by King Hazard
In December, Reebok signed a six-year, $70 million agreement to be the exclusive worldwide outfitter of the UFC. And just last week, UFC fighters learned exactly how much income they would earn off that deal. From what we know, many of the lower tier UFC fighters aren’t happy about the new Reebok pay scale because some of them such as Brendon Schaub made more money under the old sponsorship format. Apparently, Schaub is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars under the UFC’s tiered sponsor system.
After hearing the outcry, longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan dropped his thoughts on the Reebok deal via his own Podcast, and he isn’t happy to hear that UFC fighters may suffer financially. In fact, Rogan believes that financially, “it seems to be a huge disaster for the fighters.”
This is a big deal now in MMA that Reebok is the official sponsor for the UFC, fighters can’t have independent sponsors when they walk into the cage now and financially it seems to be a huge disaster for the fighters.
According to the promotions tiered sponsor system, the income is determined on the number of fights a UFC fighter has under Zuffa. This seems to be a major concern for many fighters.
Whenever you see these guys complaining and talking about the difference in the amount of pay that they’re getting, that’s not good, it’s not good. All that stuff had to be worked out, should have been worked out in advance. It’s great to have a big sponsor like Reebok involved, but not if the fighters have to suffer.
Look, I’m not a businessman. I’d be the sh****est businessman in the world. If I owned the UFC, the UFC would probably be filing for bankruptcy right now. I would never have gotten it to where it is. I would never have done any of the smart moves these guys have done. I’m an idiot when it comes to business, but I just don’t like when I see fighters suffering financially. I don’t like it. At all.
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