A former pro footballing great, one-time Olympic bobsledder and current successful entrepreneur (in addition to his role as an MMA fighter), Strikeforce heavyweight Herschel Walker (1-0 MMA, 1-0 SF) has just about seen it all.
But with his first taste of MMA behind him and a second helping on the way in January, Walker has a few things he'd like to see happen in the fast-growing sport.
First, Walker would like to see MMA in the Olympics. Second, he'd like to see the sport's participants develop a fighters' union.
"I think MMA should be an Olympic sport," Walker told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I don't know why they don't make it an Olympic sport. It's like five sports rolled up into one. You've got karate, judo, jiu-jitsu, boxing and wrestling all rolled up into one."
Of course, Walker is not alone in his sentiment. Fans have long called for the sport to be included in the Olympic Games, but with MMA just beginning its growth around the globe, there hasn't been much forward progress. But Walker notes that in addition to the fact that many of the disciplines involved in MMA are already Olympic sports, the growing number of participants in MMA outweigh those of other popular sports.
"There are more countries that have MMA fighters than countries that have basketball teams or baseball teams," Walker said.
UFC president Dana White, unquestionably the most powerful and influential figure in the sport, has flatly admitted he simply does not have time to head up a campaign to get MMA in the Olympics, but this past October he said he would be happy to assist the cause in a limited role. White did drop some promising hints, as well, admitting, "It's probably a lot closer than I would have ever thought."
But while White and Walker might see eye-to-eye on the Olympic Games, the UFC boss has been less vocal on a second significant topic in MMA: fighter organization.
Walker, who donated his entire debut fight purse to charity, believes that fighters need to form a union to ensure financial equality between MMA promoters and the athletes in the cage.
"I think the fighters in the sport are just now starting to make good money," Walker said. "The promoters are making good money, and sooner or later the fighters should start making good money. Some of them make OK money but not great money. But the way the contracts are written for the UFC, sooner or later there needs to be a union. I think a union should come in."
This past June, UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta was asked about a potential union and said, quite simply, it wasn't his place to get involved.
"We have no role," Fertitta said. "So we're not in a position to say we support it, or we're against it. That's entirely up to [the fighters]."
While Walker is familiar with the concept of unionized athletes due to his time in football, Fertitta argues that MMA is a different animal.
"One of the things that's a little bit different is that fighting in general – I know a lot of people have talked about the same issue (with) boxing – fighting seems to be such a individual sport," Fertitta said. "And guys have different needs and different motivations, and what's good for a guy like Chuck Liddell is maybe not good for a kid like Paul Kelly coming up.
"They have different needs and are (at) different times in their careers, so I'm not sure if it works or not."
While Fertitta's point is valid, Walker believes a union is necessary simply as a means to ensure fighters are receiving their just due.
"I don't know the dollars, and I'm not going to get into the pockets of the UFC, but if you start looking at the amount of money they make, which I don't know the exact amount, but look at the amount of money they make, if someone audited their books – you can't tell me in an individual sport you can't have a union and have a guy that has four or five professional fights and let them be part of the union," Walker said. "Once you become part of the union, you can get insurance. You can get certain benefits that aren't there right now. I don't know why that can't happen."
Of course, an MMA union wouldn't provide benefits solely for UFC fighters. Recent events in regional organizations worldwide – such as the Costa Rican-based Xtreme Vale Todo organization, where reports indicate UFC vet Hermes Franca was swindled out of a victory, as well as a Nemesis Fighting card in the Dominican Republic where the fighters went unpaid – have left many fans and fighters wondering if something can be done.
Longtime veteran Matt Lindland made waves earlier this year when he echoed much of Fertitta's sentiment while outlining the difficulties in forming a union.
"Unless you can get the top athletes, you're not going to [unionize]," Lindland told veteran reporter Eddie Goldman. "The fighters [are] all whores; they just fight for the biggest purse, and it's going to be tough unless you could somehow get all the fighters to agree to something like that. There's always somebody going to come up underneath who's not willing to do it.
"There's enough support (for a union), but these guys outside of the cage or outside of the ropes are cowards. You know they would not dare stand up to the powers-that-be."
Walker's opinion is much simpler.
"I don't why it shouldn't (happen)," Walker said.
Whether that a union ever materializes or not remains to be seen. In the meantime, the world's biggest fight promotion has vowed to do everything they can to take care of their own.
"We do the best we can to tend to them," Fertitta said. "Anybody who gets injured in the UFC, we cover that 100 percent-plus. We carry more insurance than any promoter in the history of the world (and) take care of more things – actually take care of everything for a guy who gets hurt in a fight.
"So we try to tend to their needs as best we can."
No comments:
Post a Comment