Issue 121

One of both the biggest roadblocks as well as the biggest launching pads in contract negotiations is the ego. Two of the most talked about ego-motivated deals in UFC history are the two contract battles between the Ultimate Fighting Championship with Fedor Emelianenko and Tito Ortiz.

Although MMA has grown leaps and bounds in the nearly 19 years since Rorian Gracie took it to North America, the sport is very much still in its formative years. One byproduct of it being in its infancy is most fighters are still finding it difficult to make a comfortable living fighting; crawling before they can walk, walking before they can run.

Former manager Ken Pavia also the former CEO of India’s Super Fight League, believes one of the pitfalls of fighters standing up for themselves in contract negotiations is that sometimes the impact it can have on their careers is not worth it.

“If you play ball with them, you have the possibility of getting taken care of and getting a push. If you don’t, you alienate yourself and that costs you money. Jon Fitch is a perfect example. He said he wasn’t going to sign away his likeness and name as part of the UFC’s merchandising agreement and the UFC dropped him that day. He came back after realizing it was a lost cause and said he would sign the agreement and any other one they wanted him to,” Pavia recalls. 

Few have gone to bat against the UFC over money and won. Just ask Ken Shamrock. Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture – who both left Zuffa briefly, only to return to renegotiate new more lucrative contracts – are the exception.

Details of Ortiz’s contract disputes are well-known, thanks in part to the publicized quarrel he had with UFC president Dana White that nearly climaxed with the former UFC light heavyweight champ and his former manager settling differences in an '07 boxing match. 

He re-upped his contract two years earlier after walking away from the company for the first time, due to what he termed a “lack of respect.” A new contract and a wheelbarrow full of money and Ortiz’s tune changed, at least for a while.

In 2008, Tito unofficially walked away from the UFC again and within months announced he would be signing with the fledgling Affliction promotion. He never fought for the company before it unceremoniously disbanded after two shows. He would sit out a year before being brought back into the UFC fold, but by standing his ground, Pavia believes Ortiz helped other fighters to make the pay checks they deserve.

“Tito has balls of steel. He felt the UFC was making a considerable amount of money off of the backs, blood and sweat of the fighters without compensating them a fair portion of the returns I would tend to agree with him on that, but, unfortunately, most fighters are afraid to say anything because the amount of money they make is dependent on the amount of gratuitous discretionary bonuses they receive from the UFC,” says Pavia. 

“Tito would argue he wasn’t paid exactly what he was worth and Dana would argue he was paid too much, given his success in his later fights. It was a classic case of ego against ego. In the end though, he ultimately cashed in. His instincts told him he was worth a lot more than he was being paid by Zuffa, and he wasn’t afraid to take a stand to push for what he felt he deserved. I respect him for that and I think fighters owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Another fighter, who, some will argue might have had a more lucrative career had he come to terms with the UFC, is Fedor. Depending who you ask, most feel the greed of his management team kept him out of the Octagon, thus adding a question mark to his legacy. Pavia doesn’t think his business decisions should have any correlation to his standing as the greatest of all time.

“This is a business, and you have to look out for your business interests. If your legacy drives your decision-making, you could end up like a lot of fighters who can’t afford to pay their own rent and who fight because they need the money, not because they enjoy it or want to keep competing. 

“Unfortunately, very few fighters are able to retire from this sport because they can’t get paid what they were being paid to fight. Most are forced out of fighting due to injuries. Let me preface what I’m going to say by telling you that I think Fedor is the greatest fighter to ever live. What we read in the press about Fedor is often skewed by the UFC media machine. The UFC wanted him because they realized he was a potential moneymaker for them and they could make multiple big money fights with him. When you break down the deal at its core by looking at what he had with Strikeforce – it was doomed from the start.”

“I know he made a considerable amount of money in his last two M-1 fights. There were Russian government sponsors that took care of him quite well. Financially, he made out quite well. Would he have been able to command as much money had he made different decisions, like signing with the UFC, especially if he had lost to any of their top 10 fighters? I can speculate, no,” Pavia guesses. “Fedor stood his ground and his management stood their ground for better or worse as far as fan scrutiny goes, but first and foremost he made his decisions based on his desire to protect his family and his career in terms of long-term financial sustainability. I commend him for standing up against the powers that be. He didn’t want to be leveraged and he’s done very well for himself, despite never fighting for the UFC. Was his legacy tarnished? Slightly, possibly, but the sparkle of his bank account greatly outweighs any tarnishing his legacy may have incurred by not competing in the Octagon.”