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Originally Posted by Krazikarl  The point of the deal is that Zuffa takes over all marketing of many aspects of the fighters self promotion (ie they make stuff like toys and t-shirts of the fighter and sell them). In return for that, the fighter gets a cut. |
I think the author was trying to say that the way in which the merchandising is done greatly diminishes the profitability of the actual fighter. What you said above is fine, but, if what the blogger is saying is true, than not only is the cut only a small percentage, but it can be done perpetually with all merchandise. Not only that, the fighter could never go to a different company to sell his or her own image for a bigger cut (which may be the most important part of all).
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Originally Posted by Krazikarl Zuffa isnt allowing them to have their cake and eat it too. If you sign up for Zuffa to sell your shit, and you get your cut of Zuffa's money, then you cant shop around your image to other organizations. So in exchange to getting lots of merchandising money from Zuffa, you cant empower their competitors. Sounds fair to me and I really dont see the big deal here. If you dont like this deal as a fighter - dont sign the contract. Just dont pull a Randy where you sign the contract and then bitch about it. |
Earlier, the author wrote that what the managers were telling him from what Zuffa was telling the managers differed in what the contract outlined. I think that's what set off alarms for the author (et al). That being said, there's a lot of money to be made off of unprofessionalism. I suppose it's how you see it- you could see it as Zuffa selling your image, or you could see it as you, the fighter, selling the product. Personally, I believe that there would be no product if it weren't for the fighter, UFC brand or not, therefore the fighter should get more control and a bigger cut.
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Originally Posted by Krazikarl The only major issue is the length of this type of contract. Clearly permanently signing a fighter to this would not be fair. But I dont think that they have it right about the perpetuality clause. And clearly a fighter would be stupid to sign a contract like this that exists forever. I think it just means that Zuffa can use the image of the fighter (provided they pay the royalties) for as long as they want, but I dont know about the part where the fighter can never get out of the deal if they want. |
I can see what you're saying here. Personally, I think some UFC fighter, as Dana put it, dumb f---ers. But that doesn't mean they deserve to be treated unfairly, or be taken advantage of being they don't have a mind of business and their manager is inept.
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Originally Posted by Krazikarl I interpret as this - once you fight in the UFC, the UFC is allowed to use that footage for however long they want, even after you leave. Its similar with this stuff. But that doesnt mean that you can never leave the UFC. |
Yes, that's true, but I think the author is trying to say that it's more than that. The author interprets the contract as being so rigid that you can't even state where you've been fighting for the past year if the UFC doesn't want you to. So, sure, footage requires permission, but if you left the UFC and simply want to tell interviewers what promotion you last fought in, you couldn't. You couldn't even say you got the UFC LW belt. So no, it doesn't mean you could never leave the UFC, but in terms of merchandising you couldn't exist out of it. So let's say Matt Riddle, a new fighter, signed the contract, then went to DREAM where he made it HUGE. Oops, now he can't sell merchandise in Japan for the rest of his life.
I agree with you, hopefully none of the fighters have signed it, though I suspect some have as scanning and modeling for the new video game have already begun.