GSP, Cain Valesquez, Donald Cerrone, Tim Kennedy, TJ Dillashaw and Bjorn Rebney (formerly of Bellator)... Have gotten together and formed the MMAAA. In essence its a fighters union. As with all Unions, it's the fight for Better pay Better welfare for fighters before/during/after fights. Support during their retirement. "Settlement for past wrongs" An interesting note. They are simply at this time targeting only UFC and not any other promotion. Thoughts? I'll post my thoughts later https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153974577481881&id=323571966880
It'll be interesting to see how many other active fights get on board and how many are too afraid of upsetting the UFC.
I'm wryly amused by the fact there are now about 3 fighters unions. Nothing says unity like 3 conflicting entities.
Fighters been bubbling with the idea for a Fighters Union for years. It was actually first brought up by Randy Couture just before his fight with Brock Lesnar. Where he got into a legal dispute with Zuffa/UFC by walking out of the promotion. His reason was that Affliction FC has just become the new thing. Paying fighters millions and the potential fight against Fedor. This reminds me a lot of when Pro Wrestlers tried to start a union. And this was back in WWF and I think during the hey day of Hogan being on everyone's TV and Cinema bookings. The bad thing is, the wrestlers themselves couldn't co exist enough to unionise and they were their own worst enemy. Furthermore, each individual wrestler is an independant contractor, although locked with WWE performances. Which is actually not that different from what the general MMA business World is doing now. It will be interesting however, that we are at a time where fighters are a lot mpre savvy with both business and politics. Bjorn has been brought on as an Advisor and there is a shadow funder. There's a million questions and some form of fighter Unions already exist iirc and also interesting that this is gone ahead as soon as WME took over.
Here is a picture of me weighing in on fighters union, years ago. My mind has changed but the arguments are still essentially there... https://www.instagram.com/p/BNeoVTlhvWb43nyGQdNTFL12x9mjOd4eneg9gM0/