In his sixth professional boxing match, Jake "The Problem Child" Paul has defeated mixed martial arts legend Anderson "The Spider" Silva to remain undefeated. Silva is the third former UFC fighter that Paul has bested in the boxing ring, his résumé including knockouts of Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley.
The 47-year-old MMA icon represented himself well in the match and proved that he was still a very technical and creative striker. Silva's movement was excellent and he could handle the shots when Paul was able to connect. He also landed a number of nice uppercuts from the clinch and used feints to set up punches from distance. He even showed off some vintage mind games that any MMA enthusiast would love to see from The Spider.
However, Silva did not have enough volume and power to defeat Paul. The social media superstar landed clean body shots in multiple rounds and was able to connect cleanly more consistently. In the eighth round, Paul put an exclamation point on the bout with a massive knockdown that brought the entire Arizona crowd to their feet. Silva was able to recover and bring the match to a decision, but the judges recognized the skills of Paul and rewarded him with a unanimous decision win. After the fight, Silva told Ariel Helwani that even he thought the judges got it right and that Paul was the rightful winner, an outstanding display of sportsmanship and respect from a true martial artist.
ALL ACCESS: Paul vs. Silva | Full Episode (TV14) | SHOWTIME PPV
Along with the treatment of fighters and their paychecks – however measly – comes the question as to why the Ultimate Fighting Championship has literally monopolized dominated the market in Mixed Martial Arts. If fans are indeed fanatics of MMA, how can they give so much of their attention exclusively to one promotion?
In the beginning of the last bit on this, it was stated that it seems the MMA fanbase that exclusively follows the UFC as the sole producer of the combat sport, also appears to be tacitly going along with things just being the way they are. Would it be too much to say that it is simply accepted that when Dana White, who is the president of the UFC, says something, it is taken as what it is? When he says terrible things of fighters, that is alright? When he maligns the media (who essentially pay to promote his company), that is alright? Or the hinge pin of this discussion; when he maligns fans, that is alright? Think this is overstatement? Go search the phrase online “Dana blasts.”
Part of the allure when MMA was burgeoning was that it was a fight sport with fighter-types associated – including its very vocal president. There was a feeling that we were all in on some Fight Club stuff. The voice for the company was saying we will be who we want to be. Then came legalization in all states, stars (the writer groans when that word comes up), television deals, USADA, and apparel deals. And this last one is where we pause for a moment and remind ourselves. Many times from the man himself, it was stated the goal was to be super-duper professional like the other sports. A drinking game (figuratively of course) could be made of the times White says “this thing” referring to what they have built and how it is mainstream and huge and global and extra professional – super-duper, extra professional. Did we say, professional?
And here we are with the sport having gone literally global. The promotion itself being in partnership with ESPN; possibly the most ubiquitous sports commodity on earth. And as recent as months ago, the president of the company is saying of boxers: “All those f****** guys are overpaid.” It is quite possible that this is an attractive quality to some. But this is a Martial Arts context we are in. The loudest voice in the sport said that people getting punched in the head for a living are being overpaid. Not ice-skaters. Not curlers. Boxers. Take a minute if you would, and go watch interviews from retired boxers. This is not really about pay if we have any empathy.
Enter the other promotions. In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Chatri Sityodtong – President of One Championship - answered some tough questions very candidly about the journey he has been on as a promoter. How the first three years were so very difficult. He spoke about how even now they are still working - having had some devastating setbacks due to the pandemic and other things – to become profitable. He also spoke of particular numbers gauging success for combat sports and how One is leading the pack – even over UFC – in many parts of the world. But what about the ethos? What about when told he is not as big or as good as UFC? What about the constant drone of always being a bridesmaid? Maybe taking a swing at a star like Nate Diaz is the shot in the arm he needs, right? Wrong.
Chatri spoke of the ethos of his company being about the Martial Arts. He emphatically said UFC is an MMA company. He doesn’t want a star for stars’ sake. He wants the best strikers, the best grapplers, the best kickbokers, etc. He is not taking castoffs from other organizations. He is building his own fighters. And it would seem for all intents and purposes, succeeding at doing so. And not once has he ever told us we are idiots or as White did to a fan who said a card wasn’t good, “Stay home then, f***face!” – in public no less.
We have not even talked about Bellator and Scott Coker’s reputation and integrity, or the backing that PFL has gotten from pretty significant investors, or even the smaller promotions producing some excellent talent.
If in a discussion, this is the part where people ask weird impossible hypotheticals about champions in one place fighting champions in another. Aside from the actual evidence such as Eddie Alvarez spanning promotions and reaching the absolute heights in each, or the title fight between UFC Champion Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira essentially being a showcase of fighters not homegrown in the UFC, or seeing UFC fighters even in their prime struggling elsewhere – aside from all of that, people will likely still simply accept that the UFC has all of the good fighters and fights. If you go further past the top five in the UFC, you will see without doubt that things are way more equal and open in the talent pool. Still, UFC is best, right? Maybe.
This is all to say that the UFC did it. They told us all ‘it is what it is’ and what it is is that we consume what we are fed. There seems no number high enough of fighters complaining about their lot in the UFC or fighters extoling the virtues of another organization that will make the casual fan take notice. Will this end up in the end being a ‘what might have been’? Could there have been a scenario in a parallel universe where fighters got to excel, be paid handsomely like other pro sports, be appreciated by fan and promoter alike, and have opportunities in a free market to appreciate in value? All while representing the honor of Martial Arts? The strange thing is that this seems to be a model that is not all that costly. It could be that everyone could win if done right. Wishful thinking perhaps – if the cost of doing business is less ego.
“The first on-ground event is going to be Q2 of next year. I announced it at the business conference [2022 World Congress of Sports] yesterday,” said Sityodtong.
“Amazon’s global head of sports was there yesterday also speaking, Marie Donoghue, and so we have big plans working together. It’s a five-year deal, so we really are in earnest.”
The partnership got off to a hot start in August when Demetrious Johnson knocked out Adriano Moraes with a flying knee. The highlight-reel ending capped off a wild night of martial arts inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium and saw the company trend #1 on Twitter.
When it comes to bringing ONE to America, Sityodtong discussed how the company wants to make sure they do it the right way.
“We have 12 primetime U.S. events with Amazon, and ideally, they want it all on-ground. We were the ones who said, OK, can we scale into it? It’s the pandemic, it’s COVID, it’s our first time in America. We want to get it all right. I think in this situation, it’s not about coming as fast as you can, but it’s getting it right. So our first show, we want to make sure we get it right, and then we build momentum from there,” said Sityodtong.
And when ONE comes to the U.S., fans can expect the same exact show they have been watching for years. ONE is working with athletic commissions to get the global rule set they utilize approved. The global rule set sees matches judged as a whole as opposed to by round and allows athletes to strike with knees to a grounded opponent.
“We have Rich Franklin working with the various athletic commissions and getting our medical system, our hydration process, and our rule set approved. He’s going state by state, so we’ve got a few states that have approved,” said Sityodtong.
2023 is already shaping up to be another huge year for ONE, and the plans to hit the ground with multiple shows in the United States will only serve to make it a historic year for the organization.
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Thought experiment: What do these names mean to you the reader? Miguel Torres, Tyson Griffin, Melvin Guillard, Mike Pyle, Leonard Garcia, or Evan Dunham? Whatever they mean to the reader, it is safe to say they mean less to the UFC regardless of their individual and/or collective contributions to that promotion over the years. About the best those retired and should-be retired fighters are going to get right now from the promotion is to get to use an ice bath at the Performance Institute – assuming one of the stars has not made sure the place is all to themselves. It might be that the subject of fighter pay is an immediate turn-off to some. It is clear to most that follow Mixed Martial Arts that the subject has not really gained anything like traction in the public consciousness. The proverbial sausage-making is a non-starter.
For our purposes here, it is more question than complaint. Why is such a dedicated fanbase, who seem to recognize the stakes for the chosen profession of their favorite athletes, so averse to paying attention to what the athlete is being paid or leaving the sport with? Is it possible the fans fell for what the promoter or its president says in that its athletes are getting paid “tons of money?” Yet those above names do not even have pounds or ounces to show for it – let alone tons. Is it possible that the fan thinks if the ‘stars’ are in any way representative like they are in sports with collective bargaining that even the lowest person in the organization is making a comfortable living? In other words, Lebron James is a wealthy star and the lowest paid athlete in the NBA with literally zero years experience making $1,017,781 a year (in 2022). Therefore, this might have us thinking that Conor is making millions, so a new MMA fighter must be making a decent living, right? Well, no. If a new fighter (with the common contract) gets three fights in the UFC in a calendar year, wins two and loses one, their pay will be around $60,000 for that year. This does not take into account management if they pay them, gym fees, equipment, etc. Does an NBA player have to pay their team’s facility to use its equipment or go out of pocket to pay coaches? It is not exaggeration to suggest that a first year UFC fighter after expenses might make something like the minimum wage in California. Tons?
This is the part where the jaded commentator or smart guy says, “They don’t have to do it.” Those names listed above that are most likely unknown to the current crop of UFC fans are not complaining (that we can hear anyway). True; they did not have to do it. But it is equally true that a 4.2 billion dollar company does not have to pay their fighters the way they do either. When pro athletes in other fields (pun intended) get in trouble or wind up in court (another pun?), it is always part of the narrative to say that they squandered an opportunity. After all, “How could they do that when they get paid all that money?” No one has ever said that about an MMA fighter not named McGregor or Jones. And we have yet to even introduce the subject of other promotions which will come later.
In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Eddie Alvarez, an MMA stalwart and former UFC (and other organizations) Champion, said the answer to these types of issues is not collective bargaining which is often suggested as a solution to the fighter pay issue (and those related, i.e. healthcare, pension, etc.). In fact, he inadvertently made his own point very clear that opponents will not ever likely work together when he spoke of the time when he and Michael Chandler had a sort of gentlemen’s agreement as opponents to join in negotiating their Bellator contract together. Alvarez said with a laugh that it did not unfold that way and Chandler had a deal all of a sudden and Eddie was left out of that. Eddie is a very astute fighter and business person in the space. He always speaks candidly about how a fighter needs to be in business for themselves and make stands for their own benefit. Even to the point of saying, “no” if they have to.
There is an undeniable tension between employer and employee ahem, independent contractor. It exists in every field. Somehow when it comes to sports, the fan seems to assume a pro who is not doing a normal job must be getting paid handsomely and therefore has no right to complain or in some cases, even discuss that they might deserve more. Apparently, only fans can be frustrated about not being paid what they are worth. Does the reader deserve to be paid more at their chosen (yes, chosen) place of employment? Is there contentment if the higher-ups say, “Well, it is what it is”? If your employer were to say in public right now, “our people are getting tons of money,” would you agree?
Stated earlier, this is a question. Do we care what Mixed Martial Artists get paid or how they are treated? If so, how is that proven? If not, why not? How much pay does Michael Bisping deserve for losing an eye in the UFC? Before anyone points to his current success, we must remember, that is not due to his fighter pay alone. Or what about Paul Felder’s lung chunk? Or the countless names we do not remember who are working full-time jobs after their fight careers because the sport did not afford them a comfortable living. Can we name five financially independent former fighters? Three? This writer knows a former title contender and fan-favorite fighter who is a very good carpenter. Not on a yacht. Not in broadcasting. Not with a chain of MMA gyms. It is a foregone conclusion that fighters need to have a career plan after fighting. This is no longer a fringe back-alley sport. It is in the mainstream consciousness. The biggest promotion was sold for 4.2 billion dollars and is now more profitable than it was when it was sold. More questions than answers it seems on this subject. One question that remains: Why do MMA fans seem ok with martial artists giving so much and getting so little? Is it what it is?
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