A new take on UFC and TUF contracts

A lot of mystery surrounds the UFC's fighter contracts. Dana White constantly boasts that he is making fighters millionaires though the details to confirm such claims are often missing. Brandon Vera and Randy Couture were the two most prominen contractual disputes with the UFC. 

Then there are the UFC newcomers and TUF fighters, whose contracts have often been described as constriciting. Immediately Keith Jardine comes to mind, a TUF veteran who has defeated Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Brandon Vera, though his salary remained ridiculously small. His base salary in the Chuck Liddell fight was only $10,000. Roger Huerta cited such contracts as a reason why he wants to pursue a career in acting. 

Occasional some contractual information escapes through the shrouded veil of UFC platitudes, disgruntled fighters and content employees. Two interesting pieces came out over the weekend. The first is that UFC newcomers (not TUF veterans) have certain conditions that they have to meet in order to stay in the UFC.

The way the UFC works is that you get a contract which states you HAVE TO win your first 2 fights or you're out.

IF you lose the first one, you get a do over, IF you have shown them something, which Stefan didn't do.

The last option is that the UFC puts his contract on hold, and then he has to fight AND win 2 fights outside the UFC and when you do the UFC resumes your contract.

I have a meeting with the UFC execs in two weeks and then we'll hear what the UFC wants to do with Stefan, I'll keep you posted.    

Not exactly a warm of welcome. However, as Paulo Thiago and Houston Alexander demonstrated, some fighters shine in their limited opportunities.

Then there is some new information regarding the TUF contracts. A standard TUF contract is 10 fights long, including the Finale fight. There is also something called the Championship Clause, which ties the fighter to the company, in this case Zuffa and the UFC, if the fighter ever becomes a champion. More on this later.

There are some interesting facts about the UFC's TUF contractual system and how it is reflective of other free agency models in the other sports. Since TUF is the equivalent of a draft, it should have similar contractual principles to a draft. Don't think of it as the NFL draft --which is the most popular draft and top draftees get giant guarantees of money-- think of it as akin to all the major sports drafts, where athletes are selected and teams get the exclusive rights to negotiate with that athlete. For the UFC, TUF holds the role of a draft, where the UFC holds exclusive rights to negotiate contracts with each fighter. 

Since the standard TUF contract is 10 fights long, really nine since the Finale fight counts as one, it can be reflective of the free agency model. Free agency for players after they are drafted is usually between three and four years. This is in fact due to a dispute between players and owners in the 1980's. At that time owners and teams thought they held exclusive rights to an athlete for life. Obviously disputes arose and a solution called free agency was settled on. Free angency determined that a player once drafted could only be signed to a limited time frame, usually four years. Why four years? Well it was determined that it would take a player four years to move through the legal system in a dispute over a contractual issue with ownership. So all parties decided, hey four years sounds good because if you had a problem with the contract it would take four years to go through the courts (considering there would undoubtedly be appeals, and the case would go up the ladder perhaps even to the Supreme Court). That's why NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB players all have rookie or draft contracts that lead to free agency. Now there are mechanisms to pay young performing players more money, for instance arbitration in MLB. 

So what does all this have to do with the UFC and the TUF contracts? Well if a TUF veteran fights 2-3 times a year after the finale he should fulfill his contract within a three to four year time span. Which is standard for every other major sport. Now of course other sports can cut athletes, just like the UFC, and there are injury issues to deal with too. There are also renegotiations, like when an NFL team finds a three time Super Bowl winning quarterback on the second day of the draft. But in reality the TUF system is somewhat analogous to free agency in other sports.

The Championship Clause is probably illegal, I don't know how you can legally justify retaining the rights of an employee simply because they receive an award. For instance, do you see any clauses in NFL contracts that state, if you win Defensive Player of the Year we own the rights to you. The same applies in the business world, you can't hold the rights to a writer because they when a Pulitzer Prize. It just doesn't happen in the world. This could probably be challenged in a court and the fighter would probably win. Though I doubt it will ever happen, since if a TUF veteran wins a title the UFC will make damn sure that he won't get away.