July 1, 2009, at 12:00 pm
I’m a little bit late on this, but I can’t help but think that it’s absolute bullshit. Here’s the actual news piece from FiveOuncesofPain.com that ran on June 24th:
A UFC fighter’s ability to obtain sponsorship from clothing apparel sponsors could take on a new degree of difficulty for upcoming fight cards, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com was contacted by a manager on Wednesday night who spoke on the condition of anonymity and stated that he recently received an e-mail indicating that additional clothing sponsors have been added to the UFC’s list of banned companies.
Five Ounces of Pain was able to obtain an e-mail distributed by the UFC’s legal department that now lists Dethrone, One More Round, and Rolling Stone as a list of sponsors that will not be approved for UFC 100 on July 11. Unacceptable sponsors for UFC 100 also online Poker sponsors Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Party Poker.
I’ve defended Dana White quite a bit in the past as far as wanting his fighters to get paid in the past, but this is a little absurd. The thing people probably won’t get when they read this is that fighters are really the ones that are losing in this scenario. They are often paid by these companies just to wear these shirts to the ring, or to put their logo on their fight banner. Now, there will be fewer dollars to go around because fewer companies are allowed to advertise.
Going one step further, it seems that the UFC wants $100,000 dollars per company that wants to sponsor fighters. This is crap. A lot of these companies are internet companies(Screw Rolling Stone, they aren’t the problem here) that found a way to beat the system and gets some cheap advertising. Want to show just how screwed up this is? Dethrone has a relationship with the American Kickboxing Academy, which is a camp that houses such top fighters as Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch. This deal is going to rob that camp of income that they could have used to better prepare their fighters by reinvesting in their business.
Here’s another guy that gets royally screwed in all of this: Jacob “Stitch” Duran. That’s right; the UFC’s iconic cut man was sponsored by One More Round. That’s money that is now gone from his pocket. I hope that Dana and the Fertitta’s are planning on making that one up to him.
If you are an MMA Fan, or just like cool T-Shirts, go buy one from these companies. I’m gonna post some links below to all their websites. Help keep both their entrepreneurial spirit and their love for the sport of MMA alive.
Dethrone (A personal favorite) : http://www.dethroneroyalty.com
One More Round: http://www.onemoreroundclothing.com/
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