MMA Junkie reports Gegard Mousasi announced a new sponsorship with Bridgestone tires as a brand ambassador. He wore the brand on his shorts Saturday against Costas Philippou.
The Japanese tire manufacturer announced the deal prior to Mousasi’s fight on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 66. He becomes the brand’s first MMA ambassador.
Recently, Mousasi has had sponsorship issues as he sued Fear the Fighter for unpaid sponsorship money.
Payout Perspective:
The announcement occurs at a time when most sponsors of fighters in the UFC are leaving due to the impending Reebok deal. With the signing, it means that Bridgestone will utilize Mousasi outside of any of his fights while in the UFC as fighters can still have sponsors but cannot wear them during the promotion of a fight or on fight night. We will see how Bridgestone uses Mousasi and what leverage it can gain without the aid of the UFC. One might expect more international ads with Mousasi as he is not well-known in the U.S.
Bingo! It’s not hard to function under the new system. Fighters will have to finally earn their sponsor money by working for it. Weird concept I know! Sponsors at first might pay a little less but in time it will go back up and the money from exclusive deals the UFC signs in addition to reebok will also go up. Finally the sport can stop looking like a little league teams programs where so many cheap ass sponsors none stands out and no one wants to pay for it again. Soon Mma will have committed brands who pay big money and actually get what they pay for and the sport and its fighters will look professional at the same time. It has always amazed me at how cheap and amateurish Mma has looked even with a following and TV ratings to match major sports.
I can sponsor a ufc fighter for about the same amount as it would cost to sponsor a local racecar driver on a local track racing in front of maybe 800-1200 people not even on TV.