Smith: Biggest challenge is fighter education

UFC women’s bantamweight Leslie Smith appeared recently on The MMA Circus and discussed Project Spearhead, a fighter labor organizing effort she is undertaking with attorney Lucas Middlebrook, among others. The last two efforts in this regard, the PFA and MMAAA have thus far been all bluster, the former in particular. The original fighter organization effort, the MMAFA, continues to move forward, albeit slowly.

The biggest challenge is the education — educating all the fighters on what this means, what the steps are, on how it can benefit them; showing the fighters that the struggles that they’re going through are the same struggles as all the other fighters are, have, and will go through, said Smith to Nick Baldwin for BloodyElbow.com.

My time is running out. I have been vocal about the union for quite some time now. … I’m in a good position as far as my fighting career goes, but I’m not deluding myself that the UFC has any obligation to keep me on just because I’m winning. I know that they don’t; that’s part of the independent contractor relationship. If I am not actually in the UFC and I’m working on all these efforts, not only is my access going to be restricted, but my relevance will be, as well.

My contract right now is for $31k/$31k. And that’s gonna be another obstacle because at this point, it will not be worth it for me to re-sign for $33k/$33k or something like that. It’s gonna have to be at least $100k [to show with no win bonus], and that’s probably the lowest that I’m gonna go — we’ll probably start at $250k.

I am a very exciting fighter; people really like to watch me fight. I bring it every time, I make weight, but I’m not gonna sign myself away for less than what I feel I’m worth.

I’m currently looking at applying to the Sorbonne University in Paris, where I could go study international law — who knows? If I don’t get signed, I’m going back to school.

The MMAAA had Bjorn Rebney, who said he was there to make things better for fighters. He had the opportunity to do so when he was the head of an organization [Bellator MMA]. His behavior in the past didn’t really line up with what he was saying his goal for the future was. I feel like that was the main reason that didn’t work, because Bjorn Rebney was a big part of it, and he had his own agenda.

The PFA didn’t work because Jeff Borris started a committee of agents that he did not tell me or Middlebrook about. When the confidentiality became an issue, he gave them all the information. That was a breach of the confidentiality.

Leading up to this, I’ve had tons of fighters come up to me and tell me they really appreciate what I’m doing, they really like the spirit of it, and that they would love to be part of it, but they’re scared for their jobs.

The UFC has a lot of people scared to speak up, and that’s what I want to change. We don’t need a climate of fear that’s governing the fighters and the UFC. We need a climate where fighters’ opinions and rights and desires and needs are valued and weighed in when making decisions.

Smith fights Aspen Ladd at UFC Fight Night 129 on May 19, 2018, at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile. It’s the last fight of her UFC contract.