The UFC Needs A Fighter’s Union

I’m no fan of unions generally but I’m beginning to think that the fighters, specifically UFC, need to band together and form a fighters union. 

The reason I bring this up is because of the Jon Fitch and American Kickboxing Association team debacle last week with Dana White and the UFC.  Dana White immediately cut one of their top ranked welterweights in Jon FItch and was ready to dump another in Josh Koscheck, among others.  This was because the fighters refused to sign their names over for their lifetime without some stipulations.

Yahoo.com reported on Fitch:

He said he simply didn’t understand the need to sign a lifetime contract, particularly since it would not pay his family in the event of his death.

Yahoo.com later reported that:

Fitch had said the problem was the clause about giving Zuffa lifetime exclusive merchandising rights. UFC already had nonexclusive merchandising rights. He attempted to get the time frame changed from lifetime, to a time period of five to 10 years.

The UFC is still young and there are many things that will change in the coming years but you can’t blame a fighter looking out for their and their families futures.  Why can’t the fighter’s legacy live on if the UFC is still marketing them and making money off them?  The UFC already has non-exclusive rights and now they are asking for more.  Most of the contracts are written so that the UFC can cut a fighter after any loss.  There is no job security or certain salary a fighter can count on. 

White of course was his usual my way or the highway response:

“We’re looking for guys who want to work with us and not against us, and frankly I’m just so [expletive] sick of this [expletive] it’s not even funny,” White said from Honolulu, where he flew Wednesday from Toronto to hold a news conference to announce the B.J. Penn-Georges St. Pierre fight for UFC 94 on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas.

“Affliction is still out there trying to build its company. Let [Fitch] go work with them. Let him see what he thinks of those [expletives]. [Expletive] him. These guys aren’t partners with us. [Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them.”

This shows me White only cares about himself and the UFC and could care less about his fighters.  He has done wonders for MMA and the UFC and put in an unquestionable amount of blood sweat and tears to make it happen.  But so have the fighters.  They have fought and trained for peanuts, worked through injury and put their bodies on the line daily.  And for what, to be treated so unfairly by the President of the company they work for?

I think the fighters need to ban together to show how serious they are at making things right.  The problem is, the biggest names in the sport that would need to be involved are the one’s who make the most money and spiffs from White and would most likely never cross him.  In the meantime;  the other fighters need to have a plan B in case they are injured and cannot return or if they lose and are cut. 

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