Managers offer variety of opinions on Reebok Deal
Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com reached out to a number of leading managers in the MMA space, and received a wide variety of responses.
The Reebok deal was first announced with compensation tiers based on rankings, and received widespread criticism, both discretely and publicly. The UFC sought out feedback, and new tiers based on tenure were announced; the response was generally positive.
Next, rumored figures surfaced that were grudgingly accepted, but when the actual dollars were announced, they were lower than the initially rumored numbers. The majority of fighter and managers who responded did so critically.
Reebok Deal Tiers
0-5 fights: $2,500
6-10: $5,000
11-15: $10,000
16-20: $15,000
21+: $20,000
Champion: $40,000
Challenger: $30,000
There will be an extra spot for a second sponsor, but under the current deal, that will be used for a UFC sponsor, rather than a fighter sponsor.
Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com reached out to a number of leading managers, and received a variety of responses, including managers who were for it.
John Fosco, VFD Marketing (Travis Browne, Clay Guida)
Fosco said the athletes he represents will not take a hit, because he has spent the last two years preparing his fighters’ sponsors for the change. Further, he has little sympathy for managers who did not.
“[Managers] are selling those ratings [to sponsors] and shame on us for f—ing saying, ‘Oh my fighter is going to lose money.’ … You do not sell your athlete based on who they are, unless they’re special. You sell it on ratings. You sell it on the UFC’s TV time.”
“The barrier for entry to become a manager or agent in this space does not exist. So when you have zero barrier to entry, a lot of the people are viewed as whatever in the industry. They haven’t really done s—, but talked their way into some young kid’s brain who has a fantasy and capitalized by signing him.”
“These guys who do not sell tickets and do not get ratings with the crop of talent out there, what the f— are they worth? They’re not owed anything. There’s this mentality, ‘Oh, I’m owed something.’ You’re given an opportunity. You want to make money? Go knock the f— out of people, because I promise Dana will pay you if you go out there and knock the f— out of people.”
Ryan Hass (Myles Jury, Johnny Case)
Hass’s client Jury was one of the most vocal critics of the deal, but has apparently worked things out with Reebok and the UFC.
“Dana helped mend fences already and we’re all good with Reebok,” said Hass. “The whole situation was a misunderstanding.
“(Dana White) is a man of his word and he definitely stepped in and helped out when he didn’t need to. I have nothing but respect for who Dana is as a person and how he handles everything behind the scenes. Most don’t hear 90 percent of all the great things he does and how genuine he is.”
“Everyone wins and is happy if every fighter is allowed three to four sponsors on their shorts and a banner. truly hope Dana and Lorenzo will approve that into the uniform policy to eliminate all of this uniform talk and then have everyone excited about the change.”
Mike Roberts, MMA Inc., (Anthony Pettis, Urijah Faber, Paige VanZant, Chad Mendes)
Roberts said that “10 to 15 percent” of the fighters he manages will benefit from the new deal.
“The other 85 to 90 percent, it’s gonna hurt,” he said. “This Reebok deal is not going away. It’s just not gonna go away. It’s gotta be fixed. It’s gotta be tweaked, because everybody is not worth the same.”
“For years it was, you can get your own sponsors and that was a way for [the UFC] to be able to compensate you less on the purse. There has to be a way to figure this out.”
“I really believe when this deal started that Dana and Lorenzo had good intentions. The problem is I don’t think there’s a way to do it that’s gonna be fair for everybody.”
Monte Cox (70+ fighters)
Sara McMann’s manager said her $2,500 sponsorship is half of what she used to be paid for a singe shorts patch on her shorts.
“There are people who are getting that to fight in Legacy and other smaller events,” said Cox.
“I don’t have anyone on my team that thinks it’s a good deal. The only people who like it are the guys who have 20 fights and still aren’t title contenders.”
“One of the big plusses for the UFC was the amount of sponsorship money fighters can get. It was one of the big selling points to try to get in there. Now it’s not. I’ll have guys in Bellator making more money than the guy I have headlining a UFC event.”
An MMA manager’s meeting has been organized by Roberts and Jeff Meyer in Las Vegas before UFC 187. Undoubtedly some improvements to the Reebok Deal be proposed. The UFC has shown flexibility thus far, and hopefully will continue to do so, until a majority of fighters do not view the deal as a loss.