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Fighters vs. Promoters
By Zach Arnold | February 22, 2006
By Zach Arnold
When I created the PPH (Puroresu Power Hour) radio show three years ago, Dr. Keith Lipinski was a matchmaker/booker for guests. Ever since the show started, he and the PPH have had a great relationship in terms of getting interviews with the UFC promotion. We’ve had Dana White on for a few interviews and he was always interesting to talk to. One thing that you can say about the UFC boss is that he certainly knows how to attract attention. And this has not changed since the aftermath of UFC 57.
On February 11th, Fight Opinion writer Luke Nicholson had a UFC 57 numbers article that discussed the payscale for the show. Certain fighters got paid a lot of money, and other fighters did not. The aftermath of this event has seen a lot of online discussion about how much fighters should be paid and whether or not promoters should be paying fighters more.
Recently, things heated up between UFC President Dana White & fighter Chris Brennan. Brennan was tentatively scheduled to work an upcoming UFC 57 show against fighter Joe Stevenson. However, Brennan backed out of negotiations and instead took a booking on the upcoming Gracie Fighting Championships event on March 3rd. Brennan claimed that he was going to get paid five times more money for the Gracie booking than he would have with the UFC booking. This has resulted in a firestorm on the Internet, as Dana White did an interview with MMA Weekly.
There are three questions that immediately pop into my mind when I review this situation:
- Did Chris Brennan do the right thing, and should he have honored his original commitment?
- Did Dana White handle this situation correctly, or should he have had a press representative/spokesperson issue a statement on the matter?
- Is this story just a sampling of things to come in regards to how fighters and promoters do business in the North American MMA industry?
Topics: All Topics, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
If Brennan didn’t sign the contract, he didn’t do anything wrong. The fighters have the right to accept the best offer, not necessarily the first offer.
I do believe that Dana should have just issued a statement that was well thought out, well worded and not to mention, maybe have no curse words intead of the million **** he used during the interview.
To paraphrase a Jim Cornette line Dana White might want to avoid all this pro wrestling hyperbole, in other words cutting a promotion on some guys ass. One of the many things that have hindered Vince’s unsuccessful marches into the mainstream is his tendecy to go carny mad on people when faced with serious criticism. It doesn’t do the sport good to have the man who’s supposedly running things go out and bury people on the internet like so many indy workers.
The reality is at some point Dana may infact have to pay people more money, or risk losing fighters who can get better deals. In the meantime though I can see him employ a variety of tactics to protect his bottom line.
1. If he had a verbal agreement to be in the UFC show, its probably not the most professional thing to go be on another show, but as long as there was no contract, I wouldn’t necessarily say it was wrong.
2. I think it would be in White’s best interest to hire himself a good publicist to can handle these types of things for him, or at least teach him how to not swear every other word.
3. If you mean how White reacted, *urk*, I hope not. If you mean that UFC could potentially lose fighters to other groups who pay more, in that case I think competition is a good thing.
I love business competition and it is in mma’s best interest to have as much North American competition as the market will allow. The UFC pay scale doesn’t seem to be based upon anyting in particular other than how cheaply a fighter will accept a contract. Thats simply the market forces of supply and demand in action. If a fighter cuts a great deal, then praise their negotiating skills or that of their agent/manager. If a fighter accepts a 2k/2k deal, then reality tells us they would make more money working the red eye shift at a stop and rob than risking injury for the Bargain Fighting Championships.
Regarding Mr. Whites inability to conduct an interview without swallowing his feet in a plethora of expletives, he simply needs a business mentor and not replacement. Dana has accomplished many significant achievements in the UFC and deserves to be praised for them. Likewise, he seems unable to control his ego or his mouth, which are not traits of a Warren Buffett type successful power broker. Mr. White needs to realize he has achieved great success and that coming across as a low rent arm breaker goombah is hardly what the Fertittas or this sport needs at this juncture. As much as Dana causes me to shake my head in exasperation, I do not call for his head on a platter like much of the hard core internet. Dana simply needs a business mentor skilled in the nuances of public relations, profitability, promotion, and ethics to hone his pumice stone exterior into a highly polished diamond of communicative skills. If his ego allows, this is easily done when the right mentor is recruited. I await the Fertittas telephone call……