UFC
UFC Champ Demetrious Johnson, sponsored by Xbox, expresses concerns with UFC's Reebok deal
Dec 16, 2014 - 11:00:57 AM UFC Champ Demetrious Johnson, sponsored by Xbox, expresses concerns with UFC's Reebok deal

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"Obviously I can't wear Xbox in the Octagon anymore, so there's nothing I can do about that. We've been talking to Xbox and Microsoft and all that stuff. We hope they keep me on outside. Whether they want me to go out and do promotion of games and stuff - for my last fight for 'Call of Duty,' I went down to L.A. and did a viewing party, went to San Francisco to work on the games - so I'm hoping I can do a lot more of that stuff outside the octagon where they have to keep me.

A guy like Nick Diaz, for example, comes out with all his Metal Mulisha, all his sponsorships. Let's say from those sponsorships he makes like $80,000 to go in the Octagon. That's a nice payday just for wearing sponsorships. Lets say the UFC says, 'Hey man, you've got wear Reebok tomorrow.' And he says, 'OK, that sounds good. Here are all my pay stubs and my contracts for my last fight. They're paying me $80,000, so what's Reebok going to pay me?' They say, 'You're ranked second in the world, so we're going to pay you $2,000 to wear Reebok.' For me, I think that's not necessarily fair because there's basically $78,000 that's unaccounted for. If UFC's going to compensate me with the same amount, that's fantastic. If not, that's a big boo-boo."

-UFC Champ Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson talks to MMAJunkie.com about his concerns with the UFC's new uniform deal with Reebok.

Penick's Analysis: While Dana White has tried to assure everyone that it's a net positive for fighters, saying "I wouldn't take the money away from the guys if I couldn't supplement the money," the fact remains that it's not clear if they're going to be able to supplement that money. Not for everyone. Mighty Mouse, as a Champion, may be able to negotiate something that equals what he got from Xbox for in-cage and fight week appearances, while perhaps being able to maintain his relationship with Xbox for other appearances. But there are plenty of big names who aren't champions anymore, yet still command significant sponsorship money; if they're getting paid based on rank, that's going to be a significant difference, so how is the UFC going to reconcile that? If the answer is "they aren't," then that's a major issue with this, and could be one of the key things targeted by this new class action lawsuit set to be unveiled against the organization later today.