FRAT Warning
People keep hanging on the fact that video blogs and tweets were used. Remember, this goes in front of a judge and jury, not a forum. Want to know what looks worse than someone breaking the law? Someone who breaks the law and brags about it.
A few dozen people have mentioned WWE. VKM is as ruthless as they come, yes? Even his performers do not sign their rights away into perpetuity.
Example: Mick Foley on why he didn't sign a legends deal:
He did not sign because he felt the video game pay was light. He has been on WWE programming three times since he announced that he was not signing. He was NOT cut. He was NOT shamed. His entire team was NOT threatened. He made the decision not to sign, and everybody moved on.
If you agree with the fact Fitch was cut over not wanting to sign his video game rights, (or that the UFC was ok saying that anyone in the EARLY MMA game will never fight in the UFC), nothing is going to convince you otherwise. And that's ok. Standard Oil had thousands of supporters. Carnegie Steel did as well.
Curtis Flood's career was destroyed by challenging MLB. The reaction was similar. "He gets paid to play a game" "Who is he to challenge the system" "I would sure play the game for $x" "It was good enough for Joe D, but not good enough for Curtis fucking Flood". Mind you, this was before message boards and the Internet. I couldn't imagine what it would look like today.
This is what we do know- Firms that have secured billions in judgments have backed this class. They see a Sherman violation and have taken a gamble by taking this case.
I believe it comes down to one thing, and it's a question we need to ask ourselves. Is MMA a sport? If so, shouldn't the competitors at this point be compensated as such. When an owner is bringing in snow and someone who fought three times that year is collecting food stamps, the system is broken.
