How long before UFC fighters form a Players Union?

Posted in Martial Arts

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In order for the fighters to form a union, they are going to have to prove themselves to be indispensible which seems hard to do at this point in time with so many different fighting organizations around these days. There are so many rising stars from smaller organizations like King of the Cage, Extreme Fighting, IFL, and the like, who would love to be able to fight for the kind of purses that the fighters in the UFC make. It seems like every time I turn on the TV or pick up an MMA magazine I am seeing some new rising star coming through the ranks who appears to be the next big thing if the UFC will just give him a chance. The most notable is Kimbo Slice. I don’t think the fighters will ever be able to form a union. The best they can hope for is to earn as much money as they can and then pick a good investment vehicle so they can retire as early as possible. Fortunately, today’s fighters earn a lot more money per fight than boxers did in the first 4 decades of the 20th Century.

i would fight in the ufc for a month’s salary of what i’m making now.. they love to fight and they train and train to bet a belt they choose to fight in the ufc, dana white can let them go and get another fighter from japan who doesn’t even know about this.. fighter r ********!

True free agency will come to MMA fighters when there are 3 major promotions, they all are (about) equally lucrative to fight in, and there is enough freedom of movement between them for the fighters to move to the ones that offer the most money, or the best (medical insurance/retirement) benefits. When the fighers can make enough money to live on comfortably, go from one promotion to another as they see fit to do, then they will have bargaining power as individuals; a union will soon follow.

As long as the UFC is the one with the cable contract, and the major network exposure, and the other promotions are defacto minor leagues of MMA, the fighters really have no where else to go, and don’t have enough collective strength to unionize.