Can You Say DICTATORSHIP?!?

dic·ta·tor·ship   [dik-tey-ter-ship, dik-tey-]
noun
1.
a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.
2.
absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control.
3.
the office or position held by a dictator.


Hmmm, sound like any MMA promotion you might know of?!?


If any good can come out of Nate Marquardt's unfortunate firing from the UFC, it's hopefully that people will see the very fragile, precarious employment position that high level MMA fighters are in these days. The recent purchase of Strikeforce by Zuffa has only made that all the more worse. While it hasn't been fully revealed as to what exactly Nate did to warrant such a quick, angered, deliberately malicious public firing, the circumstances that surround it have to be very troubling to ANY fighter currently on Zuffa's payroll.


Let's start with some of the basics:


The way Dana White handled this was as immature and unprofessional an act as I've seen in a long, long time! Can you fathom the president and figurehead of any major company handling the firing of an employee the way Dana did. Nate isn't even technically an employee, he's an independent contractor. So in essence, Zuffa just stopped using his services, they didn't  actually fire him. For Dana to go and make a video announcing Nate's release, in that now infamous 15 second clip that he tweeted to the globe, was absolutely ridiculous behavior. It was an obvious attempt to humiliate Nate as severely and quickly as he could. More than anything, Dana humiliated himself! Can you imagine the boss of your company saying, "hey, film me on my phone right now, I want the world to know that I just destroyed a family man's future income for a VERY long time!" What kind of ego trip is this dude on? He's more full of himself and bullshit than Kanye West! I'm  very surprised that the Fertitta brothers tolerate this kind of adolescent, over the top  nonsense.

Then Dana gets on the Versus channel during the pre-fight show and goes on a diatribe about Nate, telling him to "man up" and tell the world what he did that was so horrendously awful that he had to be immediately relieved of his duties and embarrassed in front of the entire planet. The way this guy was acting, you would think he just heard that Nate has been banging his wife for a few months. Keep in mind that Nate has been working with the UFC for 6 years and is one of the best fighters on the planet. Aside from a PED issue a few years back, he's been nothing but a perfect soldier for the company. That's the thanks he gets? Again, whatever Nate actually did hasn't been revealed yet, and it very well might be a fireable offense, but is there really any reason to go to the lengths that Dana did to embarrass him in the fashion that he did? The guy has never taken a beating in the cage like he's taken from his former employer. Unfortunately for Nate, after 43 professional MMA fights, he just suffered the first knockout of his career and it didn't even happen inside a cage!

Dana White likes to constantly yap about MMA becoming one of the biggest sports on the planet, with the UFC leading the way, and competing with the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. The problem is, to compete with those leagues you have to act like a professional. Could you ever imagine any of the commissioners of those leagues acting anything like Dana has over the years. There are too many incidents to even mention but it's safe to say that the way he handles himself pales in comparison to the true professionals running those leagues.

Hmmmmmm, I wonder why MMA is STILL illegal in New York?!? It has nothing to do with the sport itself, as Dana has said and will fully admit to. It's all about the way Zuffa treats their independent contractors, otherwise known as the fighters. Those fighters are what makes Zuffa all their money yet hey have no union. Hey, Zuffa, here's a news flash; New York is run by unions. These fighters have no protection WHATSOEVER, as proven by this latest situation with Nate the Great. There is no due process, no chance of any kind of appeal and no recourse. If Dana and Zuffa say, "you're guilty", that's the end of the story. You are done, which unfortunately is the case with Nate. He now has to worry about how he is going to feed his family since his employment options are severely limited due to the Zuffa monopoly at the high end of the game. Sure, he can go fight in some small show and make a few grand for himself, but it's nothing compared to what he's worth and what he deserves.


Since we are on the salary issue aspect of Zuffa's current dictatorship/monopoly situation, it's only a matter of time before they start lowballing fighters worse than they do already. What's to stop them from telling Brock Lesnar, during his next contract negotiation, that he will now make 50K to show, 50K to win and get no percentage of the PPV buys? What's his recourse? He has none other than to quit being a professional mixed martial artist. Admittedly, that's an extreme example, but it's well within their capability. The power they have due to the stranglehold (pun intended) they have on the industry is astronomical. I can just see the powers that be within the Zuffa brain trust chuckling behind closed doors, saying, "what a bunch of suckers they all are, look at how we control them!" It would be funny if it wasn't so scary! And so sad!

Does anyone actually think that the recent providing of health insurance to fighters was just a goodwill gesture from the ever so kind owners of the UFC? Hell no! As with every move Zuffa makes, it was done from purely a selfish angle. The reason was to hopefully quell the calls for a fighters union and to make their treatment of the fighters look a little better. The hope was that the providing of health insurance would also help the sanctioning process in New York.

If you want to be a greedy MMA fan and get all giddy about all the top fighters being under one umbrella, that's certainly your prerogative. There's much, much more to this than just that. We all saw Zuffa gobble up and destroy the now defunct and legendary Pride organization. We are now watching Zuffa gobble up and ultimately destroy Strikeforce. We've seen Zuffa force independent contractors to exclusively work for ONLY them. We've seen Zuffa force independent contractors to give up any rights to their image and likeness to them. If you are OK with any of this, you really have to reevaluate your stance on and knowledge of this situation.

Without a doubt, the UFC is the best show in town, the problem is, and it's a HUGE one, its also the ONLY show in town!

Zuffa Hitler?

Zuffa Stalin?

Zuffa Hussein?

Zuffa Mussolini?

The name doesn't matter, the way it operates does!

Will the REAL Top Heavyweights Please Stand Up?!?

Listen up, people, and listen good, the best heavyweights in the UFC aren't necessarily the best heavyweights in the world! You really have to grasp that reality, and quickly, because the UFC/Strikeforce merge will be happening soon enough and you will be left in the proverbial dust. On top of that, if you're a gambler, you will lose lots of dough buying into the nonsense that the Zuffa PR machine keeps churning out. In the other weight classes, the UFC has the vast majority of the top fighters, but in the HW division, that's just not the case. Strikeforce has a ridiculously strong stable of heavyweights who easily rival, and in many cases, surpass those currently in the UFC. With Zuffa's purchase of Strikeforce, it should only be a matter of time before this very important reality is proven.










The easiest thing to see when comparing the two promotion's HW rosters is how much more experience the top Strikeforce fighters have. Cain Velasquez, the current (I predict, short lived) UFC champion has all of NINE pro fights, with only two notable wins. Top contender (and soon to be champion), Junior Dos Santos, only has 14 fights. Brock Lesnar has a robust SEVEN fights on his diminutive fighting resume. The quickly sliding contender, Shane Carwin, only has 14 pro fights as well. Potential contender, Brendan Schaub, is very green with just nine fights. Aside from Frank Mir and Big Nog (who arguably should be retired at this point), none of the top UFC heavyweights has very much actual fighting experience. The flip side of that coin is the wealth of experience that most of the top Strikeforce fighters have. Their champion, Alistair Overeem, has 45 MMA fights and is currently the K-1 champion, still competing in both sports simultaneously. The living legend Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett both have 34 fights. Sergei Kharitonov has 22 fights. The least experienced of the bunch are Fabricio Werdum and Antonio Silva, each with just under 20 fights. There's some serious disparity in experience here that can't and shouldn't be overlooked.

I put a lot of stock in the experience factor. For some reason, others don't. I don't understand how that would be the case. It all goes back to the perception that the UFC is the be all and end all of top MMA talent. To blindly assume that the top guys in the UFC are the best in the world, just because they have fought each other, makes absolutely no sense to me. I prefer to look at the other pertinent factors including overall skillsets, size, athleticism and fighting style. The fact is, styles make fights. Many of the top Strikeforce fighters are bad style match-ups for the top UFC guys and vice versa. The point is, neither promotion can say they have the better fighters until they either merge or cross-promote and actually fight each other.

The beauty of all of this is that we should hopefully be able to fill in all these blanks and answer all these question marks. The current Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix will determine the best fighter there. Once that happens, if all goes right, we will finally see some crossover fights between the two promotions. I predict that the big boys in Strikeforce will more than hold their own against the relative noobs in the UFC. The HW rankings will be put in a tailspin over the next two years or so. There is no way that fighters at the level of Fedor, Overeem, Werdum, Big Foot, Barnett, Sergei and even Rogers will not do well against the best  that the UFC has to offer.

When it's all said and done, which should take around 2 years or more to shake out, you will see completely restructured HW rankings lists with the Dutch monster, Alistair Overeem, sitting comfortably on top of most. This dude is just too big, too strong, too talented and too experienced for that not to be the case. There will finally be a clear cut King of Kings. Saturday night will begin the Reem's official assault on the heavyweight MMA landscape. Unfortunately for Fabricio Werdum, he's the first contract on Ubereem's hit list. The rest of the fighters in the mix are well aware of this, its the fans that need to be put on notice and put on blast for buying whatever bullshit the Zuffa PR machine is  currently slinging. After Saturday night, those that don't know, will finally know!

In the words of the late, great Biggie Smalls, "And if you don't know, now you know, n***a!"