A brash Irishman goes from being the European hipsters’ choice to one of the sport’s more prolific stars in the space of just 18 months. A pretty blond girl, rawer that sushi, becomes an overnight sensation, opening the show on Fox TV to millions of viewers despite having a record that could – quite literally – be measured on the fingers of one hand. A 24-fight UFC veteran (who has never quite made it to the top of the mountain) looks at his new sponsorship deal and rejoices. For Conor McGregor, Paige VanZant and Gleison Tibau, the UFC/Reebok partnership works. Here’s the deal: The more fights you have under the UFC banner, the more money you earn. Fights in Strikeforce and World Extreme Cagefighting – two rival brands absorbed into the UFC – will also count towards a fighter’s total. And just like that, the morally ambiguous media-selected ranking-based payouts are no more. It’s widely accepted that as a whole, MMA media should not be responsible for anything more complicated than doing our own laundry, let alone holding sway over the money that reaches fighters’ pockets. While generally a decent reflection of divisional standings, there were far too many anomalies (fighters suddenly making strides when booked for a big fight, fighters moving for no apparent reason) with the UFC’s official rankings for them to ever be a fair way of determining compensation. Depending on how cynical you are, certain members of the panel were (intentionally or otherwise) pandering to popular opinion or where they felt the UFC wanted (or more accurately, needed) people to be, or else they really were that out of touch. Regardless, anything that removes this subjectivity and gives fighters a solid, uniform pay structure is a step in the right direction, however small. New Kids on the Block Tenure is great, but where does this leave the new kids on the block, fast-rising stars like VanZant and McGregor? When the Reebok deal came to light, the biggest criticism was that it removed a fighter’s ability to capitalise on the aspects of their worth that cannot be measured in wins and losses. VanZant is a very pretty blonde girl, McGregor is a fight promoter’s dream; it will be a while before any number of losses outweigh those facts as far as their marketability is concerned. McGregor and VanZant are not amongst those complaining though. Both have netted their own individual Reebok deals, in addition to the money they will earn as part of the sportswear giant’s $70 million, five-year commitment to the UFC. Look for Reebok to snap up others like them too. And then there is Gleison Tibau. Tibau has been around for what feels like forever. He wins more than he loses, but he never quite gets over the hump into title contention. While some may argue that it’s absurd for Tibau to receive a bigger wedge than, for example, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Devil’s Advocate says that he is a lynchpin of the division, playing a vital role for many years. Isn’t that what tenure is all about?
Our own statistician Reed Kuhn took a look at how the change in Reebok’s sponsorship of fighters based on tenure over rankings affects the current roster:
Questions and Answers Tibau’s financial future may be bright at a glance, but it would be remiss of us not to cast a cynical eye over what the new terms of the Reebok deal might mean for a fighter in his situation – and indeed many others – in the long term. The danger for those long-serving but not quite elite members of the UFC roster is that the promotion may become less forgiving of their losses. The UFC has been vague about the division of wealth with the Reebok deal; will tenure as it relates to sponsorship payments become a factor in their cutting/hiring practices in 2015? The real cynics amongst us see a tenure-based system as an extension of the UFC’s Sword of Damocles-like sway over its athlete’s careers. Fighters struggling for cash will be more willing than ever to take short-notice gambles in an effort to claw their way to the next payment tier. It wouldn’t be the first time that the allure of money trumped common sense. When the UFC says “jump”, you best pull on your Reeboks before saying “How high?” All part of the plan… Tenure-based compensation is a very union-like move from the infamously anti-union UFC. Of course if fighters were to unionise, in all likelihood they’d be able to negotiate much more favourable terms for all…but that’s never going to happen. MMA is a fragmented entity and that’s largely a result of finances, or lack of them. In such a niche industry (where companies tend to invest heavily only to pull out completely when it becomes clear that returns aren’t forthcoming) competition for financial support is fierce. The UFC threw fuel on that fire when it instigated the long, slow death of sponsorships with the infamous sponsor tax. The sponsor tax made sourcing financial backing a cut-throat business. Rivalries between camps, managers, agents and fighters became heated. Fight teams and friendships crumbled through bitterness, jealousy and ruthlessness. If the collective UFC roster can’t put their differences aside over matters such as these, what hope is there of a union? Maybe that’s exactly what the UFC had in mind all along, as they looked to turn their product into a franchise rather than a league, albeit one that is all-encompassing in scope. Divide and conquer. While some fighters and managers are shooting the Reebok deal down, we’re still in the dark as to whether the majority of the roster will be better or worse off under the new system. Some will win, some will lose; that’s the way of the world. Media and fans will never be happy; that’s also the way of the world. It’s very much the start of a new era for the athletes competing in the hallowed Octagon; one in which they’ll have less control than ever over their financial destiny, but one where – as the likes of McGregor and Van Zant have shown us – it’s possible to make money if your face fits and you’re willing to play ball. Regardless of the fortunes of the many, it seems like the best and most popular fighters are still getting looked after. The more things change, the more they stay the same. By Brad Wharton @MMABrad48