Final Friday, Jake Paul – the controversial YouTuber turned skilled boxer – launched a rap video concentrating on Dana White, the president of the Final Combating Championship.
Aptly named the Dana White Diss Observe, the track opens with a cameo from former UFC champion Cris Cyborg, who's pressured by an actor enjoying White into signing an exploitative contract that doesn’t even assure well being care. Paul – who modestly portrays himself as a crusading hero – then launches into the observe, which takes intention at White and his enterprise companions Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, in addition to notable fighters equivalent to Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz, and even retired champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The utterly not safe-for-work observe, which has garnered greater than 2m views on YouTube, is Paul’s newest try to name for improved pay within the UFC whereas escalating his private battle with White.
“Dana, pay your fighters extra. Give them healthcare, you scumbag. I haven’t met a single one who says something good about you. I handed my drug check and also you went silent. I’m preserving my foot in your neck till you faucet, bitch,” proclaims Paul within the closing part of the video. “Cease elevating your pay-per-view costs on the followers and never paying fighters extra. Grasping, previous, lonely, bald, bitch.”
Paul and White have clashed repeatedly over the previous few months. It started when Paul supplied to retire from boxing and be part of the UFC roster if White agreed to boost fighter pay and supply long-term well being care to his athletes. White responded by suggesting that Paul was utilizing steroids. Unfazed by White’s assault, Paul introduced final week that he had invested in Endeavor, the father or mother firm of the UFC, with the intent of driving change from inside. He then informed ESPN’s Stephen A Smith that he deliberate to begin a fighters’ union and that his battle with White is “actually concerning the fighters.”
Paul’s verbal showdown with White has undoubtedly drawn consideration to the mistreatment of fighters within the UFC. Nevertheless, it additionally raises questions on Paul’s motivation given his (and his older brother Logan’s) historical past of monetizing controversy.
The 25-year-old Paul launched his YouTube channel in 2014, which shortly turned a platform for eye-popping antics that earned him greater than 20 million subscribers. He grew to turn out to be considered one of YouTube’s hottest names till Logan Paul posted a December 2017 video of a useless physique filmed in Japan’s notorious “suicide forest.” On account of the backlash from the video, each brothers misplaced their sponsors and had their movies demonetized on YouTube. Although Jake Paul continues to be embroiled in varied controversies – embody throwing a celebration throughout the preliminary Covid -19 lockdown and allegations of sexual assault—he has since turned his consideration to his flourishing boxing profession, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of his earnings.
Earlier this month, Forbes estimated that Paul made a mixed $40m for his three boxing wins in 2021, all of which passed off in opposition to former UFC fighters. Along with his eyes set on a number of different potential UFC opponents, together with Jorge Masvidal, it makes monetary sense for Paul to convey consideration to the group’s oppressive contracts and its mistreatment of fighters, particularly since White vehemently opposed the concept of Paul difficult these below contract with the UFC.
Paul’s battle with White additionally expands his reputation within the combined martial arts group and presents him as a supposed defender of downtrodden athletes whereas bringing in additional viewers to his fights. Given this, it comes as no shock that Paul is creating movies attacking White whereas claiming that it's all for the advantage of underpaid fighters.
However, whereas Paul’s battle with White is most certainly self-serving, it will be silly to disregard the truth that his fanbase and social media presence may present a useful platform to highlight the difficulty of fighter pay within the UFC.
In contrast to the overwhelming majority of sports activities leagues and organizations, the place athletes obtain wherever between 47-50% of the game’s income, the UFC has traditionally paid out between 16-19%. In 2019, the promotion reported $900m in income, however solely 16% was paid out to the UFC’s roughly 600 fighters.
The UFC’s stranglehold led to a half-dozen former UFC fighters submitting a $5bn antitrust lawsuit in opposition to UFC’s father or mother firm, Zuffa LLC, in December 2014. The lawsuit fees the corporate with illegally buying and sustaining a monopoly over the MMA business. It claims that the UFC used predatory practices and ran an unlawful scheme to remove competitors, which resulted in fighters being paid “a fraction of what they might earn in a aggressive market.”
In line with Lucas Middlebrook, a union-side labor legal professional representing airline and professional sports activities labor teams, Paul has each the wealth and affect to play an important position in creating collective bargaining alternatives for fighters.
“Jake Paul has the cash to throw behind [unionizing fighters],” stated Middlebrook. “He’s additionally obtained the power to create media, which he can use as a software to teach the fighters on the advantages that unionization may convey.”
Middlebrook, who beforehand suggested former UFC fighter Leslie Smith’s Challenge Spearhead labor affiliation, added that if Paul desires to create actual change, he ought to start by funding grassroots organizing actions equivalent to hiring former UFC athletes to teach present fighters and coordinate unionization efforts. These actions may very well be particularly efficient proper now, because the Nationwide Labor Relations Board takes steps to analyze workplaces and employers that misclassify employees as impartial contractors. UFC fighters are at present categorised as impartial contractors.
“When you’ve made the UFC cut price as an alternative of implement, you are taking away their energy and … see the empowerment of the labor. And when you see the empowerment of the labor, issues begin to change in a short time.”
Paul has a novel alternative to assist numerous fighters enhance their livelihoods. Whether or not the YouTube star will comply with by means of on his claims of assist or just persist with his model of making the most of real-world controversy stays to be seen.
Post a Comment