Rousey and Jones have done deals with Reebok too!
Yeah this is f***ed
First, these are two questionable people to have represent your brand, Jones (DUI, Homophobia, his comments about Cosby ) more so than Rousey (her comments about Sandy Hook, general petulant behaviour)
Secondly, this is a massive f*** you to the rest of the locker room. The same company that's stopping other fighters from having their own apparel sponsors, is now propping up two fighters who are already in the upper echelons of the UFC fighter payroll.
Hopefully something comes of this class action lawsuit that restructures the way fighters are compensated and opens them up to broader income streams. That every TUF20 competitor - outside the last 4 - got paid $8k/$8k for the finale is poor. Some of those women haven't fought since last year. Taking away their opportunity to attract sponsors makes the situation so much worse.
That said the biggest weakness with this case is this notion that the UFC has systematically eradicated its competition with anti-competitive practices. A lot of them either lost TV deals (Strikeforce, Pride FC) or simply ran deep into the red (RFA, Affliction, IFL, EliteXC) trying to cut corners and spend their way into the big time. About the only promotion I can think of that the UFC bought at its prime was the WEC, and that was to get hold of their lighter weight divisions.
That said, Dana White doesn't help matters much:
probably a good
(coincidence) thing he's in Fiji right now
As for the known fighters involved its an interesting mix.
Carlos Newton fought in the ZUFFA-eras infancy, and I can only assume his biggest grievance is likeness rights.
Similarly Jon Fitch, and some other AKA fighters, was for a time cut from the UFC for refusing to sign over their likeness rights.
Nate Quarry... no doubt Dana White personally paying for his back surgery will come up. But he's always been a longtime advocate of improving fighter compensation. He's previously cited examples when the UFC has told him to remove sponsors.
Cung Le isn't so surprising given he asked for a release not long ago. The UFC stooged him over their terrible handing of the drug testing for the Macau event.
Sticker autos where the fighter is lazy and totally misses the sticker
Cant wait for the fight....
