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!