Seconds after UFC 250 ended on Saturday night – which was a fun event that saw two incredible knockouts and another victory by the GOAT, Amanda Nunes – things took another bad turn for Dana White when Conor McGregor tweeted that he was “retiring” from the fight game, effective immediately.
McGregor has now “retired” from the UFC three times, so it’s hard to take this seriously, even if he did post a picture of a retirement cake on Instagram (a cake doesn’t make things official!). This all feels like like another negotiating ploy by the biggest moneymaker in the UFC over the past bunch of years and I’m not buying that he’s done with fighting. No chance.
What makes this more interesting, however, is that White has some serious issues, as a number of big-name fighters are rightly upset with the UFC boss over the money fighters are making and they are speaking up and making moves for themselves and, really, for all the other fighters in the UFC.
Finally.
Two-division champ Henry Cejudo stunned the UFC world a few weeks ago when he retired in the Octagon after defending his bantamweight title.
The GOAT, Jon Jones, traded shots with White over money and rumored demands before saying he has retired from fighting, too.
This weekend the “BMF” champ, Jorge Masvidal, took the UFC to task on Twitter, explaining in a series of tweets how White and the UFC are not paying fighters enough and haven’t for years and now its time for fighters to speak up and take action.
Then McGregor “retired” and White went on a post-fight rant about how these fighters don’t need to fight if they don’t want to in his regular macho tone about how things must go on during these tough times.
But here’s the thing – fighters in the UFC are woefully underpaid and the health care they get from the company during and after their careers leaves a whole heck of a lot to be desired.
This does fall on the fighters a bit, too, because they have never formed a union and have no ground to stand on when trying to get real change to happen. Because of the lack of the union, UFC fighters reportedly only have about a 20-percent revenue share with the UFC, which is far below the 50-50-ish shares the other big sports leagues have, mostly due to those leagues all having player unions.
In a perfect world these moves by Jones, McGregor, Masvidal, and Cejudo would lead to some big changes – though I’m not too optimistic about that happening because White and the UFC hold all the power and don’t seem all that interested in being fair.
But there might be no better time than now because the UFC needs big fights and big paydays as the company, like everyone else, is getting hit hard financially while dealing with the global pandemic. To make money, however, the UFC needs to have its biggest names fighting in the Octagon, not on Twitter.
Right now the fighters have a lot of power. Maybe more than they’ve ever had. Hopefully more fighters realize that, band together, and stand up to White and lead to big changes that would only make the sport better for everyone involved moving forward.
Right now, White has some serious issues on his hands and he’d be smart to actually be professional about them and work to make things better.
Because the fighters deserve better. So much better.
NASCAR’s biggest stars release video about fighting racism, inequality
NASCAR was back on Sunday and before the race started in Atlanta a number of big-name drivers appeared in a video in which they spoke out about racism and coming together to listen and to make the world a better place for everyone. It was the first time a number of drivers had spoken publicly about the death of George Floyd and the protests that have been going on for almost two weeks and it was a pretty powerful video. Check it out here.
Quick hits: Jordan speaks out… CrossFit CEO’s racist tweet sparks outrage… Conner’s sweet gift to his dad.
– Michael Jordan spoke out against racial injustice, saying “it sucks your soul.” He’s also going to be donating $100 million over 10 years to help promote racial equality and social justice, which is pretty awesome.
– CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman sparked outrage this weekend with a racist tweet and it led to Reebok and gyms ending their partnerships.
– Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner bought his dad a truck and surprised him with it in a pretty sweet video.