Within the lead-up to the ultimate struggle on his UFC contract earlier this month, Nate Diaz took intention at Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson over the movie star’s lately introduced footwear cope with the UFC.
“These footwear fucking suck,” Diaz stated whereas holding up one in every of Johnson’s Challenge Rock footwear in entrance of the digital camera throughout an ESPN interview forward of UFC 279. “Take a look at these footwear. They made me put this shit on. Fuck these footwear.”
Although Diaz’s feedback had been minimize from the official broadcast, the clip later went viral after being posted anonymously to Twitter. On the time, it served as the one instance of a UFC fighter publicly talking out in opposition to the group’s latest sponsor – a sponsor whose cash is unlikely to complement the athletes placing their our bodies on the road in a punishing sport.
In late August, the UFC introduced a multi-year partnership with Challenge Rock, a partnership between Johnson and Underneath Armour to create co-branded footwear that may be offered to fighters as a part of their official equipment for bouts. All UFC fighters and nook groups are obligated to put on Challenge Rock footwear throughout fight-week occasions, exercises, in addition to throughout their stroll to the octagon.
Our @UFC ✖️ @ProjectRock partnership is anchored in exhausting work & legacy.
Work ethic & legacy are the pillars of all @UFC athletes.
The #HardestWorkersInTheRoom defining their LEGACY. @ProjectRock is proud to be the official footwear accomplice of UFC. #ForThoseWhoWalkTheWalkpic.twitter.com/aSNl0Nwnum
The partnership was signed in January 2022 and formally commenced at UFC Combat Evening: Gane vs. Tiuvasa on 3 September.
“The women and men warriors of UFC compete of their iconic Octagon with satisfaction, goal, ardour, depth and MANA,” Johnson stated within the UFC press launch. “Legacy is a vital phrase to me and our Challenge Rock is proud to ship coaching gear to assist assist and gasoline all UFC athletes who search to ascertain their very own impactful legacy in UFC and past.”
Earlier this month, Challenge Rock rolled out a brand new advertising and marketing marketing campaign that featured Johnson calling fighters the “hardest employees within the room” whereas additionally spotlighting a number of UFC athletes celebrating the actor’s dedication to the game.
Nevertheless, whereas Johnson might seem to have the respect of a number of the group’s athletes, the Guardian has realized that UFC fighters is not going to see any of the proceeds from the film star’s profitable deal. In keeping with a number of fighter representatives who had athletes competing at UFC 279 and wished to keep up anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject, none of their athletes had been paid any further sums to put on or promote Challenge Rock footwear.
The Challenge Rock deal is seemingly included into the UFC’s Promotional Guideline Compliance (PDC) program, the place fighters are paid a flat sum on struggle week for complying with the group’s outfitting insurance policies and required promotional duties. The determine is determined by the variety of fights an athlete has had with the UFC or whether or not they're a champion or title challenger for a specific occasion. For UFC 279, the best payout from this system was $21,000 whereas the bottom was $4,000 (these funds are separate from the payment they earn for the precise fights).
The contracted pay construction doesn't change with the addition of recent UFC sponsorships, together with the UFC’s worthwhile offers with Venum and Crypto.com: if a fighter was paid $4,000 from the PDC program beforehand, they may earn the identical quantity even with the brand new income from the Challenge Rock deal. Nevertheless, neither the UFC nor Underneath Armour would make clear the extent of the deal.
“We don’t disclose this stage of element on any of our partnerships,” a media spokesperson for Underneath Armour instructed the Guardian. “Nevertheless, we're proud to work with Dwayne Johnson and UFC on offering UA’s efficiency footwear options to UFC fighters.”
You will need to notice that the UFC has lengthy been in a position to preserve a stranglehold over its roster because of the truth that its fighters are impartial contractors with no union or affiliation to collectively cut price for his or her rights.
Not like the overwhelming majority of sports activities leagues and organizations, the place athletes obtain anyplace between 47% to 50% of the game’s income, the UFC has traditionally paid out between 16% to 19% of revenues to its fighters. In 2019, the promotion reported $900m in income, however solely 16% was paid out to the UFC’s roughly 600 fighters. This contrasts with the NFL, for instance, the place two-thirds of the cash from jersey gross sales goes to gamers.
In keeping with American monetary companies firm Moody’s, the UFC’s revenues from 2021 had been over $1bn, with equally excessive figures anticipated in 2022. Regardless of the UFC’s record-breaking income, fighter pay stays woefully low.
Throughout a latest advertising and marketing marketing campaign, Johnson famous that the “values and basis of Challenge Rock … are so aligned with the values and the foundations of UFC, and of the fighters.” Nevertheless, given the truth that the muse of the UFC was constructed on the backs of exploitative labor, it might not be a comparability that Johnson desires to affiliate himself with.
Although it stays unclear how a lot say Johnson had within the UFC deal, different fighters have referred to as on the actor – whose business has a number of unions for skilled actors – to struggle for a extra favorable deal for the athletes he claims to respect.
“Hey brotha @TheRock should you’re a fan of what we do make the deal favorable for those modeling your shoe,” UFC light-weight Terrance McKinney tweeted final week. “I get it’s not your fault or your small business doin it to us, however present us the love you assume you might be. Get in our nook and assist us.”
The Guardian was unable to achieve Johnson’s administration for remark. Nevertheless, it's value noting that Johnson is represented by Endeavor, which additionally occurs to personal the UFC.
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