One of the most divisive parts of the UFC's Reebok deal has seen a massive overhaul after listening to fighter and manager concerns.
The UFC's Reebok deal has a lot of potential problems. There's still no telling just how much of a financial hit some fighters will be taking over others, in potential lost earnings from pre-Reebok deals, and there's no telling how big a piece of the pie fighters will be missing out on with UFC sold ad space on their uniforms for companies other than Reebok. However, where the issue of rankings are concerned, things just got a lot clearer, and potentially better.
Upon roll out, the planned tiered sponsorship structure the UFC had in mind would reward fighters based on their position in the official UFC fan press rankings at the time of their fight. Unranked fighters would be in one tier, 11-15 ranked fighters would be in another, 5-10 in a third tier, and 1-5 in a final tier, with champs receiving their own deals (along with select other fighters). This was an understandably awful idea. Sponsoring fighters based on perceived accomplishments via a system of highly disorganized media members has little resemblance to the sponsorship model that fighters were enjoying in the time before Reebok. Nevermind the potential for vote buying, placing the earning potential of a fighter in the hands of a guy from ZRock Sports Radio because he's willing to do the job (as often as he remembers) is hardly a solid foundation where money is involved.
None of that is happening any more. In it's place will be a new system (with somewhat similar tiers) based on tenure under Zuffa. Fighters will be paid on a scale based on how many fights they've had with the UFC, including Strikeforce and the WEC. The new deal was reported by Sports Business Daily, who says the scale will have levels for 1-5, 6-10, 16-20, 21+ fights worth of experience for Zuffa promotions. MMA Fighting's Marc Raimondi confirmed (via Dave Sholler) over Twitter that these numbers will not include Pride or WFA or pre-Zuffa Strikeforce and WEC fights.
There may still be some interesting outliers in this structure. Eddie Alvarez's and Gilbert Melendez's names spring to mind, but that's something that could be patched up depending on how free handed Reebok is with individual deals once the system is in place. This system also has some implications for new weight divisions and higher weight divisions that may require some restructuring as there's currently no fighters below 145 lbs with more than 20 fights (Scott Jorgensen is the only one with 20) and there's only one fighter above 185lbs with more than 20 fights, and that's Frank Mir. The new deal will have separate tiers for title holders and challengers as well, so that's not so much an issue, but they may want to structure payment based on experience relative to the division, down the line, to make up for thin divisions where fighters don't get many fights.
All told, it's a step in the right direction as the deal continues to evolve coming up to it's release date. Experience generally tends to correlate well with recognition. Fighters who have been in front of the public, on UFC cards more often are going to be fighters that fans have stronger brand associations with. It looks at least a little more like how fighters were attracting sponsors pre-Zuffa, with the ability to stand by their long term career with a top promotion as a major selling point for getting exposure.
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