When Mac Danzig enters the Octagon against Joe Lauzon on Fox, he will not have any logos on his person except for his gym. It’s not because he was not originally slated for the main card, but because he chose not to have any sponsors for this fight.
The interesting business move was made public at the UFC on Fox 9 press conference when Ariel Helwani asked Danzig about his matchup and being moved up to the main card. Helwani then asked about his sponsors to which Danzig stated he had none. The Former TUF winner appeared disillusioned by past treatment from sponsors that did not take interest in him but used him as a billboard.
Danzig acknowledges he is walking away from money but is fine with it. In his last fight at UFC on Fox 8, he made $30,000 flat in a KO loss to Melvin Guillard.
Payout Perspective:
Is Danzig walking away from money? Certainly. Maybe Danzig is naïve to think that sponsors should become involved in a fighter’s career. Obviously, a manager could assist in finding proper sponsorship that fits for Danzig wherein a sponsor may be more involved with a fighter and vice versa (e.g., fighter appearances, longer terms of involvement, etc.). Then again, Danzig stated he does not have a manager.
In a post-press conference interview with MMA Junkie, Dana White indicated that the UFC was working on retooling the sponsorship fees to aid all fighters. We can be cynical about this announcement by suggesting that Helwani fed the question to Danzig so that he can state that he is not going to be sponsored. White then states in an interview that the UFC is actually working on a “fair” sponsorship fee. Otherwise, this story would not have been known until we saw Danzig Saturday night.
Overall, we’ve heard discontent with the UFC sponsor fee. In October, Cole Miller spoke up about the obstacles in finding sponsors. But, he also expressed the same concerns that Danzig had about finding sponsors that were willing to establish more than just a “one-off” logo grab. We will see if the UFC devises a structure that will allow more sponsors access into the UFC while helping fighters with a sponsorship revenue stream.
My bet is that the UFC announces promotion wide sponsors whose logos will appear on every fighters trunks since UFC contracts give them the right to include whatever advertising they choose on fighters trunks, gloves, etc. Fighters will get a cut of this, and i’m sure everyone will praise it ignoring the fact that the UFC policies intentionally drove out sponsors and the new deal will give fighters only a small share of the revenue.
The sponsor fee hasn’t drove anyone out but low paid local business. I also don’t see what Dazig being a retard has anything to do with the UFC and any policy they have. His issue isn’t sponsors or lack there of. Its him thinking a sponsors job is to kiss his ass. There are plenty of other guys for companies to throw their money at. We are already talking about what little return a company gets on their investment. It is usually the fighter who goes the extra mile and help activate a sponsorship. For Danzig to cry that handing him money for basically nothing isn’t enough shows how big a nut ball he is. But this is the same guy who tries to be a Vegan and fight MMA. Vegans are usually crazy hippies by nature anyway so go figure.
As for the UFC taking over all the ad space on fighters. I look for something like that down the line also. I have actually expected the UFC to make everyone wear the same shorts and maybe even require everyone to wear rash guards. Then rather than everyone get different sponsors. Sell all the shorts and all the rash guards to one company for each event. It would look much better out there. Increase the value of sponsors and bring in a couple large prestige’s sponsors rather than a bunch of small ones.
The only problem with this and splitting sponsor revenue is the super star fighters. It would be very hard to figure up a way to split the money. When you have guys like GSP and Jones and Silva getting huge deals for that same space. But I guess you could leave in the sponsor fee for those big sponsors to buy access to their fighter. But anyone who doesn’t have a mega deal would fall under the UFC deal that covers everyone else.
It would be interesting if they went to using rash guards to add more sponsor space. IF not, we could see the females start utilizing this space. They are already wearing shirts. I have yet to see a sponsor on them in the UFC. I know that Rousey hasn’t in her fights and neither did the TUF finale girls.
Hahaa, suuuure this is by “choice.” Who the heck would wanna sponsor that guy anyway? I hate everything about him. The way he looks with short hair, the way he looks with long hair, his body type, his voice, his mannerisms when he wins AND loses…I can’t stand the guy. I won’t say that I enjoyed hearing him scream and cry in pain after Guillard’s beating of him, because I didn’t. But it didn’t exactly bother me either.
It wasn’t his choice. If he didn’t badmouth past sponsors, future sponsors might be more interested.
Nascar occasionally has cars that race without a sponsor.
No matter what they say, it’s never a voluntary choice.
If it is true he doesn’t have a manger. Then that would have a lot to do with no being able to find a sponsor on short notice. Especially when few want to associate with a fool. The guy keeps making stupid decisions that always come back to bite him. Reminds me of a couple liberal/socialist I know. The guy needs to sit down and have a nice juicy steak and reexamine his choices in life. People like him make complete opposite decisions as everyone else. Then think they are smarter than everyone else and act like everyone else is morons. Typical, when everything they do turns to shit. They play it off like it is part of their plan and ignore it. When most people would learn from it.