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With the UFC being the dominant entity in mixed martial arts, its executives have not exactly been shy about using their leverage in fighter negotiations through the years.
Once Joe Silva left the UFC after it was sold to WME-IMG, it was only then that several fighters felt free to share their stories and express their distain for the longterm matchmaker.
Thanks to the ongoing Le v Zuffa antitrust lawsuit, some of the communications involving UFC executives discussing fighter negotiations have already come to light. This past week, more unsealed emails and text messages were obtained by Bloody Elbow and John S. Nash after they were filed with the court, along with previously disclosed messages that now included more context.
These correspondences show even more of the noteworthy practices and negotiation tactics that got Joe Silva his reputation. Unfortunately for UFC fighters, it isn’t just him who made sure that happened.
Matchmakers are naturally the point person for a lot of these negotiations, but documents confirmed that similar strategies also came from the UFC owners and other executives as well.
Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White celebrate ‘cut throat nasty’ fighter negotiations
One notable exchange of text messages involved UFC owners Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta.
After UFC used their controversial contract clauses to prevent Gilbert Melendez from moving to Bellator, text messages obtained from the lawsuit showed Dana White congratulating Lorenzo Fertitta for a “fukn cut throat nasty business” move.
“Bro, u know i love u to fukn death as it is but what u pulled off this week with Melendez and “other dude” is fukn BAD ASS! Fukn cut throat nasty business like u see in movies!!” Dana White wrote in a text.
“We gotta keep taking these f—rs oxygen till they tap out. We have sacrificed too much to let anyone get traction now,” Fertitta responded.
“I agree! U r 100% correct and i LOVE IT,” Dana White responded.
In his deposition, Fertitta confirmed that the “other” fighter being discussed was Eddie Alvarez.
Melendez waited out his contract, which had long periods for exclusive negotiation and UFC matching rights. While earlier reports had UFC eventually matching Bellator’s offer to keep him with the promotion, texts from UFC executives state otherwise.
“No those are not the terms we did not match the bellator offer. Ours was deemed a better offer due to our history of ppv and him on tuf.”
Joe Silva also implied wanting to keep control as he doesn’t want other fighters demanding more money.
“Good for us actual money-wise but tough perception-wise in that people think we gave him what we wanted and now others will demand the same,” Joe Silva wrote.
UFC’s harsh negotiation tactics
Many of the UFC’s other thoughts and tactics during previous fighter negotiations were also revealed through these emails and text messages.
UFC ‘lowballed’ Nate Diaz on purpose, wanted to put him on prelims for last fight
Recently unredacted emails from Joe Silva and Lorenzo Fertitta showed them discussing previous negotiations with Nate Diaz, after his representative Cesar Gracie asked for better pay.
The exchange showed how they intentionally “lowballed” Nate Diaz and planned to put him on the prelims on his very last fight.
“Do we let Strikeforce pay him $48,000 + $48,000 or do we give them what they want?” Joe Silva asked White and Fertitta. “He was making 24+24. I offered 27+27 30+30 33+33 36+36.”
“He should be willing to take less money from us,” Fertitta responded, before bringing up Diaz’s multiple performance bonuses from his fights.
“I lowballed them on purpose the first offer knowing they would turn it down. How about I come back with 29+29 32+32 35+35 38+38,” Silva wrote. “If they turn it down I put him in a prelim against a really tough guy for his last fight.”
Diaz ended up staying with the UFC. His disclosed purse for the very next fight after this email exchange was $30,000 to show and $30,000 to win.
This wouldn’t be the last of Diaz’s negotiations with the UFC that were seen through these unsealed documents.
Dana White threatened to take away Nate Diaz’s title shot
Tracy Long, who was UFC’s legal affairs manager and executive assistant to Lawrence Epstein and Michael Mersch, detailed another set of negotiations with Nate Diaz two years later. After returning to lightweight and winning three big fights, Diaz earned a lightweight title bout against then champion Benson Henderson in 2012.
The snag in negotiations seemed to be Diaz wanting a six-fight deal instead of a long eight-fight contract, and possibly better pay. Diaz already fought 16 times for the UFC at this point, and already spent years on a low paying TUF deal. During negotiations, Long explained that she wanted to reiterate how removing the last two bouts meant that Diaz would be losing the highest tier payouts at $100,000 to show. (Note: Diaz would only get to that amount years after, if he won all eight bouts).
On the unsealed emails, she detailed how Dana White told Nate Diaz he only had three options: Accept the modified 6-fight deal, fight for belt at just $45,000 to show and $45,000 to win, or get pulled from the title bout.
Nate Diaz fought Benson Henderson for the belt two months after the email exchange. He lost by decision, and had a disclosed purse of $50,000 to show for the title bout.
Related: Exclusive: Payouts for Nick and Nate Diaz, nearly 50 UFC stars revealed
UFC vs. AKA Fighters: ‘No one expects him to ever be champ’
Even years prior to when UFC infamously released Jon Fitch and his teammates for refusing to sign over lifetime video game rights, American Kickboxing Academy standouts have apparently already experienced some rough negotiations with them.
In an email exchange, Bob Cook was showed trying to negotiate better deals for his fighters from AKA in Jon Fitch and Paul Buentello.
He accepted an opponent for Fitch, and asked if he can get a contract that starts at $8000 to show and $8000 to win, and goes up to $10,000/$10,000 and $12,000/$12,000, with the show and win totals being doubled if he fought for the title.
He also said that he wanted to figure out a “ball park idea” of what Buentello can command because he felt that his current offer “is below where he should be” but wants to stay with the UFC.
Joe Silva responded, seemingly unhappy with the idea that he “shopped” Buentello to other promoters.
“We hand picked Aldana for him to get him back on the winning track. I did it on the last fight of his deal, not trying to get him beat on his last fight and being done with him,” Silva responded in the email. “If I knew it was going to be like this I would have got him someone tougher. My fault.”
Silva also declined increasing Fitch’s pay for a potential championship bout, saying “a title fight is an opportunity for him, not the other way around.”
Raise? ‘The two good guys he fought wrecked him’
In an email exchange, former UFC light heavyweight Pat Cummins’ representation, Ryan Parsons, requested to have his pay for his sixth UFC fight to start at $20,000 to show and $20,000 to win. Joe Silva quickly shot it down, saying “the two good guys he fought wrecked him inside of a round.”
‘If you don’t like this fight, you’re not going to like the next one’
One of the recently unsealed documents obtained by Bloody Elbow was plaintiff Kyle Kingsbury’s deposition. The light heavyweight fighter noted how he didn’t like an offer to fight a debuting Glover Teixeira, who would end up becoming a UFC champion. He says fighting a really good but unknown fighter on the prelims was a “lose-lose” situation that also significantly cut the sponsorship money he can get.
He says this was something Joe Silva didn’t appreciate.
“I spoke to Joe Silva face-to-face in Tokyo, Japan, at one of the events. He had overheard me complaining to one of the fans about my next opponent. He said, ‘Kyle, what’s the problem?’
“And I said, ‘Joe, I’m glad you’re here. The problem is that nobody knows who Glover is, and he could easily be the UFC champ. He could be the champion of our division. I know how good he is. I’ve trained with his coaches. The coaches know me well. They know my style. And I would be happy taking on anyone else’,” Kingsbury recalled.
“And then he said to me the usual tag line, ‘You’ve got to take the fight with Glover. If you don’t like this fight, you’re not going to like the next one.'”
Joe Silva asks, we’re not ‘messing with Pat Barry’ right?
While several other instances on these released documents showed how UFC routinely kept fighters locked up, text messages also showed a rare moment where a fighter was allowed to be released from their contract. A group chat with top UFC executives show Joe Silva asking if they’re “messing with Pat Barry” or not, because he would like to allow him to switch to kickboxing after losing a bunch of recent UFC fights.
“We are not messing with Pat Barry, are we?” Silva asked his bosses. “I told him I would cut him loose so he could return to kickboxing. He is 4-7 in his last 11. He’s a really nice guy and a bad MMA fighter.”
UFC extended contracts for turning down fights, injuries
Another topic being fought over in the antitrust lawsuit is the UFC’s restrictive contracts and the controversial tolling provisions that kept extending. Numerous documents showed the UFC implementing or threatening extensions during negotiations or even for short injuries.
Fight Jon Jones or sit on the sidelines and get your contract extended?
In an email with Joe Silva, Vladimir Matyushenko’s representative asked if there are other options aside from Jon Jones so he can bring them all up to his client. The UFC matchmaker then responded saying “you don’t really get multiple choices” and threatened to extend Matyushenko’s contract, leave him on the sidelines and “wait until another show to fight” if he didn’t accept.
In his deposition, Joe Silva admitted that he does give “multiple choices” to other fighters, with the caveat that he does it “if I had options.”
The 39-year-old Matyushenko ended up accepting the fight. He was TKO’d in under two minutes by the future UFC legend in Jones, who was 10-1 and 23-years-old at the time.
UFC extended Jon Jones’ contract for declining Gustafsson rematch?
One of their biggest stars wasn’t immune to this style of negotiations, as he too was on the receiving end of it. In 2014, Jones was asked to defend his title against Alexander Gustafsson again, seemingly knowing that he will decline. It’s also not just Joe Silva either, as this was Ike Lawrence Epstein and Michael Mersch that handled these negotiations.
“We need to send him a letter formally offering the Gustafson (sic) fight and giving him a specific deadline to accept or reject. When he says no we need to extend him,” Epstein wrote in an email.
Jones’ next fight would be against Daniel Cormier, and the Gustafsson rematch would only happen years later in 2018. So is it safe to say that UFC extended Jones after this email exchange?
Joe Silva wanted to cut Nogueira for turning down fight
In an email exchange, Joe Silva expressed his desire to cut Antonio Rogerio Nogueira for turning a fight down against Daniel Cormier. He says the only reason he didn’t was to prevent him from competing in Bellator after. Lorenzo Fertitta also explicitly told him “Don’t cut nog” after.
Manager asks for bout in higher division, contract gets extended
In this email exchange, a manager types up a polite and long email saying his client cannot make 185 lbs too soon. He suggested fighting at 205 lbs on the discussed card instead, or at middleweight for a future event and gave possible opponents.
Silva responded with a one liner and…
Read the rest of the post over at our Substack page
There’s a lot more information and leaked emails in the full post, regarding Stipe Miocic’s first UFC offer, fighters complaining about extensions longer than their injuries, various tactics to stifle other promoters, UFC executives not wanting to pay an “extremely boring” contender, boasting about how they “own MMA,” and much more!
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