Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Flashback: Rob Maysey talks about Zuffa’s new marketing rights agreement

By Zach Arnold | November 19, 2008

Print Friendly and PDF

This is why we have a radio show. On June 26th of this year, we had Rob Maysey on as our special guest to talk about UFC’s new marketing rights agreement. (Listen to the interview here.) Get on board and check out the show if you don’t have it already saved on your computer. Start at the 13 minute mark of the radio show to hear the interview.

We will update this post throughout the day on Thursday with links to what others on the Internet and in the general sports media have to say about Jon Fitch and others from American Kickboxing Academy getting cut by UFC President Dana White.

Rob Maysey articles:

MMA Payout articles:

Media Reaction:

MMA Weekly – Jon Fitch interview

The American Kickboxing Academy welterweight standout explained that the situation for the urgency of the contract from the UFC might have stemmed from another company, EA Sports, putting out an MMA video game of its own. Apparently the UFC had promised all of its fighters exclusively to THQ, the makers of the upcoming UFC Undisputed 2009 game scheduled for release in spring of 2009.

“We were already promised to THQ by the UFC, even though none of us were under contract (for that), in order to save face, they had to force us to sign this thing,” he explained.

Eurosport – Swick ‘to avoid pals’

Mike Swick has told Eurosport-Yahoo! he can see a bright future in the UFC welterweight division – despite his plans to avoid fights against team-mates Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch.

And as for potential fights against buddies Koscheck and Fitch?

“I fight them every day – and for free,” Swick joked. “I would not want to have to fight them. There are so many guys in this division, I am sure we will have plenty of competition without fighting each other.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

5 Responses to “Flashback: Rob Maysey talks about Zuffa’s new marketing rights agreement”

  1. Ivan Trembow says:

    Excerpt from my blog post about this debacle:

    “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.”

  2. Ivan Trembow says:

    And he just keeps digging the hole deeper for himself (Dana White quote as posted on Five Ounces of Pain):

    “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.

  3. Ivan Trembow says:

    It’s crystal clear in the USA Today blog interview that what the UFC is trying to do is separate the fighters from their agents.

    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.”

  4. Doubage says:

    Does Dana’s greed surprise anyone?

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

    Everyone deserves a fair shake especially the fighters.

Comments to Audio: UFC’s Dana White loses it during Sacramento radio interview | FightOpinion.com - Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry.

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image