When Mac Danzig and Cody McKenzie had their back and for over Twitter last month, it seemed like a clear case of the company guy and the dissatisfied former employee arguing about their former employer's way of doing business. Danzig's position seemed to fall heavily on the side of: If you didn't say it while you were working there, you shouldn't say it once you've left. Thus, it's a bit surprising to see his take on the exchange, and on the recent class action lawsuit, when he recently spoke to MSNBC. Rather than come down on the side of the UFC once again, it appears Danzig may be looking more closely at the arguments fighters are making against the UFC's treatment of it's athletes and of the industry as a whole.
Here were his thoughts on the UFC's grip on the MMA market:
Basically, they've created an industry on their own success, but they haven't supported the industry, they've only supported themselves as a corporation. There's two sides to this story. I mean, on one hand, this sport was very underground, it was dying, it wasn't receiving any kind of publicity, and they were the ones who went out of their way and stuck their neck out there as business people; took the chance to build this and lost a lot of money in the beginning, doing it.
And now that they've become this big though, they're holding on to that and pretty much... If you listen to what the class action... If you listen to what a lot of these fighters are complaining about, it's that there's no other chance for them to compete in any other organization and to continue to use this trade that they've acquired as professional athletes, as professional fighters, if they're not in the UFC.
And why fighters are feeling dissatisfied with it:
The analogy I use with the UFC is, like, they've created this sport, to a large degree, but they need the fighters. And, you can't abuse what you've created, you know what I mean?
...
Basically, you need the fighters, and if you give the fighters an opportunity to do this, and to make a living off this, you've created an industry. And you're also, at least in my feelings, you should have the moral responsibility to not completely destroy every other competitor.
He also spoke to the way's in which he felt the UFC had exerted control over fighters in the marketplace in the past, and why may do so again in the future:
Basically, you enter into an exclusive contract. So, there's no chance, once you're involved with the UFC and they keep you under contract, there's no chance for you to leave and compete under any other organization.
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There's always one or two, but here's the issue: These second place organizations that are out there and have been out there, they've been bought out by the UFC at every chance that the UFC has gotten. The only reason why the number two organization out there has not been bought this time is because it's being owned by Viacom. Which is a very large organization and they don't seem to mind losing a little bit of money right now and keep promoting it. But, as soon as they're interest fades, I'm sure the UFC will absorb the organization.
Danzig also spoke to his war of words with McKenzie, saying that it was more McKenzie's approach to criticizing the UFC that he took issue with, rather than some of the sentiments themselves. And he spoke about the end of his career, and his health concerns while fighting in the UFC and now that his career is over, so check the whole thing out.
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