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Since the Reebok sponsorship deal details broke all hell broke loose on social media concerning the news. Brendan Schaub and Dana White have been back and forth about how much money fighters stand to lose from their previous sponsors and guys like Matt Mitrione have expressed their displeasure. Enter Aljamain Sterling, a promising UFC prospect in the bantamweight division. Sterling took to the Sherdog forums to give his take on the issue.

The deal can work, BUT MAJOR changes need to be made. Tenure is not an ideal way to do it, because up-comers like myself Iaquinta, Felder, Elias, D. Ortiz, Almeida, Dariush, will get the shortest end of the stick. We’re becoming a more a familiar face but what do we get? An ‘Cool bro. Welcome to the Top 10/15. With becoming a hot commodity, you’ll earn a kick-ass $2,500/$5,000!!! GOOD FOR YOU!!’. LOL its a freaking joke. I love how organized and how smooth the UFC is ran, but geeze man, this is just bad. I gotta try to fight more, which isn’t the worst IMO, just so I can make $2,500 more?? I feel like a big winner being ranked 6-8th in the world.

He then played his own devil’s advocate,

My issue to counter that statement is: We are independent contractors. MMA is not a team sport on the grand scheme of things. So things are very different for us. We don’t have a union/association to speak on our behalf, we don’t have a salary pay for the year to live comfortably. We fight. We get paid. There is no in-between, no sitting out of the ‘game’ and still collecting a paycheck, so again, our sport is very different.

I have no doubt that UFC brass are keeping notes on who says what and where. We don’t blame them for being outspoken though. It’s their futures and financial welfare at stake.

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