I haven't heard anyone blame Reebok. Zuffa are the ones culpable and people are well aware of that.
Then you clearly haven't been reading the UG. Just search on the name 'Reebok' and you'll find dozens of threads trashing them. Heck, one UFC fighter literally trashed his Reebok swag in protest of the deal. The UG is full of misdirected anger. Why is no one calling for boycotts of Harley Davidson? Or Metro? Or Monster? They all have major sponsorship deals with the UFC and the fighters don't see a penny of that money. At least the Reebok deal pays them something.
The truth is, none of the UFC sponsors are to blame. The UFC is to blame. If they shared a portion of EVERY sponsorship deal with the fighters, things would look very different. But the UFC only gives them a share of ONE sponsor and keeps every last dime from every other sponsor. Why anyone blames Reebok for that is beyond me.
Harley, Metro and Monster's sponsorships of the UFC don't inhibit the fighter's ability to make money. Reebok's sponsorship does.
So Reebok forced their way into the sport and made it so the fighters cant make money? They are paying $70M. Should they pay $11M/year and be overshadowed on fight shorts by Condom Depot because they gave a fighter $15K?
Do you bitch that Tom Brady or NBA player don't make enough money and then blame it on Nike or Adidas?
This type of deal doesn't happen in other professional sports because the participants are unionized and the they would never let that happen, or at least they would be able to ensure that they get a fair cut.
Could you imagine if NASCAR sold the rights to Chevy to be the exclusive car body for racing and disallowed any other sponsors on the vehicle? How long would those teams that rely on that outside money survive?
Why are you comparing UFC to the one sport/competition of your choosing? Why not compare to NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, etc... where they don't have sponsors all over their uniforms and more of the direction the UFC is going with one major sponsor? All of those sports actually pay their athletes well so they're not dependent on sponsors. How if the hell is this Reebok's fault and not the UFC's?
UFC 182 did 800k ppv buys. Disclosed fighter payout was $1.3M
Bradley/Pacquiao II did 800K ppv buys. Disclosed fighter payout was over $27M.
Same PPV price...same number of PPV buys.
But yes, it's Reebok's fault the athletes aren't paid well.
I haven't heard anyone blame Reebok. Zuffa are the ones culpable and people are well aware of that.
Then you clearly haven't been reading the UG. Just search on the name 'Reebok' and you'll find dozens of threads trashing them. Heck, one UFC fighter literally trashed his Reebok swag in protest of the deal. The UG is full of misdirected anger. Why is no one calling for boycotts of Harley Davidson? Or Metro? Or Monster? They all have major sponsorship deals with the UFC and the fighters don't see a penny of that money. At least the Reebok deal pays them something.
The truth is, none of the UFC sponsors are to blame. The UFC is to blame. If they shared a portion of EVERY sponsorship deal with the fighters, things would look very different. But the UFC only gives them a share of ONE sponsor and keeps every last dime from every other sponsor. Why anyone blames Reebok for that is beyond me.
Harley, Metro and Monster's sponsorships of the UFC don't inhibit the fighter's ability to make money. Reebok's sponsorship does.
No.
There are two major sponsorship models in sports. There is the 'individual sponsorship' model, where it's every man for himself and you eat what you kill, and there is the 'centralized sponsorship' model, where the central authority of the sport controls on-field sponsorships and the pools them all together and doles out a percentage to the athletes.
The UFC has moved from the individualized model where everyone keeps whatever sponsorship income they can scrounge for themselves (including the UFC) to the centralized model, but they have failed to pool all of their sponsorship income and cut the fighters in for a percentage. So the fighters had to give up everything, while the UFC only gave up a slice of one sponsor and keeps the rest. They are having their cake (centralized sponsors) and eating it too (keeping 100% of their non-apparel sponsorship income). THAT is what is fucking the fighters, not the Reebok deal.
