Urijah Faber
Urijah Faber

Did you know the UFC released the fighter sponsorship tier from Reebok? Did you also know a lot of fighters turned up the whamplifier and took to social media to protest and speak out? Okay, joke’s over if you are an MMA fan you have had your fill of the whambulance of fighter angst. So here’s a real businessman’s take on the situation. Perennial UFC contender and former WEC champion Urijah Faber gave his opinions and assessment of the deal to MMAJunkie:

It will be business as usual for me. Well, to be honest, I’ve decided that my main staple of making cash moving forward is not going to be other opportunities. I’m not going to worry about a couple of grand here and there. It is unfortunate, because I have my own clothing brand and I have my own companies that I promote when I fight. But this is the real world, and this is their business. They get to make the rules.”

“I feel like there’s a lot of fighters that are losing money, and the few that will be gaining some money, (and) is it going to progress as it goes on? Possibly. Will guys be really upset? Yes. I learned a long time ago that I didn’t get in this sport to be a super-uber wealthy dude because of the fight game – that’s not the world that I live in right now. I can make a great living, better than a lot of my buddies that are in the corporate world, so I can’t really complain.

“But as far as the Reebok deal, I have my own company, so I’d rather be promoting those. I also have sponsors where I’d probably getting more money even though I’m at the tip-top tier. But because of the situation with the UFC having their own sponsors, the sponsors have been dwindling throughout the years, so that’s kind of been my place, to build my own brand, because I feel like we are valuable, and more valuable than people are willing to pay a lot of times.

“Things have changed, so it’s hard to really say, but I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with the way it turns out. It’s kind of a tender subject, because we don’t really have a whole lot of say in the whole thing.

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