Six Ways UFC Fighter Treatment Needs To Change

The UFC is obviously quite a lucrative company. Earlier this year, the promotion, which is the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion, sold for a record-setting $4.2 billion. The UFC was also recently ranked by Forbes as one of the top ten most valuable brands in sports.

Based on these statistics, it’s clear that the UFC brass is living lavish, but can be the same be said for those who make the company this successful: the fighters? In today’s day and age, fighter treatment seems to be an increasingly hot topic, and with complaints coming from big name fighters like Jose Aldo, Anderson Silva and Donald Cerrone, it’s clear that change is needed.

Let’s take a look at six specific ways that fighter treatment needs to change within the UFC.

Increased Pay

Let’s start off with quite a straight forward change, and that is that fighters simply deserve to earn more money. Sure, superstars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey have no issue bringing in millions upon millions, but not all fighters are that lucky.

Donald Cerrone, a fan favorite, recently spoke on the issue, and how he’s still unpleased with fighter pay, and it’s not even just lesser ranked fighters who are struggling. We’ve seen numerous big name fighters such as Benson Henderson and Rory MacDonald leave the UFC recently and land far more lucrative deals, which should say something about how fighters are compensated under the UFC banner.

When it comes down to it, the costs for training camps and training partners is quite a hefty one. That along with the fact that fighters are essentially putting their bodies on the line in the cage leads us to make the claim that fighters are deserving of a better pay check.

Individual Sponsorships

While fighter pay has always been an issue, fighters were able to make up for the lack of earnings from the UFC with a plethora of individual sponsorships. The UFC effectively killed off individual sponsorships, however, when they put into effect their deal with Reebok in July 2015.

The deal, which made Reebok the official outfitter of the UFC, was quite a lucrative one for the promotion, but it significantly depleted the earnings of fighters. Combatants are no longer allowed to sport individual sponsorships at UFC events or in the cage, and the pay they earn based on the Reebok tier system is leaps and bounds less than what they once did when allowed to find their own partners.

In order to increase not only fighter pay, but fighter treatment and fighter freedom as well, the promotion should seriously consider doing away with the Reebok deal, although that is currently highly unlikely.

Respect The Rankings

While it’s understandable that mixed martial arts is a business, there should also be some structure, and it could be argued that in today’s day and age, the UFC rankings mean very little, which has upset numerous fighters in recent memory.

In fact, just earlier this month No. 14-ranked Dan Henderson received a title shot against 185-pound champion Michael Bisping simply because “The Count” wanted to avenge a brutal knockout from seven years ago. In granting Henderson a title shot, the UFC skipped over No. 1-ranked former champion Luke Rockhold, No. 2-ranked former champion Chris Weidman, No. 3-ranked Ronaldo Souza, a man who’s won three of his last four, and No. 4-ranked Yoel Romero, a man who’s won an incredibly impressive seven straight.

A similar situation can be seen in the lightweight division where featherweight champion Conor McGregor is set to take on lightweight boss Eddie Alvarez after two welterweight bouts with Nate Diaz. McGregor was able to leapfrog the 155-pound elite simply because of his star power.

This tactic that the UFC is using may draw in more money, but it certainly isn’t fair to fighters who have fought their way to the top.

Follow Through On Promises

In recent years, the UFC has been notorious for making promises they don’t always seem to keep, and two examples come to mind in just the last few months alone.

When former longtime 145-pound king Jose Aldo signed on to face Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight strap at July’s UFC 200, he was guaranteed a rematch with Conor McGregor if he were to come out on top. Aldo was able to score a victory and a dominant one at that, but the UFC instead elected to pair McGregor with lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at Nov. 12’s UFC 205. This decision led Aldo to not only contemplate retirement, but to ask for his release from the promotion.

In a similar situation, the UFC recently showed interest in granting top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov a shot at Alvarez. In fact, the undefeated “Eagle” was sent multiple bout agreements, but it appeared to only be a strategical move by the UFC in order to make Alvarez vs. McGregor a reality. Like Aldo, Nurmagomedov touched on the possibility of leaving the UFC in the aftermath of the decision.

Clearly this isn’t fair to fighters, and it certainly isn’t beneficial for the UFC to have big names threatening to leave the promotion.

Less Special Treatment

This topic can be most connected to featherweight champion Conor McGregor, and before we get started, I’d like to say that McGregor has earned everything he’s received simply based on the amount of money he brings into the promotion, but at the same time, like we mentioned earlier, the rankings should mean something.

Since winning his 145-pound title last December, McGregor has yet to defend it. Instead, he has taken two bouts at welterweight with Nate Diaz and will next challenge Eddie Alvarez. It seems as if after every one of these adventurous fights, UFC President Dana White says that the Irishman will either have to defend his title or be stripped of it, but neither ever seems to happen.

Now while there’s no reason to complain about the ‘big’ fights McGregor is taking part in, it’s not necessarily fair to the featherweight division that has been left in limbo over the last year.

Treat Fighters Like Employees Rather Than Independent Contractors

Technically speaking, fighters are independent contractors rather than employees, which is essentially why the UFC is able to operate the way it does. Because fighters are independent contractors, they receive very little benefits or perhaps none at all.

Donald Cerrone recently described it best:

“Not only for pay, but we need dental, medical, where’s our 401K? Every other sport in the world has a union. It’s not fair with what we are doing,” he said.

Fighters simply put too much at risk in their chosen profession not to receive benefits, and it’s clear that something needs to change here. Perhaps a union would be the best option.

What other changes regarding fighter treatment would you like to see made in the future?