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Coming off the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s best year ever in terms of title fights and revenue, combatants are pushing back on the top promoter in a way that will stay in the headlines throughout 2016 and beyond. The year has notably started with UFC’s marketing department taking McGregor’s boisterous public advice -- read: criticism -- and applying it to the new redesigned UFC 196 poster.
McGregor, 27, has the chance to do something that has never been done before: Should the featherweight champion successfully topple lightweight kingpin Rafael dos Anjos on March 5, he would become the first simultaneous two-division titleholder in UFC history. McGregor is one fight night away from seizing unparalleled stature he can play for unprecedented spoils. For all its original virtues, McGregor’s run does have roots in the sport’s yesteryear.
The precedent was ahead-of-the-curve boldness that was best exemplified by Frank Shamrock’s decision to leave the UFC and never return. Shamrock walked away from the Octagon as champion and undefeated in the UFC. What it got him in the long run were highly visible, at-will paydays on his terms. The former King of Pancrase spearheaded Strikeforce’s inaugural show in 2006, drawing at the time the North American attendance record for MMA at 18,265. Ten years later, it remains the second biggest show in America.
Shamrock signed a contract with boxing promoter Gary Shaw’s EliteXC, arguably to pawn it off for friend and then-Strikeforce frontman Scott Coker’s benefit. Shamrock’s contract with regional promotion Strikeforce forced EliteXC to co-promote on Showtime. Shamrock had the foresight to know Coker would outlast Shaw and poach EliteXC’s assets, including valuable fighters and the Showtime and eventually CBS platforms. Shamrock only competed for EliteXC once, on its inaugural show. What’s remarkable is Shamrock set those landscape-altering events in motion against a 0-0 fighter in that first Strikeforce event.
There is a significant truth in Shamrock’s career arc: Certain fighters, in the right place and right time under the right circumstances, can launch their own promotion. Shamrock is the O.G. shot-caller. Whether or not upstart or alternative promotions can continue and thrive is another question. That’s where the unprecedented returns to today.
Imagine if McGregor takes his ball and goes home, where he’ll fill stadiums in Ireland on his own with opponents he selects. That could launch a successful and sustainable national Irish or United Kingdom venture that might be worth more in the long run than his current situation might offer. Of course, McGregor may choose to be a UFC lifer, although he hasn’t been yelling about McGregor Promotions for nothing.
McGregor is pushing the UFC to co-promote, but it does not do that. The co-promotion option outside the UFC is available through Coker in Bellator MMA. How did Coker, a co-promoting major MMA league president, come to Bellator? According to a Sherdog.com interview with Sam Caplan, Shamrock’s hand was at play again, suggesting he was a Trojan Horse at Spike TV that brought Coker in to replace Bjorn Rebney.
It used to be only old-timers like Shamrock discussing co-promotion and free agency. Now active fighters from all walks of life are singing a similar tune.
News that former World Extreme Cagefighting and UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson signed with Bellator reverberated this week. UFC President Dana White painted Henderson as barely relevant, if not irrelevant to rankings, on MMAJunkie.com. White also asserted Henderson would earn more money in the UFC “if he were to become champion again,” hinting Henderson sought a better guarantee up front because there is no way he’d be a top fighter again. Even if that’s true, it doesn’t make it wrong or Henderson less of a fighter for it. White stretches that caveat’s limit considering there is no definable path on how to reach a UFC title shot, especially with the organization’s capricious, self-serving rankings.
Henderson’s manager Malki Kawa tweeted “Aljo on deck…,” referring to another one of his clients, undefeated 26-year-old bantamweight Aljamain Sterling. White won’t have those claims of downslide on which to stand if Sterling departs for Bellator. Kawa’s stable includes current free agent and heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem. Kawa also backs former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. That Kawa alone could dent the UFC’s bottom line if his clients ditch the promotion should remind everyone that managers have been rendered largely irrelevant by the UFC’s updated Reebok business model; conversely, managers still serve an important function on an open market.
Even Hollywood strongman and onetime MMA fighter Dave Bautista noticed and tweeted, “Anyone who buys that goofy UFC @Reebok s--- is endorsing the fighters getting [expletive] out of their sponsorships. Just a thought #[expletive]reebok”
It’s important to note fighters exploring free agency juxtaposed to Sage Northcutt’s hype train being halted at UFC on Fox 18. Northcutt was being paid more than serious veterans and top fighters like Sterling. None of this is his fault. The crux is he isn’t the best fighter in his weight class in the Southwest region or even his home state of Texas. Fighters should solidify those notches before casual audiences come to know them. At 19 years old, Northcutt’s future is whatever he makes of it, but many issues were brought to light, as anticipated, with pushing such a green fighter to the sport’s forefront.
Northcutt because of strep throat wasn’t even healthy enough to attend class at Texas A&M, let alone fight at the UFC level, which is supposed to be the proving ground for the world’s best. This was far below that. These days, to fill space or build opponents, there are plenty of club fighters on UFC broadcasts. The fact that he had no real history of sparring and suddenly finds himself in a nationally televised UFC fight is a problem. There is a danger in building up someone without the credible pedigree to succeed. Bottom line: Being athletic and marketable is not enough for a fighter to receive Fox-level exposure and above-average pay.
Remember, undefeated MMA champion and U.S. Olympic wrestler Ben Askren was shut out of the UFC for allegedly needing more wins. “Funky” chimed in on Northcutt on ESPN.com, telling Brett Okamoto, “Your relationship with the UFC determines your pay and it shouldn’t be based on that.” Askren is overwhelmingly right based on what transpired with Northcutt alone.
A standout objection Shamrock always had with the UFC is his view that fighters are shoved through the ringer without much time to comprehend how fast they are being chewed up. Northcutt got his first -- and maybe not his last -- taste, and he’s someone the promotion supposedly favors.
Northcutt has potential to be a prospect but is not yet a prospect. That was muddied by his promotionally constructed hype. He had never even trained in a real capacity at a world-level gym that could qualify his ability to succeed on big shows. UFC light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier told SiriusXM Fight Club on Monday that, as team captain at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, the camp wouldn’t be a good fit for Northcutt because he is likely not ready to deal with its stiff training regimen.
It’s a fine line being walked, with Northcutt getting preference over proven, world-class combatants. He’s the prime example of the UFC conveyor-belt, Reebok-branded fighters diluting the product rather than giving accurate value to cemented talent.
The UFC’s perpetual chugging along is a double-edged sword, admirable but sometimes ill-advised. Take the immediate rematch between middleweight champ Luke Rockhold and the man from whom he seized the title, Chris Weidman, slated for UFC 199 in June. If the Rockhold-Weidman rematch demonstrates anything, it’s that the UFC will forego long-term rivalries to satisfy its demanding schedule. Rather than Rockhold and Weidman building toward a big-money rematch, they are going at it again right away, which can leave Weidman out in the cold completely in half a year for no discernible reason other than the Ultimate Fighting Championship wants UFC 200 to happen in July.
The Reebok deal has forced the sport to expand through free agency because it’s a consistent, imposed contraction on the landscape. With six-plus years left with Reebok, one has the wonder whether the expansion or contraction will burst first.
Danny Acosta is a SiriusXM Rush (Channel 93) host and contributor. His writing has been featured on Sherdog.com for nearly a decade. Find him on Twitter and Instagram @acostaislegend.