Go in to work tomarrow and ask for a 2% raise. Say you will quit if you don’t get it. See what happens.

Those so quick to judge the UFC’s business practices should take note that the more everyone tries to tear down their supposed “monopoly,” and tries to add to their business expenses by “looking out for the fighters,” the greater the chance that MMA will die off. The less viable the UFC’s business, and the less profit incentive they have, means the less chance that the business will continue to grow. We have seen how difficult it is to make a viable MMA organization out there, and if you start derailing the UFC’s business model then there might not be a place for any of these people to have employment.

Just take a look at how the unions destroyed the viable business models of American auto makers. Blame it on the economy all you want, but Volkswagon and Toyota are still investing in the American auto market, which says it is still a good market if you are able to produce things at an effective cost. But you always have morons like Michael Moore making movies about how it should be illegal for any company to fire anybody for any reason. You can’t have a serious argument with people like that.

Giving the fighters and managers too much power at this point could be a death knell for MMA as a whole. It is always the easy argument to make for the poor little worker over the big bad business executive. But it is usually a pedantic argument that only takes surface issues into account, and does not deal with the reality of who really takes the risks in the business, and who drives employment forward.

…And while we’re at it, exactly who did the Bush administration call unpatriotic who disagreed with them? See if you can find me an example of this Caplan. And something more than just “well… it’s common knowledge,” or some other cop out like that. You are a journalist, so give an example for your blanket accusation. The only people I remember calling others unpatriotic were people like Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi, who would then promptly hide behind a false statement saying they were themselves being accused of lacking patriotism, though nobody ever made tat accusation. Cowardly and pathetic.

Oh my…I’m hoping nobody at THQ or UFC actually believes this. A little game by the name of World of Warcraft currently has 11 million subscribed (monthly paying) players. ‘UFC Undisputed’ likely wouldn’t even come as close as the 100 rank in this category.

Interviewer: One of the things that seems to be bandied about in this whole is this idea of a lifetime exclusive rights deal for merchandising stuff…

Dana: No, no. There’s no lifetime deal on merchandising. The merchandising deal is non-exclusive. They can go out and do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. with whoever they want to, and we haven’t pressured anyone to sign that thing.

Seriously folks this is the MMA reality we live in now, all the UFC fan boys who wished death upon Pride, Elite XC, IFL etc.

Now we have one major org with all the power and its going to be take it or leave attitude with Zuffa from now on

Of course, I respect Dana White’s right to use his bully pulpit and virtual monopoly as a negotiating platform to strongarm fighters into signing contracts that benefit the business and not the fighter but I have to give huge kudos to the majority of AKA (boo to Mike Swick for caving) for standing virtually united.

Fitch’s points are salient and reasonable. You can pay a guy $170k to fight for one night but you owe them a hell of a lot more for a lifetime of service.

Though I am sure he will never be fired it is clear his only influence in the world off mma is negative. There was a time when he was helping the sport grow, but now all he’s doing is making us all look stupid.

I’m tired of defending my love for mma to outsiders who only see guys like Dana spewing hate and acting tough. It’s so easy to see why a casual sports fan would be turned off by the UFC. Dana has gone as far as he can go in this sport. He has successfully brought in the mma base of hard-core douche bag tough guy fans that would be into it no matter what. Now it’s time to get someone with crossover appeal if the UFC is to continue to grow.

Simply put it is like a nagging girlfriend. If she complains to you everyday about everything you do then what are you going to do? You dump her! And then get a girlfriend that doesn’t nag as often. I would say get a girlfriend that never nags but that is impossible.

Dana is trying to be a fake ass Vince McMahon or something, trying to be a bigger character than the sport and he just comes off looking like a douche. Even if he feels the way he does, there’s no reason he can’t be professional.

This type of behavior may be the genesis of a fighter’s union or an antitrust investigation. It’s just not necessary.

The be all and end all is that Dana only cares about the UFC doing well, NOT the fighters. He wants a global brand that dominates MMA and he’s not far off his dream. Competition is healthy in any industry. Monoplies are never a good thing for anyone except the fat cats and bigwigs. I wonder how much Dana gets paid. Actually I don’t want to know. It will depress me.

If Fitch doesn’t agree with the terms, then he is certainly able to say no, but then has to decide if he wants to fight elsewhere for less money, less grandeur and sponsorship, and the chance of squandering his “wonder years”. I give him props if he does just that, because it is at the heart of entrepreneurship. However, there might be the downsides I state above.

If Fitch fades away, who will care about his face being on the next UFC videogame? Absolutely nobody. And the eventual loser will likely be John Fitch.