UFC exec Lorenzo Fertitta on potential fighters' union: "That's up to them"

To unionize or not. Lorenzo Fertitta says it's up to fighters.

This past Saturday at UFC Fan Expo 2010, the UFC executive said collective third-party representation – an issue that's long shadowed the sport's explosive rise to popularity – is not under his company's domain.

"We have no role," Fertitta said. "So we're not in a position to say we support it, or we're against it. That's entirely up to [the fighters]."

Fertitta and his brother, Frank Fertitta III, purchased the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2001 for $2 million and hired Dana White as the company's president. The privately held company is believed to be valued at more than $1 billion dollars today.

Unlike many popular team sports such as football, basketball and baseball, whose athletes are represented by a players' union, there is currently no widely accepted union that represents MMA fighters around the world.

While bigger fight promotions such as the UFC carry comprehensive insurance to medically cover its competitors during events, longterm issues on compensation and healthcare typically fall on the fighter and his/her management.

The UFC has clashed with fighters and managers on issues that are often tackled by unions in so-called "mainstream" sports.

MMA veteran Matt Lindland recently made headlines when he said he doubted fighters ever would unionize and placed blame on poor representation.

"Unless you can get the top athletes, you're not going to [unionize]," Lindland told Eddie Goldman. "The fighters [are] all whores; they just fight for the biggest purse, and it's going to be tough unless you could somehow get all the fighters to agree to something like that. There's always somebody going to come up underneath who's not willing to do it.

"There's enough support (for a union), but these guys outside of the cage or outside of the ropes are cowards. You know they would not dare stand up to the powers-that-be."

Lorenzo Fertitta suggested the idea of a union is not practical for the sport of MMA.

"One of the things that's a little bit different is that fighting in general – I know a lot of people have talked about the same issue (with) boxing – fighting seems to be such a individual sport," he said. "And guys have different needs and different motivations, and what's good for a guy like Chuck Liddell is maybe not good for a kid like Paul Kelly coming up.

"They have different needs and are (at) different times in their careers, so I'm not sure if it works or not."

Fertitta said his promotion will continue to do as much as possible for its contracted fighters.

"We do the best we can to tend to them," Fertitta said. "Anybody who gets injured in the UFC, we cover that 100 percent-plus. We carry more insurance than any promoter in the history of the world (and) take care of more things – actually take care of everything for a guy who gets hurt in a fight.

"So we try to tend to their needs as best we can."

via mmacrypt.com

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