Zuffa's banned list just keeps getting bigger. MMApayout has learned that Zuffa has banned yet another sponsor and this time the victim is Booyaa Fightwear. While Booyaa is not the biggest sponsor out there this is still terrible news for up and coming fighters. It seems to me eventually that there will only be two or three sponsors that fighters can use that have not been banned by Zuffa. The biggest sponsor, Tapout, will most likely never be banned and Sprawl will probably never land on the **** list either. This is great for the sponsors, as they will have less competition, but what does that mean for the up and coming fighters? To get signed on to a major sponsor is very difficult and thats why smaller companies are great because they will pick up small time fighters looking to move up in the MMA world in exchange for possible exposure on a big time show.

Take Booyaa for example. They are sponsors of WEC fighter Mike Budnik(and Donkey lips too) who is fighting at WEC 37on December 3rd. From being sponsors of the local California based King of the Cage to a major promotion such as the WEC is big for Booyaa and could bring in a lot of potential customers. Exposure like that is great for the company but now it just won't happen because of the Zuffa's stiff arm tactics. With a company like Affliction the stiff arm tactics are understandable because Afflicition has their own promotion now and having Affliction as a sponsor for fighters would be like free advertising. Then came MMA Authentics, a major sponsor of UFC and WEC fighters. They were stiff armed out of the UFC over Wal-Mart shelf space... Not because of something major as being a competing MMA promotor, no... It was over Wal-Mart space. To me that is just ridiculous and to fighters like MMA Authentics has a impressive list of fighters who will be adversely affected BJ Penn, Michael Bisping, Forrest Griffin, Marcus Davis, Brandon Vera, Urijah Faber, Sam Stout, Roger Huerta, and Chuck Liddell it is probably even more ridiculous. All those fighters listed are sponsored by MMA Authentics and they all have signature tees available. Now though they are out of a major sponsor. For big name guys like Liddell and Griffin it shouldn't be too hard to get money elsewhere but for guys sponsored buy Booyaa Fightwear it is much more difficult to find money. Cage Potato sums it up perfectly:

Perhaps the message here is: don't do business with any other MMA org if you hope to one day do business with the WEC or UFC.  If so, that's Zuffa's prerogative, but it sure sucks for guys like Budnik, who just lost a little much-needed cash as collateral damage in this war for ultimate supremacy.  At least there's always Condom Depot.  Just go ahead and put the decal right on your ass, there.

Booyaa sponsors fighters mainly in the California based King of the Cage promotion, a (former) ProElite asset. This move to ban Booyaa seems more like a move to prevent exposure to anything related to the zombie ProElite. King of the Cage has always been a sucessful regional promotion and they have never really tried to compete per say with industry giants like the UFC. But I want to really know, is this move even really necessary?