MMA and the fighters need competition to stop the UFC monopoly.

Everyone deserves a fair shake especially the fighters.

Dana White is citing Mike Swick as an example of a model employee, a “partner” as he words it, who called White personally and said to forget about his management because he’s with the UFC. In other words (and if what White says is accurate), Swick is willing to sign the merchandising rights deal. That’s what the UFC wants.

White says in the same interview that if Fitch would just call him and do the same thing (ie, separate himself from his management and agree to sign what the UFC wants him to sign), that he would do that in two seconds.

He also puts unnamed “other MMA camps” on notice that he’ll cut off all relations with them just like he did with AKA if they don’t do what he wants.

On a comical note, here’s another quote from the USA Today interview: “We don’t do anything wrong. We treat everybody the right way and we treat people the way that we want to be treated.”

“It’s like all the media wants to jump up and go ‘Oh the UFC! The UFC!” Shut up! Shut up. Every one of you shut your mouth. Mind your business.”

He is apparently unaware that covering the sport is the media’s business, not just putting out slightly reworded press releases.

It’s also ironic/hypocritical that the UFC always says how much they hate to talk about money… until the second there’s a contract dispute of some kind, in which case they want to get very specific down to the dollar.

It’s also ironic/hypocritical that White is going on and on about the economy as if the UFC itself is in some kind of financial trouble. They have $300 million in annual revenue according to S&P. They just had a PPV event with a gross of $54 million if the UFC’s own estimates are accurate (so Zuffa’s share would be roughly $27 million). They pay their athletes, as a whole, a lower percentage of gross revenue than the athletes in any other major sport. They have a TV deal that pays them over $33 million per year, and that’s without factoring in the extra fees for UFC U.K. shows that are numbered events.

“If there was ever any doubt that fighters need a union, this kind of bullying and threatening behavior by the UFC’s management reinforces the need for a union. Through their own hubris, the UFC has actually made the case for a fighters’ union in a stronger way than anyone ever has in the past… The UFC is going to continue with this kind of despotic behavior for as long as they can get away with it. Until there is a union, the fighters have no leverage with which to challenge the UFC’s behavior.”