Fighters Georges St-Pierre, Tim Kennedy, Cain Velasquez, T.J. Dillashaw, Donald Cerrone and former Bellator MMA promoter Bjorn Rebney announced the formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) at a teleconference Wednesday afternoon.
The MMAAA will focus on an association within the UFC. There were no specifics about the steps they will take to achieve an association, how they will address the UFC in seeking a settlement and how they are funded.
Rebney inferred the possibility of a labor strike if the UFC does not meet the demands of the MMAAA.
St-Pierre stated at the press conference that athletes in the UFC make just 8% of the revenues whereas athletes in other pro sports make close to 50% of the revenues.
The Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association is here. #MMAMovement pic.twitter.com/U1alwC0uWm
— The MMAAA (@Themmaaa) November 30, 2016
GSP’s lawyer, Jim Quinn, was also in attendance. GSP is still in a contract dispute with the UFC although he maintains that he is a free agent.
Rebney, the former Bellator MMA head, stated that he was not being paid despite working on this idea for 2 years.
MMAAA has an office in Anaheim Hills, California and is registered as a 501(c)(6) under the Internal Revenue Code.
Payout Perspective:
There are a lot of questions than answers that came out of this call. As brought up in the press conference, Creative Artists Agency, the rival to WME-IMG, will not be directly a part of the MMAAA per Rebney. However, CAA supports the athletes. Notably, GSP, Kennedy, Cain and Dillashaw are represented by CAA. Its hard not to think that a part of this fight has to do with the ongoing competition between the two top Hollywood power brokers. MMAAA is directed at the UFC. Will there be a point as to when and if it will look to aid Bellator, WSOF and other fighters? Also, will more fighters join the board which is comprised mainly of Americans? Will this create competition between MMAFA and PFA, two other groups seeking to organize fighters? Finally, how many fighters are speculating on this group by the inclusion of Rebney as a consultant? His track-record on dealing with fighters has been notorious.
We shall see.
Jason, You know in your heart of hearts, if YOU know a UFC fighter personally that they are scared sh%tless to speak publicly about anything financial. This is a complete shift. That 1 document that identified the purchase value of the UFC changed everything.
THE document tells us what percentage of total PPV is hung on those few top tier fighters? They are a key to the CBA and the threat of Labor Strike……….The are ready to Fight……..sidenote , I sleep soundly because we have Warriors like Kennedy to “stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm”
I’m back. I will post my 2017 predictions in January for those who have been waiting patiently. My 2015 and 2016 prediction accuracy speak for themselves.
On another more important note. PPV buyrate corrections have been posted online, and this site should make the updates to the blue book. These line up closer to my estimates, which goes to show… anyway, here they are:
UFC 100 (Lesnar vs. Mir 2): 1,298,000 – down from 1.6M
UFC 196 (McGregor vs. Diaz): 1,317,000 – down from 1.6M
UFC 200 (Lesnar vs. Hunt): 1,009,000 – down from 1.2M
*UFC 202 (Diaz vs. McGregor 2): 1,317,000-plus – down from 1.65M but still the all-time record
*UFC 205 (Alvarez vs. McGregor): 1,317,000-plus – tracking slightly ahead of 196
P.S. the reason Dana didn’t jump off the MGM after UFC 100 is because they didn’t hit the 1.5 million mark, which I have been saying for years.
Thanks for the updates guru
edi,
Those top ppv fighters aren’t involved in this(GSP hasn’t fought in 3 years and he would clearly be the exception to the rule). They’ll never get McGregor or Rousey on board.
On a side note, Tim Kennedy is an idiot and I feel unsafe knowing people like him are out there ranting about their support for globalism.
edi,
Those top ppv fighters aren’t involved in this(GSP hasn’t fought in 3 years and he would clearly be the exception to the rule). They’ll never get McGregor or Rousey on board.
On a side note, Tim Kennedy is a fool and I feel unsafe knowing people like him are out there ranting about their support for globalism.
mmaguru….source???
Were these numbers coming from Meltzer?
Good stuff MMAguru
I ve been telling this site…why dw never jumped and why he kept unusually quiet when richard schafer challenged him to open theyre books….gullible fanboys hahahahaha…with this mmaa img silent investors,officially pissed hahahahaha
Just as ufc fanboys start talking and convincing each other…now comes this hahahaha…good for the fighters….fanboys should support this hahaha
mmaguru – I’m perfectly capable of believing that the initial PPV estimates where high – but do you have a source?
tops E – you know boxing PPV estimates suffer from the same inaccuracies right?
HAHAHA!!! Richard Schaeffer???? He lies every time he opens his mouth. Why has he never opened his books? If anything the UFC numbers are far more accurate because they have someone like Meltzer calling them out on their exaggerations, boxing rarely has someone doing that and the journalists accept their nonsense, inflated numbers. How many times have the promoters in boxing called each other out on their bs?
Hahaha…gullible fanboys. believing dw from day 1 up to now…hahahaha
4 million + for May pac, nobody can dispute that lol
The UFC destroyed boxing in ppv for 8 out of the last 9 years, boxing is basically dead in the US, and boxing fanboys can’t accept that reality. Nobody can dispute that. Haha.