The Real Fight: Business Ethics in UFC

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In the early days of UFC, there was a brisk, 30-something fighter named Evan Tanner who went into the octagon, won his fight and said, “Now I can pay my mortgage.”

It was the tail-end of the dark days of mixed martial arts in the States when Tanner made that statement, a time when American full-contact fighters were outsourced to Japan, Holland, Brazil—any country that would accept them.

It was a time when belts didn’t tow $450,000 behind them and they were worn with the pride of Olympian laurels.

Today, in the golden days of American MMA, spearheaded by UFC, elite fighters bankroll almost as well as elite boxers, thanks in part to dedicated business leaders and managers who want to see their fighters get their due.

It’s natural in American MMAto see fighters enter the ring with banners advertising fight gear, to thank their sponsors before they thank their mothers after a fight, to take sips of energy drinks post-fight and point to the can as if guarine and high-fructose corn syrup had a hand in their victory.

But where do we draw the line and say, “Leave the sponsorships and marketing contracts on the table and bring your gloves to the ring?”

I’ve always been skeptical of booming enterprises—people get greedy, and what could last a decade exists for only two years.

In a brief period of time, the worst of people comes out and the controlling interest is themselves.

This isn’t the character of UFC, but the characteristics are steadily stacking, especially considering the recent news concerning Jon Fitch’s contractual release.

Greg Savage of Sherdog.com reports that Jon Fitch was released from the UFC after declining to sign a lifetime video game contract with the pointed stipulation that Fitch could not agree to sign with any gaming agency that hasn’t agreed to work with UFC.

Although Fitch requested that the contract be renegotiated in more reasonable terms to reduce the lifetime agreement to a five or ten-year agreement, his ire stems more fervently from the conditions laid on his table.

“Sign this or you’re going to get dropped from the UFC,” Fitch explained to mmaweekly.com writer Damon Martin. In three days at most, according to Fitch, the conversation went from an offer to an ultimatum.

Behind the controversy are greenbacks, the same as withTito Ortiz years ago, more recently with Randy Couture, and possibly with Fedor Emelianenko.

MMAWEEKLY.COM reports that UFC got “caught” between two major video game developers: EA Sports of Madden 2009 fame, and THQ, of Saint’s Row