Dana vs Oscar

Lately there has been a war of words between Oscar De la Hoya and Dana White. These two promoters have big personalities and consequently may not appreciate it if the other comments on the way they do things and recently, the fight between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz kicked off an ill feeling.

Personally, I am not a big fan of Dana White and how the UFC treat fighters. So, I am glad that someone is looking to upset the silverback of the MMA world. Other organisations have been made to tip toe around the UFC in fear the organisation will squash them. In both the Bellator and WSOF promotions, they have an ‘out clause’ within contracts allowing fighters to leave if they get an offer from the UFC. This more-or-less makes their shows a second division where former UFC fighters go to finish their careers. What makes De La Hoya different is that he formed the promotion company ‘Golden Boy Boxing’, named for his nickname during his boxing glory days. In his career, De La Hoya won multiple titles in 6 different weight divisions – so ‘Golden Boy’ seems to fit. Golden Boy Boxing has been going since the early 2000’s and has become a true powerhouse in the boxing world. As De La Hoya was a former fighter, he is all about looking after the fighters and has done very well in this regard. De La Hoya has now stated he plans to add MMA fights to his promotional experience; the first being Liddell v Ortiz. This is where the war of words with Dana White started as White criticised De La Hoya for allowing Liddell to fight again. Dana stated that Chuck Liddell should not fight again as he has been knocked out too many times, De La Hoya replied by stating that if White paid his fighters more then they wouldn’t have to keep fighting.

Liddell v Ortiz II had 929,000 pay per view buys. In the US, they pay $49.99 per view x 929,000 = $46,440,710.00. If you look at how much fighters got paid around that time, around $200,000 per fight for the top people. You do have to ask yourself, if you are headlining a pay per view that sells over $46 million then why would you only get paid $200,000. I am sure putting on a UFC show is expensive but $15million would safely cover the overheads (at a guess) so what happened to the other $30 million? Does it go in to Dana White and the other owners’ pockets? What seems sure is that is does not go back to the fighters. From my standpoint it looks like the fighters could have been paid ten times more for the main event fight ($2,000,000).

Think of a fight world where the fighters choose between the UFC and Golden Boy (for example) and each company is competing to bring the fighter into their ranks. This can only make the conditions better for the fighters in terms of how they are treated and how they are paid. As of right now, fighters will give up a lot for a chance at UFC glory, as it is the name in MMA. There are some people who even think the sport is called UFC and not MMA. The UFC have done wonders for the sport and deserve all their success, but they do treat fighters badly. A recent example is Mighty Mouse, one of the best fighters on the planet who was the undefeated flyweight champion for years, has one loss and the UFC trade him. Jose Aldo was champion and undefeated for 10 years then lost to Conor McGregor and never got a rematch as it was financially better to have the belt around McGregor’s waist – the list goes on with how they treat fighters. In defence of Dana White however, he did show that he has paid Chuck Liddell nearly $2 million dollars since he left the UFC, the payments ranged between $250,000 – $400,000 a year – so there is a lot more to this story.

I would like to see the fighters have some of the bargaining power, not just the UFC. All going well, Golden Boy Promotions will shake things up a bit. In the short term it could get messy with verbal warfare and other games. However in the long run if there are more top level organisations for MMA fighters to make a living then that has to be good for the sport and more importantly the fighters.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor