Issue 139
March 2016
Former WEC main man Reed Harris may be out of the spotlight, but he’s working harder than ever to look after hundreds of UFC athletes.
Dialogue
Reed Harris
UFC vice president of athlete development
December 19th 2010, World Extreme Cagefighting general manager Reed Harris bade farewell to the promotion he founded. It took blood, sweat and tears to build the organization over nine years, but having been absorbed by UFC, it was over. He was relieved of the stresses of running a company that had delivered some of the best action in MMA history. But his role in building the sport was far from over.
Fast-forward five years and Harris is now UFC vice president of athlete development. It’s a change from being a company figurehead but that doesn’t mean his workload is any lighter. Now he and his team are responsible for the wellbeing of the entire UFC roster.
Media, sponsorship, training, travel – anything and everything. The fighters can come and knock on their door. They’ll cater for almost anything. And it’s a perfect fit for a man who’s always been known as one of the most approachable executives in mixed martial arts. The athletes respond to him, the managers respect him, and all are comfortable turning to him with their problems.
“Over the years I ran the WEC I always had a pretty good reputation as far as taking care of the fighters,” he tells FO. “That all came from my beginnings in the sport, which was really working over at Chuck Liddell’s gym, training over there and watching how hard these guys worked.
“We are now in charge of really helping the athletes outside of fighting. Obviously Joe and Sean (Silva and Shelby, UFC matchmakers) handle the fighting aspect, but my department is involved in almost every other aspect.”
That means acting as liaison between fighters and sponsors, arranging appearances for promotional partners and organizing press tours to coincide with events that now take place in countries in every corner of the world.
“Some months we travel up to 100 fighters to different things,” Harris explains. “We have them doing promotional activities, which allows the fighters that are cutting weight to get ready for the fight. The fighters are obviously doing some promotion, but anything that’s outside of that (is done other UFC athletes).”
All this work is a fairly recent development that has become essential for the organization as the scale of its operations has grown. It put on 41 shows in 2015 and boasted a roster of more than 500 fighters at the beginning of 2016.
But despite those numbers, Harris says the process of looking after fighters’ best interests is better than it ever was: “It was more fragmented. The different departments would deal with the athletes when it was time to deal with them. In the last few years, and this last year particularly with (UFC chief global officer) Garry Cook, I had a guy coming in who was on the same page as I was.
“We always treated (fighters) well – Dana and Lorenzo have always taken care of these guys, they’ve done things that have brought tears to my eyes and nobody knows about it. This is more of a company initiative. I’ve been working with the athletes for many years and saw there were things we could do to help them make more money outside of fighting and that stuff is all coming to fruition now. Every month we’re generating income for the fighters and it’s great.”
Harris is far cry from the high-profile role of a promotional leader. But he admits he doesn’t pine for the old days. In fact, he’s quite glad to be rid of the media obligations and settle into a behind-the-scenes role that’s giving fighters the support they need to go and put on a show. And that was his goal from the very beginning.
“I started WEC just thinking I’d do a couple of shows as a place where all these guys in the gym could fight and I could watch them,” he says. “Obviously that turned into something a lot bigger. We’ve always focused on the athletes. We know they’re the real core of our business and the direction we’re going in the UFC is taking it to the next level.”
He adds: “I haven’t really had time to miss the WEC much, but I do get to see the guys fight. It allows me to even have a closer relationship with the guys than when I was promoting. As a promoter I was negotiating with them. I was close, but I was also the guy on the other side of the contract. Now my job is really to take care of them.
“The athletes are amazing. They’re fun to be with. I’ll go out to dinner with them and it’s fun. We talk fighting, we talk everything. Right now I’m at a really good place with my career and I see there’s so much growth ahead of us. We’re all feeling very good about the company and where we’re going. Taking care of people is a great job.”
The UFC Campus
New facility will be state-of-the-art
One of the projects the athlete development team has been heavily focused on is the new UFC global headquarters – particularly the revolutionary Athlete Health and Performance Center aspect of the development.
Harris says the facility, which broke ground in December and is due to be completed in the first half of 2017, will match anything any other sports franchise has to offer. “I’ve got James Kimball (UFC director of athlete development) and Forrest Griffin working with the architects to design this facility for the athletes,” he says.
“Obviously Forrest has a lot of great input as a former fighter and athlete. We also brought in some of the other athletes to discuss that. My previous job was in construction, so I’ve been here before at the planning stages.
“Garry Cook brought in an architect from Europe that had previously been involved in the (English soccer team) Manchester City facility and they’re pushing it very hard. My belief is this will be one of the finest facilities anywhere.”
Reebok reactions
Apparel arrangement a good deal
Harris and his team have been heavily involved with the UFC’s apparel deal. And while he admits it might have taken some fighters some time to embrace the idea, all signs point towards a deal that is good for the athletes, UFC and the sport as a whole.
“Absolutely they’re coming around, but it’s an ongoing process,” he says. “I don’t live in a cave, I understood the arguments for and against it. But if you talk to Lorenzo, you can see the long-term vision and I absolutely agree with what he’s trying to do. Our mission is: how do we make this work best for everyone.
“For the longer-term fighters the money may not have been there that there was before, but the newer fighters were all very happy with it because sponsorships were very hard to get. I can tell they’re happy.”
