With the NFL and NBA looking at potential work stoppages next season, lot of fans squirm when they hear the term “Union” thrown around. The latest Union talk surrounds mixed martial arts, and mostly within the Zuffa organization. Fighters have had enough with worrying about paycheques not coming when getting injured in training, and are concerned about their retirement. Yesterday, ESPN interviewed long time fighter Randy Couture about the topic of a fighters union, and these were his two cents on the topic:
“There’s going to be a battle. I’d rather sit down with the UFC, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta and figure out a way to implement some things with their blessing. Health insurance for fighters. when they’re not competing. is a huge issue. There are a few fighters who could call up the UFC and say, ‘Look, I need some help, I blew out my knee in practice,’ and the UFC is going to help them. They’ve been generous but they can’t do that with everyone. There are over 200 fighters … There’s a whole bunch of issues when you start unionizing … There’s a give and take there. Unions can sometimes get carried away. It would be great to sit down and figure out a way to take care of the guys in this company so that everybody feels good about it and no one is in a position to have too much power or for a fighter to take advantage of a union and hold out. There’s got to be a way to come together and meet on ground that everyone can live with.” – ESPN
Couture makes some great points about how fighters need to be taken care, particularly when training for a match. Training is, of course, practice for the fight. Every other major sport in the world sees athletes being paid to practice. The major problem with something like this is that the UFC and insurance companies would have to have some rules in place on what is “proper” practicing, and what an qualifies as a properly equipped gym. This could be a major issue when travelling across the globe, finding “acceptable” gyms.
If something like this is implemented, we could see less steroid use in the UFC. In the past fighters have taken steroids to get over an injury, just so they can get paid, Hermes Franca is a perfect example. He fought Sean Sherk, and after the fight tested positive for steroids. After being found out, Franca came out and said he indeed took steroids. He argued, though, that it was only to recover quickly from an injury, so fight and earn money, so that he could pay for his family. This kind of living, for a top level professional, needs to be improved. I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would disagree with this.
The disagreement I have with Couture is that he believes that, without any leverage, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta will bow to the fighters command and do this. Why would Zuffa invest millions of dollars into fighter safety away from the cage when there is no pressing need to do so? The last line of Couture’s interview says it perfectly “There’s got to be a way to come together and meet on ground that everyone can live with.” This is why Unions exist, so that two parties can come together, on equal footing, and negotiate a common ground.
You can see why Couture is being a bit of a fence sitter on this issue. Dana White has treated Couture like a king during his tenure, even after his spat with the UFC, and yet Couture represents a boat load of fighters, as he runs one of the biggest gyms in North America.
What needs to happen, for the union to succeed, is the bigger fighters in the UFC make a point to look out for the less successful fighter, and be willing to join in the fight. This is usually the problem when forming a union, because so often, everyone is looking out for number one, particularly in a singles sport. This would make it hard to unionize. The difference between this sport, and other singles sports, is that a gym is like a family. Many fighters refuse to fight another gym member out of respect and friendship, and perhaps this could carry over when negotiating a union. How does one wealthy gym member look over at a training partner, and vote against forming a union which will make his many buddies lives more stable.
On the topic of fighting training partners, Dana White has always said if we give them enough money they will fight each other. If White tries to divide and conquer the fighters by paying the headliners big bucks, will money talk?
