time traveling 12er - JerodR - Everybody that thinks the UFC has plenty of room for improvement must be wrong. Bash Nate all you want but his suggestions were not exactly wrong or unfair. 
His suggestions being what? Pay people more? Let all the sponsors in? He's making unrealistic suggestions like a kid running for school president. Hey lets fill the water fountains with koolaid and ban homework!! Of course the kids are going to cheer for him.
In an earlier article he complained about getting ripped off by some podunk t-shirt guy who wasn't even worth suing. Hey... guess who can no longer afford to sponsor people in the UFC!? He says it's a benefit to the UFC while only hurting fighters. That's his opinion but I think he's wrong on that. In the long run protecting your top sponsors is a good move and it will ultimately lead to bigger sponsors to the sport. Bigger sponsors mean bigger pay outs for fighters. Nate is suggesting going back to garage t-shirt shops and having fighters chase guys down on their own like he used to do. That's a terrible idea imo.
Minimum yearly pay? I'm not sure he's thought through the ramifications of his idea because there are lots of guys on the roster that are not worth 30k a year. Guess what happens to them? They lose their jobs. You really think it's worth paying some local fill in guy 30k a year? He mentions the minimum pay in the NBA is 540k but those are the guys that actually make the team. Their bottom level guys in the NBA d-league get paid a minimum 14k and a max of around 28k.
Also makes no sense for the UFC to institute an accross the board minimum pay. There already exists the 8/8 at the moment, why would then put it in stone? It just makes it harder to move if they want to. The minimum already is 8/8, which comes out to 16k potentially. He's actually suggesting they LOWER the minimum from a possible 16k to 15k. You guys are cheering for a guy that wants to lower the minimum pay, think about that one. If he's suggesting more guranteed pay then that's up to the fighter isn't it? Fighters have negotiated for less overall potential pay in exchange for more guranteed pay in the past. He's suggesting everyone they moved to that scale? What if guys would prefer to make more and take the risk? He's suggesting they take control out of the fighters hands and make a standard scale? Is that really better?
The no cut thing is just crazy. Again there are very few fighters that are good enough warrant this type of thing. You never know what's going to happen in this business so giving a guy a no cut contract is crazy unless the UFC is getting something major in return. The UFC has paid guys big money anyways after several losses when they weren't worth it, so what will this fix really? Like he said it's going to make the UFC selective and it's going to mean less opportunities for fighters out there. That hurts fighters outside looking in doesn't it? All this while solving what? Making a few guys feel safe? Removing the performance based aspect of their employment? Is it ultimately worth it?
Extra tickets and rooms? Wow, I didn't realize this was such a big deal. He's very generous with other peoples money saying it would be nothing to just add 22 plane tickets and hotel rooms and an extra 50$ per diem per show. It's all got to come out of somewhere. Also other fighters have negotiated for extra tickets and rooms before haven't they? If it's that big a deal they can negotiate can't they? My guess is that if they up it to three tickets lots of fighters girlfriends and buddys' are getting free flights. If anything leave it two and allow fighters to ask for more if they can prove they need it. Really if a fighter is not willing to pay for those guys to come out how important can they be? I think it makes sense to maybe give something extra to guys that travel far though, that's got to be a bitch. In the end though this whole suggestion boils down to "give everyone extra money."
The gym thing sounds reasonable but I have no idea how much hotels charge for gym access. Is it a big deal?
The uniforms. No one knows what this means or if it's going to happen. It's pointless to complain about something that no one knows about. He's creating a fiction then suggesting they fix a problem that he and others have created in their minds. It's embarassing that he even commented on it.
All in all the suggestions aren't that good and boil down to the UFC spending more money to make fighters feel better. Does any of this make the sport better? Would Anderson Silva have been a greater fighter if he got more flights and a bigger per-diem? Would Chuck Liddells run gone longer if they let his trainers into the hotel gym for free? Are these the things that make MMA run? Money has gone up, that can't be disputed. Benefits have gone up. All the while fans suggest the UFC is going down-hill and dying. Yet somehow the UFC is at fault. They complain about watered down cards then suggest that those fighters not worth watching for free should be paid more. It's like everyone wants this great sport to die so they can have their little underdog show back.
On a final note, it was pretty dis-loyal to say anything close to "the UFC doesn't care about fighters" considering his past. He can try to back-pedal and saying it was about some stupid sponsor tax or something, but in the end he said it and he has to live with it. I hope it was worth it to him.
I'll boil all your bullshit down to this.
The UFC don't make a fucking cent if the fighters don't fight for them. NOBODY tunes in to hear Dana spewing his personal brand of bullshit, so they YES they should be paying close attention to this ever increasing list of iconic former fighters complaining about how they've been treated.
I have loved the UFC for many many years and do not want to see them fail due to the arrogance and greed of their executives, but they are not selling a product, they are getting rich of the talents and hard work of the fighters, and if those fighters were to walk out en masse (union, strike etc) then the UFC has FUCK ALL.
They should be giving very serious thought to the feedback they recieve and little muppets like you should stop being apologists for the machine, and start thinking about the fighters - I mean that is what you follow the sport for right? I can't recall you making a single post that wasn't pro-Zuffa that actually had relevence to fighters.
Shill.
