Opinion: The Need to Be Twice as Smart to Be Twice as Cheap

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I've written in the past about sign-of-the-times moments in mixed martial arts -- moments when a major blockbuster story breaks or when a constellation of hot-button issues emerges simultaneously. When you are embedded in these moments, whether consciously trying to philosophize or not, you suddenly take a step back and say to yourself, “So, this is how MMA is right now.”

Consider this last week one of those weeks.

Since the news broke in July that WME-IMG was acquiring the UFC for about $4 billion, it has been a story that soaks and saturates almost every other MMA story; there aren't too many MMA topics that aren't directly or indirectly impacted by the world's biggest promotion having new corporate overlords with a vastly different outlook on business and this sport.

So far, we've witnessed the UFC's “new normal” in budget cuts, as WME-IMG looks to slash company payroll from $55 million to $27 million. We know WME-IMG stands to make $250 million in potential earnings against their $4 billion sale if it can reach certain financial incentives, so we've seen the promotion's desperation to create a big-money fight by giving Georges St. Pierre a middleweight title bid in his return. In a strict sense, however, these are issues directly germane to the UFC.

Even prior to WME-IMG officially purchasing the UFC, the concept of free agency in MMA was starting to percolate again, years after the likes of Vitor Belfort, Fedor Emelianenko and Eddie Alvarez used it to create legendary careers, years after former parent company Zuffa's success and various spending sprees led the UFC to housing nearly all the elite MMA fighters on the planet. In the few months since the WME-IMG purchase and eventual takeover, the transformation has been catalyzed and accelerated. This week was a sign of it all.

The UFC allowing fighters to enter free agency, as a broader concept, is not a new one, nor is the promotion letting athletes walk. During the Zuffa era, the UFC constantly sought to re-sign quality talent before contracts expired to increase its own bargaining power, and when coveted talents tried to throw around their or the promotion wanted to hurt a fighter's position heading into free agency, we would get fights like Stephen Thompson-Rory MacDonald, Kenny Florian-Roger Huerta or the particularly cruel Tim Sylvia-Brandon Vera.

Early under Zuffa ownership, if a champion wanted more money than the floundering UFC thought was reasonable, it would let them back up and head to Japan, hence Jens Pulver and Murilo Bustamante's abbreviated title reigns.

Beyond that, the financial successes of the Zuffa era drove up fighter pay. Not enough, obviously, that fighter pay is a dead issue in MMA discourse, but enough that eventually the UFC balked at re-signing certain fighters at their price point. Until it was desperate to help a flagging UFC 186 card and was allowed to essentially break the law to book him, the UFC was happy to let “Rampage” Quinton Jackson go instead of paying him in the neighborhood of $1 million to fight.

In a meritocratic world and considering his historically noteworthy success, re-signing Jon Fitch to a new deal starting at $70,000 to show and $70,000 to win would've been more than OK for the UFC, but the company balked. Was Matt Mitrione going to be a UFC heavyweight title contender? Probably not. In recent years, this was the format for the UFC letting talent go via free agency.

Now that's changed. The explosion in UFC fighters asserting their right to test free agency has been stark. This week alone, Irish lightweight Joseph Duffy -- still the owner of that win over Conor McGregor, by the way -- said he was going to entertain offers from all suitors now that his deal is up. Meanwhile, former UFC interim bantamweight title challenger Michael McDonald revealed that he requested and was granted his release. McDonald, who just turned 26, even said he felt that the UFC had dealt with him “very dishonestly and disrespectfully” recently.

Major MMA contract negotiations on every level now seem more bizarre, at least in their publicity. With a crippled 205-pound division, the UFC thinks so little of Misha Cirkunov -- 4-0 with four stoppages in his UFC run thus far -- that it initially scoffs at inking him to a second deal but still thinks enough of him for UFC President Dana White to come out and call him “a flake” in public? Then the UFC ends up turning around and re-signing him after the promoter publicly skewers him?

Things are more complicated, too. The UFC recently granted a release to Cirkunov's last opponent, Nikita Krylov, despite his also being a young, talented, exciting asset at 205 pounds. Why? Russia's Eurasia Fight Nights was going to pay him a boatload of money to fight under its banner, and frankly, he could've just broken his contract even if the UFC hadn't released him. What, an American company is going to sue a Ukrainian national fighting for a Russian company in Russia? Sure.

Jorge Masvidal may be a surging contender in the UFC, but the last man who beat him, Lorenz Larkin, is now bound for Bellator MMA. The savvy striker was all class when discussing his departure, but he basically said he felt Scott Coker and Co. were excited to work with him and the UFC was not. Days later, to no one's surprise, perennial top-10 light heavyweight Ryan Bader signed with Bellator, which gave him a highly preferential contract. Meanwhile, White was eager to let the world know he thought “Bellator was a good place for Ryan Bader” in February.

Of course, anyone leaving the UFC doesn't have to deal with that pesky Reebok deal. You can dress yourself like a grown up in an individual sport and maybe even make a dollar or two.

Regardless of whether the UFC is doubling down on big-money spectacles as a business practice, the company is still in the fight game; it will not suddenly stop signing talent and re-signing elite fighters as practice. However, as cost inefficient as it may have been at times, the Lorenzo Fertitta-Dana White-Joe Silva obsession with collecting all the best fighters, even if it meant wholesale buying promotions, gave the UFC the best chance to cultivate the best talent. The more you dump salary and the choosier you get in negotiations, the more you risk slipping.

The UFC's championship history is filled with fighters who didn't exactly rocket to greatness without faltering, and it's actually much rarer to have coveted talents who blaze to glory. B.J. Penn was clearly a future champion before he even fought in MMA; and with Cain Velasquez, it took two fights at most. St. Pierre and Chris Weidman were can't-miss prospects who established their reputations quickly. Jon Jones took a little longer than them but still qualifies.

If Stipe Miocic's contract was up after the Junior dos Santos fight under this sort of regime and Bellator made a play for his services, where would the UFC's heavyweight division be? If under this ownership, while coming off of a 3-4 run in his last seven, having lost to Luke Rockhold in their first bout and still dealing with a detached retina, Michael Bisping was up for negotiation, what then? Tyron Woodley has had several performances, wins and losses, over the years that made it seem unlikely he'd be a UFC champion. The man Woodley took the title from was Robbie Lawler, whose late-career resurgence and UFC title reigns is one of the most incredible, shocking things I've ever seen in sports. Amanda Nunes took several losses in Strikeforce and the UFC before maturing into the 135-pound queen of the sport. You just don't know.

Even after his exciting rehab stint in Cage Rage in England, Anderson Silva was still largely haunted by his Pride Fighting Championships failings against Ryo Chonan and Daiju Takase when he signed with the UFC in 2006. Would today's UFC have seen a potential star and champion in Silva and invested in him? WME-IMG is de-emphasizing international events at a time when Bellator is aggressively expanding into European markets, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, courtesy of its relationship with the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts. What I mean to say is this: If McGregor was hot off of his two-division title run in Cage Warriors Fighting Championship today, it's not a foregone conclusion which promotion “The Notorious” ends up with, at least nowhere near the way it was five years ago.

Today, maybe he even winds up fighting for Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya. It's a wild time in the global MMA market.

It is still a generational rarity to identify a fighter who can crack the UFC championship level and look poised to be a long-term MMA draw on his or her first contract. For so many great fighters, champions and even some pay-per-view draws and superstars, it's not a perfect, unblemished trajectory to stardom. Naturally, not every single top-10 fighter will be under UFC employ anymore, but if WME-IMG wants to keep a general grip on the majority of elite talent and continue to harvest potential stars, the UFC's new parent company will have to be twice as smart to compensate for being twice as cheap.