There are very few more outspoken fighters in MMA than Tim Kennedy. The veteran UFC middleweight has been out of action for more than a year following his highly controversial loss to Yoel Romero, but in the meantime he's been busy with a host of other things, including filming his new zombie film titled, "Range 15". While the 36-year-old isn't retired from the sport, he admits that it will take a big money fight to get him back inside the Octagon. The point of emphasis is "big money", because he sees the UFC's sponsorship deal with Reebok as a financial negative for himself.
"There's a whole bunch of fights that would give me motivation to come back. I'm still training 2-3 times a day, so it's not like I'm done, but for me to come back in, especially with the Reebok deal, it's a big big problem financially," Kennedy said earlier today in an interview with the Three Amigos Podcast. "I lose $100,000-$200,000 a fight because of that, so the incentive has to be significant. We're prizefighters. We fight for money, and they just took a big chunk of the reason why I fight out, which means that the incentive has to be somewhere else, which is me doing something significant; fighting somebody amazing like Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, or Nick Diaz, otherwise what's the point?"
Here's what else he had to say about Reebok in this no-holds-barred interview:
TAP: You've been pretty vocal about your concerns regarding the Reebok deal. With that in mind, have you seen their latest faux pas that they've committed with the Ireland shirt?
Kennedy: (Laughs) Yeah! Oh man, I've no idea what they're doing. There's been a lot of new lines that have been released in all different sports. I own 5 different apparel lines, and we have never premiered or debuted a new line that could've gone worse. And the more that they do, the worse the perception of their products are. They should just stop and be like, 'Alright, we're going to go ahead and reset. We're actually going to talk to athletes and see what they want their shirts to look like. We're going to actually let the girls try on some clothes so they don't look like they're freight trains. And then maybe we'll make a bra that actually makes one of our female athletes look decent.Then we're going to come back and do this again, and when we do it, we're actually going to spell the athletes' names correctly.'
It's just every time they do something, it's horrible. It's ironic that we're nearing Halloween, because maybe this is like a big horrible joke that's just them coming out with new Halloween costumes, but nope, this is them coming out with their real line of clothes.
Tim KennedyTAP: It also looks like Reebok are either not selling, or are making it difficult to buy, the personalized shirts of 99% of the guys on the roster. Obviously guys were told they would make a commission on those sales to help make up for them having no more sponsor pay, but it looks like that won't be happening. Thoughts? (Update: Reebok has since put the shirts back in stock)
Kennedy: Dude, I have no idea. I mean Reebok's kind of a big company, right? It seems like they should maybe have an idea about how to do business, but that evidently is not the case. They're just kinda like ... I don't know what the hell they're doing. You know what they're not doing? They're not making money. They must be trying their darnedest, but they're not making any money, and they're just embarrassing themselves.
TAP: What do you think of Chris Weidman's new American flag Reebok sneakers?
Kennedy: Ugh, those sneakers are horrible. Let's say I'm driving down the road and I see an American flag, it's sunset and they forgot to take the flag down, I'm going to knock on your door and be like, 'Hey man, you probably forgot to take your flag down. Is it okay if I go ahead can take it down and fold it up for you, so that you can put it back up tomorrow?' I'm that guy, and I'm not so wacko that ... when Chris Weidman won the title [against Anderson Silva] and he draped himself with the flag, I thought that was an amazing moment. People are like, 'Oh no, he's not supposed to do that!' No man, it looks awesome! God bless America, and we've got an American champion; let's celebrate this for a second! But, there has to be a little bit of taste and discretion about when and where. It's like a thing right now to walk on or step on the American flag. You do that in front of me, I'm going to pick you up and I'm going to beat the dude holding the phone with you. It's pretty awesome when you can beat a dude with another dude, and I'd totally love to do that.
TAP: Like pick them up Incredible Hulk style and pull a Loki-smash on them?
Kennedy: Yeah, Loki is kinda just like whipping them about, my intent would be to hurt both of them. Hulk was just having fun, I'm going to damage both of these people. So yeah, shoes with an American flag that you're going to be walking around on are not okay with me. But whatever, you just keep on with your bad self, Reebok! You guys are nailing it, nailing it!
(Our full interview with Tim Kennedy starts at the 48:25 mark of the audio)
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