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A five-member board comprised of current UFC fighters
announced the formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA).
The board includes Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, TJ Dillashaw, Donald
“Cowboy” Cerrone and Tim Kennedy. The fighters are looking for a settlement for
past fighters, an increase in revenue shares closer to that of other
professional sports, and a benefits package that includes insurance and
pensions, among other things. At the announcement of the board they claimed that
the revenue split for other professional sports is about 50/50 but only about 8
percent of UFC revenues go to the athletes. Bellator MMA founder and former
president Bjorn Rebney is acting in a “strategic advisor” position to help them
but all decisions are going to be made by the fighters. It can’t be called a
union because fighters are considered independent contractors and calling it a
union would have hindered them in court. The move annoyed Cung Le, Jon Fitch,
Nate Quarry and other fighters involved in a class action lawsuit filed against
the UFC since any attempt to reach a settlement with UFC would kill their
lawsuit. Rebney had also met with them before about being involved in their
lawsuit as long as they received money if they won. The MMAAA responded by
saying that lawyers in the class action suit approached them and not the other
way around. Included in the response was the revelation that the class action
suit only wanted money and didn’t care about current fighters. There is also
confusion about the formation of the MMAAA since Cerrone didn’t know he was on
the board until he showed up at the press conference. He also said that he
wasn’t going to be working with some of the people at the press conference but
didn’t name names. That person could be Rebney who UFC President Dana White has
called the biggest scumbag in the history of combat sports. Bad blood has
existed between the two since Rebney ran Bellator. White had issues with the way
he handled contract disputes with Ben Askren and Eddie Alvarez, who wanted to
leave and sign with the UFC. |
