Non-threadworthy MMA Rumors/Quotes/Tweets/Etc., Vol. 4

[Jasen777]

Hell at least he is releasing him so he can go sign with Bellator, if Dana wanted to be a dick he couldve kept him on contract, offer 3 fights a year that the contract says, but 3 fights that he knows Yair would never accept or crappy fights on undercards so his prime years get wasted away.

That's true. However cutting him serves as a clear warning to other fighters that they need to do what the UFC wants them to.

[Bernman]

It wasn't his preference to be released as far as I know. Maybe he'd prefer a de facto 6 month suspension or minor punishment like toiling on Fight Pass for a match or two to stay in UFC as opposed to joining a sinking ship in Bellator. I mean he's worried about risk/reward. Some may look at it as a positive that Bellator has a formidable FW division actually. Others, the group he's more indicated he's in, that the significant risk that poses is not worth the reward.

[Duke4life831]

Hell at least he is releasing him so he can go sign with Bellator, if Dana wanted to be a dick he couldve kept him on contract, offer 3 fights a year that the contract says, but 3 fights that he knows Yair would never accept or crappy fights on undercards so his prime years get wasted away.

That's true. However cutting him serves as a clear warning to other fighters that they need to do what the UFC wants them to.

Is that really a bad thing though? UFC is the one paying them, Dana is pretty much their boss. I dont think its all that bad that if they want to get paid by the UFC they should do what the UFC wants to a certain extent, especially in this situation. Again I'll call out the UFC for stupid crap like punishing a fighter for not accepting a fight after their opponent missed weight. I think that's bull and I definitely think people should talk up on that crap. But again with this Yair situation, I dont think the UFC did anything wrong or stepped out of bounds. In this dude's first 7 fights he got to headliners and a main card against a big name on a huge card. They then let him take a year off when he had no injuries and offered him a tougher opponent, he said no. They said fine how bout a guy ranked lower than you, he said no. I have no problem with the UFC putting their foot down on this situation. This is a situation where I think Yair should listen to the people who are paying his check.

Again if they cut Yair after say he denied fighting a guy that missed weight, denied a fight against a guy in a heavier division, denied a fight against the champ (who knows maybe he wanted a bounce back fight before a huge step up in competition after his last loss) or something along these lines. I would be right there saying what they did to Yair was messed up. But thats not what happened, they gave this dude headliners, he lost and they gave him a year and offered a guy barely ranked ahead of him then offered him a guy ranked below him.

In a talent stacked promotion and especially in that weight division. I can completely see why Dana went, not going to waste any promotion time on you, any match maker time on you or any money on you. We got a division filled with dudes ready to take on anyone, those are the guys I want to deal with. Go to Bellator and pick your perfect fights. Got no problem with this situation.

[Duke4life831]

It wasn't his preference to be released as far as I know. Maybe he'd prefer a de facto 6 month suspension or minor punishment like toiling on Fight Pass for a match or two to stay in UFC as opposed to joining a sinking ship in Bellator. I mean he's worried about risk/reward. Some may look at it as a positive that Bellator has a formidable FW division actually. Others, the group he's more indicated he's in, that the significant risk that poses is not worth the reward.

Its not UFC business to take care of his preferences though. The point of the UFC is to offer fights to their fighters, promote those fights then pay the fighters. The dude hasnt fought for a year and is turning guys down ranked right above him and right below him. The UFC has spent time promoting this dude giving him headliners, its bad business for them to hit the reset button and have him go back down to Fight Pass cards. Its not the UFC's duty to answer to all of Yair's request. Their job is to offer him fights and he hasnt fought for a year and has turned down 2 fights. That division is stacked and has plenty of fighters willing to fight whoever whenever. Got no problem with the UFC wanting to work with them instead.

[Jasen777]

Is that really a bad thing though?

When the UFC, in most cases, holds all of the leverage, in what should ideally be an even partnership, yes.

[Bernman]

Its not UFC business to take care of his preferences though. The point of the UFC is to offer fights to their fighters, promote those fights then pay the fighters. The dude hasnt fought for a year and is turning guys down ranked right above him and right below him. The UFC has spent time promoting this dude giving him headliners, its bad business for them to hit the reset button and have him go back down to Fight Pass cards. Its not the UFC's duty to answer to all of Yair's request. Their job is to offer him fights and he hasnt fought for a year and has turned down 2 fights. That division is stacked and has plenty of fighters willing to fight whoever whenever. Got no problem with the UFC wanting to work with them instead.

You're reinforcing my point that the relationship is very one-sided. It's almost all about the UFC's interests and very little about his. In a non monopolistic market, the UFC would suffer eventually for not caring about the worker's interests. If anything their's should be served more in this case because they're the products too. Look at golfers and NBA players. They are compensated very well, they have freedom of movement in golf, and in the NBA contracts are guaranteed both ways. That's because in golf there's the European tour as competition, and in the NBA they have a union.

The UFC bought up competitors, created stealth feeders, and antagonized athletes (like this) to enjoy a virtual monopoly. And never let their athletes get too financially stable so they could survive while holding out for a union to give themselves a monopoly on talent supplied to the UFC, balancing out the power.

[Duke4life831]

Its not UFC business to take care of his preferences though. The point of the UFC is to offer fights to their fighters, promote those fights then pay the fighters. The dude hasnt fought for a year and is turning guys down ranked right above him and right below him. The UFC has spent time promoting this dude giving him headliners, its bad business for them to hit the reset button and have him go back down to Fight Pass cards. Its not the UFC's duty to answer to all of Yair's request. Their job is to offer him fights and he hasnt fought for a year and has turned down 2 fights. That division is stacked and has plenty of fighters willing to fight whoever whenever. Got no problem with the UFC wanting to work with them instead.

You're reinforcing my point that the relationship is very one-sided. It's almost all about the UFC's interests and very little about his. In a non monopolistic market, the UFC would suffer eventually for not caring about the worker's interests. If anything their's should be served more in this case because they're the products too. Look at golfers and NBA players. They are compensated very well, they have freedom of movement in golf, and in the NBA contracts are guaranteed both ways. That's because in golf there's the European tour as competition, and in the NBA they have a union.

The UFC bought up competitors, created stealth feeders, and antagonized athletes (like this) to enjoy a virtual monopoly. And never let their athletes get too financially stable so they could survive while holding out for a union to give themselves a monopoly on talent supplied to the UFC, balancing out the power.

I agree its one sided. But that is kind of what you get when youre dealing with a sport that has been historically financially unsuccessful and relies on so few amount of people to stay financially stable. People really pay to see probably 15-20 fighters on the roster, the rest of the fighters are a net loss for the UFC. For example Dustin Ortiz got paid 60k for his fight on UFC 220. It was a boring unanimous decision. Did Dustin Ortiz bring in 60k dollars worth of revenue for the UFC, unless he has a huge family, I highly doubt it.

I also dont get saying the UFC doesnt let their athletes get too financially stable. Conor just had a fight that the UFC co promoted where he made north of a 100 mil. GSP has a net worth of 30 mil, reports say Nate Diaz got anywhere from 6 to 13 mil for his 2nd fight with Conor. When you become profitable you make a lot of money and get leverage.

The majority of UFC fighters are net negatives, it would be really bad business for the UFC to start paying those fighters even more money. Guess what 1 of 2 things will happen, the UFC would collapse or the UFC would drastically cut down their roster so they only have the stars on their roster. Either way the lower tier guys arent going to be getting paid.

Say that happens and UFC cuts everyone that arent their stars. It would allow all the lower tier guys to go to a different promotion, but guess what they wouldnt be getting paid anymore because if they did that promotion wouldnt last long financially.

[Jasen777]

The majority of UFC fighters are net negatives

Not true. It's true that for the bottom (and middle and upper middle) rung of the UFC the fighters are replaceable. But the UFC doesn't lose money on them. They wouldn't have gotten $160 million a year from Fox if they don't fill out all of those fight night cards. They just signed a deal with ESPN+ for $150 million a year for 15 cards of 12 fights each. That's $416,667 revenue generated per fighter, just on "TV" money.

[NO-KG-AI]

So who exactly does Yair want to fight? He seems like he's been given a fair bit of promotional hype, and was given his chance to break through by giving him a big name. He doesn't want guys above or below him, which means he either has someone very specific in mind that he wants, or he's trying to angle into a big name fight that he doesn't deserve at all.

[High 5]

Like all of us I'm sure he wanted the BJ Penn rematch.

[Bernman]

The mid-tier fighters on down don't have individual value but do collectively. If they were removed together and replaced you'd notice the difference. MMA cards, unlike boxing for the most part, are bought and viewed as much for the entire quality experience as the main events.

The point of unionization would be to display this value. They can't justify doing it though because they don't have financial security. Conor McGregor is 1 of 500 fighters. Most are living close to paycheck to paycheck or even have to supplement. If Conor and other top fighters used the riches they earned to offer no interest loans to the rest of the group while they sat out they'd have enough financial security to sit out and hurt the UFC. But they're too big of narcissists or lack the strategic acumen to do this.

[cowboyronnie]

The mid-tier fighters on down don't have individual value but do collectively. If they were removed together and replaced you'd notice the difference. MMA cards, unlike boxing for the most part, are bought and viewed as much for the entire quality experience as the main events.

The point of unionization would be to display this value. They can't justify doing it though because they don't have financial security. Conor McGregor is 1 of 500 fighters. Most are living close to paycheck to paycheck or even have to supplement. If Conor and other top fighters used the riches they earned to offer no interest loans to the rest of the group while they sat out they'd have enough financial security to sit out and hurt the UFC. But they're too big of narcissists or lack the strategic acumen to do this.

I wholly agree with the bolded. I think it used to be missed a lot in discussion of fighter pay.

But I disagree that the mid-tier fighters matter to PPV buys. PPV buys can be bolstered by a deep card but deep cards are precisely when you have top-tier fighters on the undercard of the PPV.

When it's like Romero vs Weidman in the 4th spot or something insane.

[lilfishi22]

I understand the reason for cutting him, I just don't understand why. I get it, he's a guy that's refusing fights after being offered a number of them, might be enough of a reason to cut him so I get that. But what does the UFC really lose in him refusing fights vs losing him as an up and coming and very exciting prospect? He's not on a salary so when he doesn't fight, he doesn't get paid, ie UFC lose no money. There's not really any marketing dollars going his way either unless it's fight week or after a fight's actually been announced. Maybe there's some costs involved in putting him in the medical insurance pool but it's probably not much and it's not like he's rorting the UFC that way. So if the cost of keeping him on the roster is probably low to negligible, why would you cut a guy who's still only 25, was your TUF Latin winner (if that means anything to anyone), got an exciting fan friendly style, has a solid record for a guy his age and he's still developing. Also he's one of your few rising stars that could help you break into the Mexican market too.

Unlike an NBA prospect, the training, development, and injury time off (ie no pay) are all on the fighters. If it was an NBA player refusing to play for whatever reason like a Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs would've had invested millions (including salary) into that player's development, taking care of their health and they are losing a significant amount of money because of that. So what is the UFC really losing?

It just seems like a shortsighted and brash move by Dana in my opinion.

[REDDzone]

IMO it was done to send a message to other fighters. I mean if wouldn't care if he just sat on the shelf forever but still under contract with them. Then no competitor reaps the benefits of having an exciting fighter like Yair on their roster but the UFC isn't paying him. In reality though, he's coming off a loss and juice maybe isn't worth the squeeze and he pissed them off, so perfect person to make an example out of.

[Susan]

wtf, Yair fights out of Chicago and is in a gym that's a town away from my hometown?

Yair is my Pettis now.

Get him to Bellator and he can fight Pico in a few years. Greatest fight of all time.

[cowboyronnie]

I am boycotting UFC until Bruce Buffer w/ a 6-pack is removed from the video game. Like the guy needs more reason to think he's a fighter...

I am serious about this, Dana. Not another penny from me.

[REDDzone]

I am boycotting UFC until Bruce Buffer w/ a 6-pack is removed from the video game. Like the guy needs more reason to think he's a fighter...

I am serious about this, Dana. Not another penny from me.

Did you ever hear about the time Bruce almost kicked Frank Triggs ass btw?

[Susan]

I am boycotting UFC until Bruce Buffer w/ a 6-pack is removed from the video game. Like the guy needs more reason to think he's a fighter...

I am serious about this, Dana. Not another penny from me.

Did you ever hear about the time Bruce almost kicked Frank Triggs ass btw?

When I was 18, Frank Trigg sat in front of me at a Cubs game in the bleachers. I was going to make a joke about his poor RNC defense but realized that's a stupid **** thing to say.

[cowboyronnie]

I am boycotting UFC until Bruce Buffer w/ a 6-pack is removed from the video game. Like the guy needs more reason to think he's a fighter...

I am serious about this, Dana. Not another penny from me.

Did you ever hear about the time Bruce almost kicked Frank Triggs ass btw?

So upsetting that Buffer brings this up ever, nevermind as often as he does.



That said, in terms of being douche bags, Trigg and Buffer can go toe-to-toe (nozzle-to-nozzle).

[Jasen777]

So MMA is one of the sports were participants take the most physical damage and also one where your can continue at an old age. That is you can keep fighting as long as you want, the choice is not made for you because you aren't good enough anymore as in most other sports.

Liddell is coming back to fight Ortiz.