Mailbag: Does Sean Strickland talking out change issues for UFC fighters?

The greatest story in MMA last week wasn’t anything to do with UFC Vegas 122. Instead, UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland came out to trash the promotion for fighter pay, even threatening to stroll away from his title, among other issues.

So, let’s speak about Sean Strickland’s change of tone, and whether it will change anything.

Sean Strickland speaks out

With Strickland’s current remarks about the UFC not paying enough for fighters to stroll away it got me considering. It took the UFC a while to break down and present their fighters with health insurance coverage. Do you ever foresee them finally breaking down and setting up a retirement fund/pension for tenured UFC fighters (10 or more fights in the UFC or something like that)? They make enough $ to set up something if they selected to.

This is a truthful query, but sadly, I think the reply is easy: no. I do not think there is anything any single fighter could do that would substantively change how the UFC operates.

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First, let’s focus on Strickland particularly. While Strickland is not everyone’s cup of tea, the man undeniably has a level about fighter pay. We do not have to rehash the complete argument, but it’s fairly easy: the UFC pays fighters around 18-20 % of income, which is a pittance in contrast to most other main sports activities leagues. Considering the product actually would not exist without them, only the most ardent capitalist could view that as equitable.

But what can Strickland do? The reply is nothing. UFC contracts and business practices are extraordinarily restrictive. Allegedly, the promotion would only enable Strickland to battle for the title if he signed a new six-fight contract, which he did. That means Strickland is locked in for 5 more bouts, and those contracts are ironclad. His only method out is to battle, and when the promotion controls who, when, and where you battle, they can make it harm. The only option he has is to not battle, or to just say yes, and neither is interesting.

So for as much as Strickland may buck, it won’t get him anywhere. Even if he goes through with the plan he teased and merely tries to make issues too ugly for the UFC to need to deal with him, I’m skeptical that will work. The UFC has ZERO curiosity in letting Strickland go box or battle Jake Paul. And besides, if Strickland could just get on a mic and say something horrible and he got fired over it, that units the precedent. Next factor you know, Paulo Costa and every other fighter who has pay points follows go well with.

And from a macro sense, I think there’s no probability this adjustments anything, because if the UFC wished to pay fighters more, or present pensions, or anything else, they’d do it. This is not a company that lacks for funds. They could begin a pension program tomorrow, and it would barely register on the backside line, but that’s not where their pursuits lie.

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For one, fighters are “private contractors,” and the UFC is deeply in conserving issues that method, for myriad causes. For another, why do firms offer advantages to workers? It’s to appeal to high-quality people to come work for them. The UFC already owns MMA; virtually all the best fighters already need to compete there. There’s no cause to offer fighters a pension other than primary empathy, and frankly, that’s not in the business model.

So, should the UFC do this? Of course. Dana White typically says that the UFC is not competing with other MMA orgs, it’s competing with the NBA, the NFL, and other leagues, so it would be good if the UFC made any attempt to operate like those leagues when it comes to athlete welfare, but that’s just not who they are. Pensions will only be added to the UFC when the fighters arrange and demand it, which means it’s never going to occur.

Hypothetical

After watching the current Dark Side of the Cage: Conor vs Khabib, and seeing RDA on the most current UFC card, how does the trajectory of the UFC change had RDA fought Conor?

MMA math has Alvarez beating RDA then dropping to Conor. But it also has RDA simply defeating Diaz who beat Conor.

I’m sure it won’t shock you to study that this is a query I’ve spent a lot of time considering about, even before you requested it. Of course, we’ll never know the actual reply, but there are only two outcomes, and I’ll run through the hypothetical for each.

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RDA wins. Conor can’t claim BS and has to go back to 145 kilos. He in all probability beats Frankie Edgar in his first title protection. Then it’s a rematch with Aldo, and despite how that went the first time around, he and Aldo is a 50/50 proposition. Then, if he makes it to a Max Holloway rematch, Holloway dirts him.

But truthfully, by then he might transfer up because 145 was killing him to make, and with a pair of title defenses under his belt, he’d be wanting to chase the huge sport again. But he never fights Floyd, so MMA stays a little bit smaller, and is in all probability worse off general. That being said, we also do not finish up with the period of every fighter making an attempt to box or become double-champs, which would be a good comfort prize. Also, Nate Diaz never blows up (he was standard, but he just stays that method), and we never get a BMF title.

Conor wins. The timeline stays principally the same as what occurred, including that Nate never fights Conor, and we never get a BMF belt as a end result. But where it gets attention-grabbing is this: UFC 196 was on March 5. The UFC did not announce the WW title battle between Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley until May. Instead of preventing Floyd, which could still have occurred next, perhaps Conor pushes to battle Robbie Lawler for the WW title. Remember, at the time, Woodley was not a clear-cut challenger. He was coming off a cut up resolution win and had not fought in over a 12 months.

Now, Robbie beats the absolute piss out of Conor, but that’s just a enjoyable “what could have been” second, and it also leads to a lot of questions at light-weight. If Conor fights for the welterweight title, does he ever come back to battle Khabib? Does Eddie ever win a title? Lots of attention-grabbing prospects.

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For what it’s value, I always favored RDA in a battle with Conor, but by no means would I say he was a lock to win. I’d have put it at 60-40 in RDA’s favor.

Thanks for studying, and thank you to everyone who despatched in questions! Do you have any burning questions about issues at least considerably associated to fight sports activities? Then you’re in luck, because every week I put a immediate into The Feed for your questions. Fire them there, and I’ll reply the best ones in the Mailbag and attempt to get to the relaxation in the responses.