORY just made sense.
It’s a creative solution to a problem that many longtime UFC sponsors are facing. While UFC executives have repeatedly assured fighters that they can keep their sponsor outside the cage, many of those brands aren’t so excited about continuing to pay top dollar for athletes who can’t even represent the company at pre-fight weigh-ins, much less a fight night broadcast.
Among fighters, at least, the biggest winners in the UFC’s Reebok deal may turn out to be those in other organizations. Many of them were previously ignored by the big MMA-centric apparel companies.
We were paying the UFC this sponsorship fee just to be permitted to speak with their fighters, Clement said. That alone, you save those kinds of funds, then the sponsorship itself, and we sponsored probably five to ten guys on every card. It adds up. That’s a lot of freed-up marketing dollars that we’re going to move around.
Already some of those dollars have found their way to GLORY, and more will land in the pockets of individual GLORY fighters on a fight-by-fight basis, Clement said. Some of the rest will likely end up in Bellator.
And, yes, some will stay with UFC fighters, such as heavyweight Todd Duffee, who fights Frank Mir at UFC Fight Night 71. Of course, since that fight takes place on July 15, Clement said, Duffee won’t be able to represent Hayabusa on TV.
But we’re still working with him, Clement said. We still want to be part of MMA, whether that be with UFC fighters outside the octagon or with fighters in other organizations, such as Bellator.