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If it were anything other than combat sports, this would have been felt like something of a minor scandal brewing for the UFC. For MMA fans, though, it’s pretty much all old hat. Ari Emanuel may have put a corporate shine on Dana White’s fight company, but in some of the least appealing ways, it’s still the business we’ve known for decades.
Just how many unsigned bouts has the UFC been promoting?
This last week we saw an announced headlining fight between Vicente Luque and Sean Brady fall apart after it was revealed that—despite the UFC’s assurance that the bout was set—the fighters had not, in fact come to an agreement on the booking. More particularly that Sean Brady had hoped to be able to take the fight, but was recovering from an injury that ultimately prevented him from being ready in time.
More notable than that bout, however, was a whole storm of nonsense kicked up by Dustin Poirier. Currently set for the co-main event of UFC 299, the ‘Diamond’ took to social media in the past couple days to announce that he had failed to reach an agreement with the UFC for his bout with Benoit Saint Denis. With seats already on sale and a couple of weeks of UFC advertising in place, Dana White & co. had apparently been selling wolf tickets…
Ultimately, Poirier course corrected, telling fans that he hadn’t spoken to his manager in the past few days and did not realize that a deal had actually been reached in the meantime. The fact remains, though, that between Poirier’s reveal that a contract had seemingly just been signed and a statement from Saint Denis’ coach that neither he nor his fighter knew who their opponent was before the bout had been announced, that the whole thing held onto the stink of standard UFC negotiating tactics.
It’s not hard to understand where these tactics come from. When the Fertittas first purchased what would become the world’s largest MMA promotion it was firmly in the ‘dark ages’ trying to find a foothold with a government that had seen their early events and decided that it was too violent for sanctioning. In that tenuous financial environment, and with Joe Silva as the pitboss in talent negotations, the UFC made absolutely sure that no matter what fighter they were working with or what fight they were trying to make, they had to come out on top. To put a finer point on it, the UFC built its reputation on being ruthless.
The UFC may be huge but they still negotiate like a hungry start-up
Fifteen years of that steely resolve later, and the business went up for sale with a price tag over $4 billion. They had concentrated their power over fighters in every single way possible. They took away sponsors, they took away clothing options, they secured image rights. Exclusive contracts became the norm, as did long-term multi-fight deals with matching clauses and negotiation windows. Meanwhile, the UFC also created pipelines for finding fresh fighters that ensured that cards could always be filled. Anyone who really did want to leave wouldn’t be missed for long.
Today, the UFC is a financial juggernaut, raking in money through corporate partnerships, licensing and broadcast fees that ensure whether they’re putting on events in front of a crowd of 20,000 or 20 they’re making millions. And while Silva may be gone, as long as Dana White is still here the cheapskate attitude that brought them up doesn’t look like it’s about to go away.
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