Kennedy attempts to explain inclusion of Rebney in MMAAA
One Wednesday the sport was promised an ’industry redefining’ announcement at 4:00 p.m. ET. What we got was five brave, well-meaning…
One Wednesday the sport was promised an ’industry redefining’ announcement at 4:00 p.m. ET. What we got was five brave, well-meaning souls, and Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney.
The Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association seeks a 600% increase in fighter salary, among other aims. The sole conceivable way to force a company to increase the talent’s salary by that margin is via going on strike. But that is an extraordinarily hard sell. The route to the raise was described as a strategy that had to remain secret.
That was the heart of the pitch – we are going to get you six times more money, but we can’t tell you how. You just have to join. And we can’t tell you who is funding us.
Rebney said he had been planning this for two years, which would place it close to his ouster at the Bellator MMA he founded when he was replaced by the well-liked Scott Coker. So a ferociously, ferociously competitive man, a brilliant salesman, who founded an MMA promotion and drove it to the #2 spot, the Simon Legree of MMA, gets ousted by the new owners. Then according to this narrative, he woke up the next day and realized fighters weren’t treated right in the UFC, and by gosh, he had to do something about it!
Four of the five fighters are represented by the same agent at Creative Artists Agency. It doesn’t take a lot to connect three dots. According to this narrative, Rebney approached CAA, which given its history was naturally receptive.
Fighters are on the whole about as good at business as managers and agents are at fighting. That is why most fighters have managers and or agents. Please note, this was not directed at Urijah Faber, the perfect figure to lead a desperately-needed MMA players association.
Then according to this narrative – which is purely speculative – the agent at CAA convinced the fighters that Rebney would be an excellent adviser in a plan to increase their money. To get even more speculative, the first figure to convince, ideally, would be GSP. If he was in, it makes sense to be in, too. He’s GSP.
In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Given that fighters in the UFC are clearly getting less than their counterparts in the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, they are going to naturally gravitate towards a plan, even one with glaring issues, that offers them and their brothers and sisters the promise of more money. Especially when it is presented by their agent, the guy whose job it is to make them more money.
The UFC is now owned by WME-IMG. CAA and WME-IMG have been arch rivals for a generation. If Pepsi suddenly came up with a plan to organize Coke workers so they could make six times more money, inquiring minds would wonder. It is separate but not entirely unrelated issue that IMG simultaneously owns the UFC and manages some fighters – the very definition of a combat sports conflict of interest.
The new venture is setting up offices and plans to begin traveling to fighters to sell them on the merits of the effort. Who is funding the effort? The WWAAA wouldn’t say. Inquiring minds …
Former Bellator fighter Muhammed Lawal let his feelings be known.
Tim Kennedy appeared recently on the ever-excellent Luke Thomas Show and shared his feeling about Bjorn Rebney.
These are the things I know about Bjorn,” began Kennedy, as transcribed by Anton Tabuena for BE. “His heart right now is 100% in the right place, to maybe right wrongs of what he’s done as a promoter, and take care of fighters as he has never been able to before. His job as a promoter is to make money, and to drive sales and content, and that’s what he did, very very successful.
Now his job, is to ensure that fighters, for the first time, have an opportunity to be fairly compensated. He has the knowledge and expertise, that maybe nobody else besides Scott Coker and Dana White have. And don’t think that Scott wasn’t talked to and considered, but this had to be done.
He’s almost a necessary evil. We can’t go in these conversations without understanding the nuances and subtleties that exists within a promotion. The things that promotions do to garner money, the type of partnerships they create — from vendors using the arenas, to sponsors with the promotions, to tickets, pay-per-view sales, website contents, partners with networks.
Those are things that I don’t know, Cain Velasquez doesn’t know, TJ doesn’t know, GSP doesn’t know, Cowboy doesn’t know. Even the lawyers, they don’t know that because they haven’t been a promoter that has tried to work every single angle.
You can hear Tim say some of this right here:
Tim Kennedy fights Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 206 on December 10, in Toronto, Ontario.