The Sport of Mixed
Martial Arts is often praised by its fans for being the fastest growing, most
exciting and complex sport in the world. However, if asked, many fans will
admit that the sport is far from perfect. It is a very young sport and it has
multiple organisational and infrastructural flaws which we will look into
today.
Problem number 1: Fighter Pay
Low fighter pay is perhaps the biggest problem in the sport today. An undercard fighter who earns 10 grand a fight before tax and fights three times a year (if he/she is lucky) can hardly make a living.
Participating in one of the hardest sports in the world and taking risks in training every day for so little money in hope that everything will go extremely well and perhaps one day 10,000 dollars a fight will turn into 100 grand does not seem like the most clever career option for a young person. There are examples of fighters who realised that the risk is not worth it and have retired very early into their MMA careers. Last year an undefeated Bellator Heavyweight champion Cole Konrad retired at the age of 28. The fighter decided to take up a job with the North Central Trading where he started working as a financial trader specialising in milk products.
It is hard to imagine a successful athlete in any other mainstream sport throwing his athletic career away in a similar fashion. The reality is that MMA fighters do not feel secure. They do not get paid enough and everybody knows it. These athletes cannot expect that fight bonuses will pay their bills; it is money you are not sure you will get.
Advertisement money will not get you sorted either if you are an undercard fighter because nobody will see your fight therefore a sticker on your shorts will not buy you a house.
How to fix it: Establish a fighter union
The biggest argument against the rise of the lower tier fighter pay is the fact that these athletes do not raise any attention and do not sell any pay per views. While that may be true, it is unfair when the salaries of the MMA fighters are compared to the salaries of the lower tier athletes of other sports.
What MMA and UFC fighters in particular really need is a fighter union. An organisation which would be able to make the fighter needs and opinions heard and understood. The 7 year deal between the UFC and FOX is approximately worth $750 million. If, instead of landing in the Fertitta’s pockets, 30% of that money went to the fighters union and then was split up amongst the fighters, the pay situation would be completely different. It is obvious that UFC does not want that to happen, they want to control their own money, they are a private company after all. However, current situation is unfair to the fighters and everybody knows it. Movement to establish a fighters union has to begin sooner or later.
Problem number 2: Substance Abuse
A variety of different substances has been abused by many MMA fighters for as long as since the very beginning of the sport. It has been alleged that today, up to 80% of MMA fighters are on various illegal performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Marijuana abuse has been another on-going issue in MMA. Whilst it does not provide its users with any clear advantages in the fights, the main problem with marijuana use is the damage it does to the image of the fighters, promotions and the sport itself.
Performance enhancing drugs are a completely different story. The fact how dangerous, unethical and wide the use of PEDs in Mixed Martial Arts is, has been discussed for many years. Everybody agrees – the use of PEDs must be stopped.
The fighters usually know when they will get tested for drugs. That makes the whole testing pointless, because if the use of a drug is stopped at the correct time, the illegal substances will not show on the test results. It is quite simple. The one time that Alistair Overeem did not know he will get tested for PEDs, he got caught.
However, perhaps the biggest and the most irritating problem in Mixed Martial Arts today is the legal performance enhancing drugs – Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT). Fighters are allowed to use the substances by their doctors. TRT lets the fighters train harder and recover faster. That obviously puts the clean fighters under a considerable disadvantage. If not fixed, this problem may ruin the whole sport. What is the point to train clean if you know your opponent is juiced to his teeth.
How to fix it: make rules
Marijuana does not enhance the performance of the fighters. Many athletes do not want to be role models for kids. The governments of the world are losing the war against marijuana. UFC should give up too.
PED use in MMA should be stopped immediately. Athlete testing should be given to the hands of private companies. This is slowly starting to be done. Johny Hendrix and Georges St. Pierre have gone through the VADA/WADA testing. The fighters cannot be informed about the upcoming tests and must be checked randomly.
Testosterone Replacement Therapy must be banned. If it isn't forbidden soon, UFC will be full of fighters in their early 30s on legal performance enhancing drugs. TRT seriously harms the athletes because if done once it must be done for a long time, sometimes for the rest of the person's life. Having TRT still legal is absurd.
Next week: 5 Biggest Problems in Mixed Martial Arts Today Part Two: Judging, Referees and Lack of Competition for UFC.
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