Why are fighters leaving the UFC?

Question

Tim Sylvia, Tito Ortiz, Androlovski( know I mispelled) and others. Does Dana white just sort of get rid of them if they lose. It kinda seems like a cut throat business to me. Can anyone give detailed insight?

Answer 1

Miss Dana White is a cancer to the sport. That is why they leave. Why work for an imbecile when you can work for professionals who will treat you with respect and actually pay you what you're worth and not peanuts.

E

Answer 2

Slyvia left because the UFC didnt really want to resign him and he could get a ton of money elsewhere, he got $800,000 for 36seconds against Fedor, and him only lasting 36 seconds tells you why the UFC wasnt that interested in having him back. Ortiz also left for similar reasons, he wasnt performing that well and they wouldnt allow him to be sponsed by Miller because the UFC has a deal with budwieser. Tito got upset that he wasnt getting paid by that much from the UFC and they wouldnt let him have some sponsers which is what really cost him serious money. Then when Tito started to talk about it publicy they got in a big fued. I heard the same thing happened with Arlovski as well, the ufc denied him a sponsership so he didnt sign with them, I do know that the UFC wanted to keep Arlovski, but he wouldnt do it.

Basically the ufc controls everything the fighters do. They dont pay the low level fighters very much at all, and they try to control the top level guys with thier sponser ships.

Ever notcie how Chuck Liddell has been the guy they promote as the biggest star and he happens to have the same big sponsers as the UFC, like xyence for example. BUt no other big sponsers have thier own specific fighters unless they have a deal with the ufc.

Answer 3

Money....

Tito and Dana have notoriously clashed. Also Tito isn't really that marketable anymore, the game has passed him by somewhat. Nobody trains harder than he does, but frankly he just hasn't been that impressive in a while.

Arlovski left for more money, again he also had underperformed as of late, I also don't know of any bad blood, I wouldn't be surprised to see Arlovski in the UFC again if he revives his career.

Tim Sylvia left for more money, and because frankly he isn't that bankable... even when the guy is on top of the heavyweight division in the UFC he gets no respect and doesn't really sell tickets. I also expect to see him back in the UFC when his obligation to Affliction is done, provided he can have some big wins and increase his worth.

Most of it isn't because they are cut, it is because they have better opportunities money wise elsewhere.

A mid tier UFC guy doesn't get paid that much when he is not a headliner, but if he goes to another organization he is pretty much top dog.. therefore gets more money.

It's like major league and minor league baseball. You can be a regular player on a major league team, get paid ok. But on a minor league team you could be an all star, and therefore get more money... bad analogy but you get the jist.

If you are a fighter and the UFC offers you 3 fights at 3 thousand a piece on undercards and a smaller promotion offers you 3 fights at 9 thousand a piece as the headliner... obviously it is in your best interest to take the higher paying job, keep your ties good with the UFC so that you can come back after the fledgling promotion dies lol...

The fight business is always a tough business, but just because a guy leaves doesn't mean it is Dana White's fault, sometimes there are just better opportunities and fighters take them.

With the exception of Tito... he and Dana just have bad blood.

EDIT: LOL Retroact....

The UFC doesn't do drug testing, the State Athletic Commissions do. It doesn't matter what league you are in, you are drug tested by the Athletic commission in the State in which the fight is held...

i.e. Affliction has the same drug testing as UFC does in California.. Nevada or anywhere...

The only time Drug testing policies are laxed are IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

People don't leave the UFC because of drug testing... because they still have to take the same amount of drug testing anywhere else they go that fights Stateside.

Sylvia and Alrovski had to take the same drug testing they always do... (Pre fight screening tests... day of weigh in tests.. and post fight tests...) that is a requirement of the Athletic Commission that does the licensing and sanctioning.

Answer 4

The organization is big enough to pay champs up to 1 million for winning the belt now, but as others poster said, all the fighters keep getting screwed.  Whereas before you saw intelligent, well trained and educated guys in there, increasingly you are seeing more and more sleaze because they are the only ones willing to work for peanuts.  This has led to a decline in the quality of the matches; while personally I have little respect for the sport, I do have respect for the fact that the fighters have proven that a trained martial artist can take on a street fighter, and win.  That is, with time and training, you work hard enough, even against a hardened street tough you can win so you have to respect it for that at least.  Also, a lot of the champs have almost always all been college grads, only a minority until recently have been people who didn't even graduate high school.

The school system is an unfair prison that aims to destroy the mind, and favor a minority of sociopaths it calls "honor students," therefore, the mental strength required to survive it, if you are not one of the lucky few on whom the teachers play favorites, naturally would transfer to the martial arts arena.  Maybe UFC fighters are as tough as they are because they are venting years of anger and frustration from high school and college, all over street fighter's faces.  Think about it; there's a lot of turds out there, and the school system tells you, constantly "no, you can't defend yourself.  A fight only begins with the second blow.  Bullies have low self esteem so don't hurt them" c**p man, in that kind of environment that claims to be instilling in children the idea of pacifism, when in reality high school teachers are former bullies themselves who are only out to make the lives of current bullies easier, the ground is ripe for a lot of frustrated angry men.

If street toughts get their @sses handed to them by college guys in the UFC, it is because they are dealing with a dude with years of pent up rage.  Bullies don't always attack "traditional" targets such as "nerds" and "losers" anymore you know; sometimes the b******s even pick on athletes in fact, the whole reason some guys take up sports is for protection against bullies.

High schools have changed; ever since Columbine, school administrators have bent over backwards to give precedence to the rights of the bullies instead of their victims.  Honestly here, what kind of a sociopath abuses their authority, telling you not to fight to defend yourself, when some of the guys attacking you can leave you a cripple if you don't fight?  In some schools that is precisely what has happened; some of those kids are dangerous.

Under normal circumstances, most UFC guys likely would have all been able to protect themselves against bullies, but the great majority no doubt were all paralyzed by school regulations which seems to favor them (the bullies I mean).  Part of the reason the public school system has become unpopular as of late, and parents have pulled out their kids from there and put them in private is because they have been so arrogant, sociopathic, and irresponsible.

Think of the attitudes school teachers have; they have absolutely zero respect for parents, unless said parents hold high degrees.  Also no matter how hard the kids may work, as I know many americans of all races have a strong and responsible work ethic, it isn't worth c**p.  Even though the kids may know what they studied for, and know it well.

So, for sociological reasons going beyond the UFC, as well as the fact that many of its fighters the majority were college guys who, because of, well, their "quality," their "worth," were asking for money that white was not giving them, they simply up and left.  Here is the problem; traditionally, all fighting was dominated by the sport of boxing.  Because it was a cockfight but with people, the promoters saw them as, well, property, no different from the way Mexican rooster handlers see their chickens.

In Mexico, were cockfighting is still legal, actually its illegal but no one cares that people do it, any roosters killed in cockfights become dinner.  It is given to a lucky spectator who likely won it in a rafle, a butcher will prepare it, stuff it in an ice bag, and the lucky winner gets to eat chicken for dinner.  So what does this have to do with boxing?  What I am saying, is that even roosters have a use if they loose, whereas in the world of prize fighting people are simply discarded.

See, obviously enough Dana White treats college educated men, as if toughs they were street toughs who don't have any other way to make a living.  When most are not street toughts the majority come from middle class backgrounds.  There is bound to be a clash, when a person who went to college is treated as if he just got out of the L.A. crypts to join the UFC or something.  Ortiz I know only has an AA degree from a community college, however, even then it wasn't an easy subject; I think he has an associate's in engineering or something.  I know its something difficult.

Traditionally, prize fighters have always been boxers, and boxers have traditionally been poverty stricken, down and out young men with no other way to earn a living.  Because they are basically powerless legally, in the "old days" boxing promoters could treat them however well they damned well pleased, and if they complained, they sould see to it no organization would take you.  And if they did not like you, they would use their mafia connection to get a cold blooded killer out of prison, and usually in such a mismatch between a kid wet behind the ears and a hardened criminal naturally the hardened criminal made mince meat out of them.  On occassion though, guys like Joe Louis beat the odds, and the crooks, to go on to become champs.  If you don't believe me, talk to an old dude from your local nursing home who used to be a boxer.  If you live in places like New York, Boston, or any major east coast city, you should  not have problems finding an old dude who knows all about "the old days."  Everyone has this view that boxing was more tame in the 1950's because of the "wholesome family values" so portrayed by the media of the time period when they are utterly clueless as to how much they were censoring.  One of those things being the world of prize fighting.

See, the mentality of treating prize fighters like "worthless scum" has not left.  Problem is UFC fighters are nothing like the prize fighters of the golden age of boxing, a lot of those men are well educated some are even refined and well versed in etiquette.  Nevertheless, they are still treated as if though they were not, and forced to sign exploitative contracts see, the terms of some contracts regarding fights clearly dictate you don't get all the money you are promised if you win the title.

So, you get 800k.  You count the legal fees, transportation, how much it costs to house and train you, etc, etc, etc, the fact that White is probably pocketing 80% of the earnings from the ticket and PPV sales, and, for winning a UFC belt that comes out to, oh...... probably around $75,000.  In the UFC fighters get screwed man, and not by the card girls in the way that leaves a man feeling good but in the way, that will leave a man feeling bad.  Very bad.

Some of the fighters have even turned to Ed McMann who, for show, as part of his show biz image, plays the role of "corrupt and evil corporation owner" for the amusement of the WWE crowd.  The truth is he maintains very strict training standards for all those pro wrestler types, and he pays them all very well, that is the reason that despite the brutal training a big dude has to go through to become a pro wrestler, there is never a shortage of applicants.  And yeah, his bank account is huge alright, but more because he knows how to run an honest, non-exploitative business, and of course he's a media w***e, he knows what sells and what doesn't.

It is because of his reputation of not exploiting his, ah, "fighters," that there has been talk that the WWE will buy out the UFC and no, the UFC is in no danger of becoming "fake" like pro wrestling, it only means that the top brass will change, and that the fighters will get better pay.  One of the driving forces behind this, I know, is Ken Shamrock; if you have not seen him appear on any UFC shows, it is because him and White are not on the best of terms, and in fact I think it was their mutual hatred of White which led to burying the hatchet with Ortiz.

Shamrock, because he has worked for the WWE before, attempted to convince McMann to buy out the UFC.  McMann has not commented on it, meaning likely he's considering it, but nothing is guaranteed.  Buying out a company isn't simply a matter of knocking on the owner's door and writting a check you know, there is a whole legal process to follow.  Shamrock knows that world inside and out, and his Lion's den training gym has trained a lot of fighters so naturally he sees a lot of those guys as if they were his own children.  Because he was pissed at White for exploiting some of his boys, naturally, he asked McMann to try to do something about it.

That is how that whole rumor about the whole WWE thing got started.  Where did I get all this info from?

I believe it was an MMA magazine not owned by White, or, it was black belt.  Or it could have been "Grapple" or "Grappler" or what have you I can't remember for the life of me....

But I DO know for sure, it had something to do with Shamrock being ultra-pissed at White for being such an a**hole.  Its not a cutthroat business; the popularity of the UFC and the massive amounts of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$  White has been ra

Answer 5

all there contracts were up, and affliction was offering more pay. tim said he wasn't against going back to ufc later. but tito and dana have bad blood so i doubt tito will go back to ufc, if he ever fights again.

Answer 6

Pretty much every one of the fighters says their reason is that Dana White is an unbearable boss to work for.

Answer 7

Tim Sylvia left with permission, he had fought for the title twice and lost both times, he has the HW belt more times and mor eoften than any UFC HW so he had nothing left in the UFC at this time.  UFC has over two hundred fighters under contract, to allow those fighters all to fight 3 times a year( the average for an active fighter) in order to make a living the UFC would have to hold 60 events ayear with 10 fights on each card....

Fighters don't like to sit on the sidelines, there is only so much time you have to be a productive professinal fighter before your body says enough not to mention that the fighters staying active are getting a step up by competing more often, nothing prepares you for a fight better than experience.

There are more fish in the sea right now than UFC, UFC is by far the biggest fish, but others need big names and big fights(Affliction, Elite XC, DREAM Etc..) to even swin with the UFC and so they pay them, they give them freedom to fight elsewhere, give them rights to their fight footage, and whatever it takes to get to that next level and become profitable.

They leave for opportunity, they leave because they are cut, they leave because they feel they will get more respect at another org and $$$$$$.

Answer 8

lol too many people here watching tv.

Fighters leave the UFC for one reason... drug testing. Look at all the 'greats' who came from Pride only to be destroyed by UFC no-names. The difference is the steroids and amphetomenes these fighters take to get ready for a fight.

In other leagues, the drug policy is easy to get around, so these fighters get their edge back.

Answer 9

Tito and Dana are feuding so when Dana got a chance to get rid of him he did. Arlovski and Slyvia left for more money and Slyvia was recently on the Affliction card that happened on July 19th (HE got massacred) . I never thought that Slvia was a good fighter, it looked like conditioning wasnt much of a proirity to him and he got by by sheer luck

Answer 10

maybe it because that ufc is too brutally, breaking ur nose, hurt ur stomach, thing like that, it just too brutal, might tire of going to the hospital.

Answer 11

Dana does what he wants, and thats what makes him the @$$ of the mma world. he has done a lot for mma but now i think he might hurt it.  he sould of been behind the forming of the new wamma organization that sanctioned the affliction event.  now in order for ufc fighters to be recognized champion outside the ufc they will most  likely have to fight under a non ufc event.  so he kind of screwed him self