LS

If you are under contract with the UFC, then you have to wait until the company matches you up for a fight. One of the main ways that people get a fight started is they start talking smack about another fighter on Twitter. That is not very dignified and not how I want to represent myself. But that is one of the only options other than waiting. My manager called the UFC every day for an extended period of time trying to get a fight.

Then when the UFC makes a decision, you have to be ready, available, and willing to work exactly when the UFC wants you to. During the period that we are under contract with the UFC we can only fight exclusively for them. We can’t use our skill set with another promotion during that period. I consider that pretty employee-like.

My personal experience is that I want to fight. But I have been put on the shelf. I don’t get to choose my opponents or the fights. I don’t have any say about what is going on with my career or what my next steps are going to be. So the UFC exerts all this control over fights and careers but claims we are independent contractors.

In the future, MMA fighters will look back on this time as the dark ages of the MMA. When MMA fighters have full medical coverage, retirement plans, and are getting paid purses that are a legitimate share of the revenue they are generating, they will have a hard time believing that we lived with these conditions for so long.