Top fighters discuss free agency
Matt Mitrione, Phil Davis, Josh Thomson and Benson Henderson are all top-15 fighters who have moved from the UFC to Bellator MMA, making free agency one of the most important stories of 2016.
Once upon a time, many believed that the UFC was a monopoly. There is in fact an ongoing court case around the issue. Whatever was true in the past, there are now choices for fighters.
Senior B/R writer Mike Chiappetta did the most in-depth piece to date on free agency in mixed martial arts, which is driven by a variety of forces including loss of sponsorship money from the Reebok deal, athlete treatment, contract exclusivity concerns, and above all, because they can. Matt Mitrione, Phil Davis, Josh Thomson and Benson Henderson are all top-15 fighters who have moved from the UFC to Bellator MMA, making free agency one of the most important stories of 2016.
Matt Mitrione has spent his entire professional fight career in the UFC, and was in pro football as a member of the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants organizations in the early 2000s.
“The MMA business is very similar to the NFL business,” said Mitrione. “There’s no promise of loyalty. If you’re not expecting the business aspect of things, you’ll get your feelings hurt. I guess I’m the same way. I’m hurt because I displayed loyalty and none was given back. I guess it’s just human nature to expect to give and to get back, but that’s not the case when it comes to sports. When you know you have a value and you’re worth something to them, you’ve got to monetize it. I’ve got to capitalize, and it’s not fair to be criticized because I want to capitalize on it.”
“Some people are so brainwashed. They say, ‘How dare you think about business like that?’ If you cite money, you’re a greedy pig. If you cite anything else, you’re a scared p—y. It’s crazy. The thing is, the UFC has become bigger than the sport, and what’s bad about that is so many people want to be in the UFC that everyone else is an afterthought. There are guys in smaller organizations that their only goal is ‘I want to go to the UFC.’ And I’ll tell them there might be more money in another place. And they’ll say, ‘It doesn’t really matter. That’s my goal.’ But once people get to the UFC, they might get the disenchantment of what’s going on. If you’re a veteran in the UFC, you’ll see it.”
“Being famous and being in the UFC doesn’t do you any good if you can’t capitalize on it and monetize it realistically. It’s not feasible for the most part. [The Reebok Deal] took so much money from us and so much revenue-earning potential from us, it changed the entire landscape of everything. I don’t understand why anyone would re-up with the UFC unless they’re still caught up in the glamor of being in the UFC.”
“They steal from your left and your right pockets and you’re stuck there. Not to be incredibly crass—but you’re stuck there with your d*** in your hand. I was doing what was expected from me, and they okey-doked me. They pulled the chair out from underneath me.”
Former UFC lightweight Benson Henderson is the highest profile fighter to date who tested free agency, and left the UFC.
“When you talk about backroom bonuses and discretionary bonuses, they’re awesome, they’re cool, but it’s not a steady salary, it’s not promised,” said Henderson. “Some guys never get a bonus. It’s all at the whim of the higher-ups. And you shouldn’t have a problem paying your mortgage because of the whim of the higher-ups, because they didn’t feel your fight was worthy of a bonus.
“That struck me as wrong. It’s not right at all. Fighters are professional athletes. As much as we sacrifice, we shouldn’t have to live hoping that we get a bonus, hoping that we did enough to impress them.”
“Fighters are smart, and we know there’s only that limited time we can make money. If you have other options now where we can make good money and make sponsorship money—so not only are you going to make as much as you made in the other organization, but on top of that, you’ll make a good chunk of change in sponsorships once again—why would you not do that?”
“For me, dealing with Scott and [matchmaker] Rich [Chou] the first time, it was a little bit of a breath of fresh air. They were super up-front, transparent and honest about where they were coming from. With some other people, it’s like, ‘This is how it is, and this is how it’s going to be done.’ There’s no discussion. Scott, Rich and [consultant] Mike Kogan were super open to discussing things. They had openness, forthrightness, transparency. That’s not something you get in most negotiations, I suppose, but especially in MMA.”
“Probably over the next couple years or so, there will be a lot of guys testing free agency and making the UFC offer good, upstanding contracts, making sure the UFC brings its best to the table. That’s all fighters really want. We want the best deal brought to the table, whether it’s Bellator, UFC, ONE or World Series of Fighting. UFC is a super-smart, multibillion-dollar business, and I imagine it will see the threat of not bringing its best to the table, so I imagine it will.”
The reality of it, and this is going to sound kind of strange, is that fighters are not used to being professional athletes/ Some of these guys are just enamored with being popular and famous. There are things that those guys have to start to think about more. Here’s what matters to me: doing the best I can for myself and my family, having a nice house, being able to retire. When fighters start thinking about those things, everything changes.”
Rory MacDonald, 26, is the #1 ranked welterweight in the UFC. He fought his brains out challenging Robbie Lawler at UFC 189, for a disclosed purse of $59,000. He appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and said he is going to test the waters.
“I really sacrificed, and I took a lot of chances,” he told Helwani. “I did a lot of favors, I felt like, for the UFC, and I don’t think it got returned. So now it’s all about making money, and whoever wants to pay me the most is where I’ll go.”
Expect that attitude to become the norm.
From the fan perspective, that means a lot of top talent – call them the Rory MacDonalds of the sport – may go to Bellator MMA, which has restrictive contracts too. So the best fighters in every division will no longer always be fighting each other. It will be a return to the peak of the PRIDE years in the early to mid 2000s. For the hardcore MMA fanbase, fighters making more money is worth it, but free agency from this perspective is not free.