Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a combat sport that is not widely popular in many parts of the world compared to other sports like football, basketball, tennis, etc. Despite the lack of publicity, this branch of combat sport has managed to remain relevant and has hosted tournaments which have brought about the likes of Isreal Adesanya, Francis Ngannou, Conor McGregor, Rodtang etc.
Over the years, Fans have seen various MMA promotions like Strikeforce, PRIDE Fighting Championships, WEC, etc, come and go, but none have managed to make a lasting impact like UFC. Another promotion that has managed to retain a piece of the MMA pie is PFL, but the promotion has been having some problems since buying Bellator. The promotion has had several complaints from high-profile fighters like Patricio Pitbull and Patchy Mix, who have requested a release from their contract.
With the latest rise of new promotions like Global Fight League (GFL), UFC veteran Matt Brown believes there may be some recurrence of the same issues promotions like PFL are facing. During an episode of MMA Fighting’s The Fighter vs The Writer, Brown spoke on the “fighter-first” model and said that handing out big paydays to fighters might not be a successful business strategy for a long-term plan.
“There’s only been one truly successful fight promotion in history — the UFC,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “They did not build it by helping fighters. I think that’s where they’re all kind of f*cking up.
“I say that as a former fighter, I want to see everybody get paid and do well, but the UFC built their business lowballing fighters and still almost went out of business. There are still a lot of arguments about how they care for their fighters even today. I find it hard to believe that making it a fighter-based, help the fighter promotion is really the way to build a promotion. I hate saying that because I love that they care about the fighters. And, I love the thought process behind it, but is that going to build a promotion? I have a hard time believing it.”
Although Brown commends Organizations like PFL for putting fighters first and offering big payouts, he doesn’t believe it bodes well for the organization and may not last long in the grand scheme.
“To be honest, I’m not sure how they’ve existed this far,” Brown said about the PFL. “If they keep doing whatever they’re doing, maybe they keep existing. I don’t really know how it’s operating currently. They bought Bellator, and we all thought well maybe they could now be a clear No. 2, because they were claiming they were No. 2 before, like close to the UFC or some shit, and it’s like no, not really. It’s basically UFC and everybody else. You’re all everybody else.
“When they bought Bellator, we thought well maybe something good will happen here and guys will have other options and some good things will come of it. Again, I don’t know how they survived this far. How do they get through 2025… I’m not really sure how it’s working.”
Since the announcement of the launch of GFL, a lot of ex-UFC champions have signed contracts with the new promotion due to its 50/50 revenue split as opposed to UFC who recently got a lawsuit filed against them, which revealed that fighters were making between 16-20 percent of the revenue. Despite getting a lot of backlash from fighters, Brown believes UFC’s business strategy has kept them in business for so long.
Not only is GFL offering a big payout, but, the company will also be offering insurance coverage and retirement benefits. While this all seems like a good way to go, Brown says these benefits may ni yield the effect the promotion might want. He also doesn’t believe the team format GFL will be using in their promotion will be a good fit for MMA as it has been tried before and didn’t work out well.
“You’re just f*cking up,” Brown said about the team format in GFL. “To build somebody caring about a team, I don’t even know how you do that. People care about football and basketball teams, that’s completely different. I don’t know how you get people interested in caring about a fight team for a city. People care about stars and drama. That’s it. I hope the check cashes. I hope it doesn’t bounce.”
“If you look at all the promotions that are big between boxing and UFC, they all started kind of small and took many, many years to build,” Brown said. “How to start from the top, unless you’re doing what Saudi Arabia is doing where you’ve got just trillions at your disposal and it’s play money just throwing a few million around here and there, because you want to see cool fights, which is a completely different thing.
“This business model [in MMA], I’d like to see their accountants’ numbers. Where are you adding up here in the end where all of this makes sense?”
