MMA Managers To Meet In Las Vegas Ahead Of UFC 187

In the wake of the UFC’s blockbuster deal with Reebok, many fighters seem to be upset with the amount of “sponsorship” money they will now receive, or lack thereof in some cases as many fighters are expecting to lose a significant chunk of their normal earnings. With the backlash on the deal at an all-time high, talks of a potential fighters union have recently sprung up as a way for fighters to represent themselves.

Although there have been no plans of this actually happening according to any fighters, it looks as if some of mixed martial art’s top managers may be taking some action, as MMAFighting.com has revealed that numerous managers will be meeting together ahead of UFC 187 which is set for May 23, 2015 in Las Vegas.

Jeff Meyer and Mike Roberts of MMA Inc. seem to have organized the gathering, and Meyer recently spoke up on the situation, expressing his excitement for the meeting, which is the first of its kind, saying that a meeting like this is long overdue:

“We are pretty excited about it because this has never been done before. While the managers usually see each other independently at the fights, we’ve never sat down as a group to discuss common issues that affect us all. This is long overdue. This came about through a couple of unrelated phone calls between a few managers. It was suggested that we should all get together some time. Since quite a few managers will be in Las Vegas over Memorial Day, we decided to put something together. An invitation was sent out to about a dozen managers. The response was very positive and a few managers that were not on the original invitation have asked to attend as well. And they are welcome to do so.”

Although the Reebok deal is expected to be a large topic during the meeting, Meyer said that it is only one issue that needs to be discussed. He also claimed that the goal was for the managers to meet and discuss various topics in hopes of improving the conditions for their fighters:

“Reebok is only one component of a multitude of issues managers should be talking about. There has been some speculation in the media as to the agenda of the meeting. The only agenda item is for management to get together and share insights over a variety of topics, with the hope that we can make our industry better for the benefit of our respective clients and our respective agencies. That’s it.”

Meyer also mentioned that the meeting is in no way secretive or intended to just speak about the UFC, it is simply a meeting of multiple members from the same industry to discuss common issues:

“We’re not trying to hide the fact that we’re meeting next week, and we’re not trying to pick on any specific promotion. It’s just long overdue that management sits down and has a collective conversation about the state of the business. It’s amazing that we haven’t done this yet.”

Do you think this meeting will prove to be beneficial for the sport and its fighters?