Call him one of the 76-percenters.
Not long after Gilbert Melendez turned the mixed martial arts (MMA) world on its head by announcing a preliminary deal with Bellator MMA, a retired Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight and original "Ultimate Fighter" contestant is explaining why competing organizations are beginning to look more attractive.
Perhaps because UFC cares more about the bottom line than it does its fighters.
That's according to Nate Quarry, who took to The Underground on Monday (Feb. 17, 2014) to weigh in on the news of potential UFC fighter uniforms and help shed some light on why today's crop of athletes are feeling the financial squeeze from UFC.
His words:
At the UFC summit a fighter asked if he could wear his own shirt. Dana laughed and said, "Uh... we can talk about it." I turned around and asked the UFC lawyer if I could wear my OWN shirt and he said, "Sure, give me $50,000 and we can talk about it."
People have no clue from the outside what it's like to fight for the UFC. After spending 10-15 years chasing your dream only to see that the company it's been your dream to fight for cares nothing about the fighters and only cares about the bottom line.
With every little bit they try to squeeze out of the fighters, the more the other organizations will look more attractive.
I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to fight for the UFC and everything I have besides my daughter has come from fighting. But let's not fool ourselves. It's not a charity. It's a business. And they are doing everything they can to make money. The fighters are just a product to use and discard. Every up and coming fighter is the best ever. Every ex-fighter who then expresses an opinion is a coward, loser, etc, etc.
Read his full statement here.
News of the uniform went over like a lead balloon with some fighters, including newly-signed female combatant Felice Herrig, booked for the next edition of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). The "Lil' Bulldog" is fearful that any money she was able to earn for her personal brand (like this) will be put out to pasture.
Read her argument here.
While no one is calling UFC a monopoly (except this guy), there has been some dissension in the ranks, with one fight camp threatening to pull its entire roster from UFC and send them to Bellator. If it does, you can bet UFC will exercise its right to buy 30 Ferraris match. Something it can still do with "El Nino."
Nothing personal, I suppose, just business.
Right?