Diaz vs. Masvidal: A Fan Favorite Fight At the Expense of Fighters
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In keeping with tradition since mixed martial arts was legalized in the state of New York, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to Madison Square Garden on Nov. 2 for UFC 244. On the card will be Darren Till making his middleweight debut against Kelvin Gastelum and Corey Anderson taking on surging light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker. In the main event, Nate Diaz will fight for the second time this year when he takes on Jorge Masvidal for the “Baddest Motherf---er” title, complete with a belt that is being created by the UFC exclusively for the fight and which company president Dana White has said will be a “one-and-done” affair.
While the majority of fans are happy to see the Diaz vs. Masvidal
scrap get top billing and be officially slated for five rounds, not
everyone was excited about the decision. Prior to the announcement
that the 170-pound bout would be the UFC 244 main event, there were
reports circulating that another welterweight fight would headline
the card: Kamaru
Usman was to make his first title defense against Colby
Covington. While the fight was apparently verbally agreed to by
both Usman and Covington, according to “Chaos” negotiations between
him and the UFC broke down when he found out that he’d be making
“challenger” pay, which is less than what he got to fight Robbie
Lawler in a main event spot this past August at UFC on ESPN
5.
“What happened exactly was the UFC came to me and offered me a basic challenger’s rate,” Covington said in an interview with MMAFighting. “They didn’t give me a negotiation. They said, ‘Take this or we’ll just move on to someone else.’ That’s not negotiating. That’s bad business and if that’s how they want to do business, that’s their problem. That’s not my problem.”
After the talks with Covington fell through, reports began to surface of Usman taking on other challengers. According to Dana White, Usman’s camp apparently “didn’t jump on” other offers, and, as a result, the Masvidal vs. Diaz bout was made by the promotion. While this type of behavior is common with the UFC, with switching headliners being one of the organization’s preferred tactics in trying to limit fighters’ leverage, UFC 244 is different in an important respect: It is proof that the UFC will replace title fights with non-title fights as pay-per-view main events if it means retaining the upper hand over fighters.
Now, while there technically is a title on the line (there will be a real belt made which will be awarded to the winner, possibly by The Rock), this will be the first time since UFC 202 that a division’s championship will not be scheduled to be defended in the main event of a PPV. It will also mark the first card under Endeavor ownership where this is the case, as the infamous McGregor vs. Diaz rematch at UFC 202 had been finalized before the UFC’s sale to WME-IMG. Although a non-title fight between Anderson Silva and Israel Adeysana did headline a card as recently as UFC 234, that was due to middleweight champ Robert Whitaker’s same-day withdrawal from the event due to medical issues.
The decision for Masvidal and Diaz to headline the New York card is significant for myriad reasons. Although there have been several interim title fights that have materialized due to fighters trying to rework contracts, it was believed by many that under Endeavor a divisional title always needed to be on the line in the main event of a PPV card. By barely engaging in discussions with Covington and Usman, not only did the UFC show that they are willing to put a non-title bout in the top spot of a PPV event, they also sent a clear message to fighters that the promotion is willing to do whatever they have to in order to get the best outcome for them, even if that means creating a fake belt for one night only. As happy as this turn of events will make fans and pundits like myself, who want a Diaz vs. Masvidal war to last the full twenty-five minutes, it’s nevertheless another in a long list of provisions used by the UFC to weaken fighters’ bargaining power. As revealed in the recent antitrust lawsuit against the promotion, the UFC has threatened fighters with tough matchups or withheld scheduling a fight for a particular athlete if they refuse to accept contracts that often favor the organization. Couple that with the fact that Endeavor has explicitly stated in internal documents that its goal is to keep fighter pay at no more than 20 percent of event revenue and it is clear that fighters have an uphill battle when it comes to securing fair compensation for their efforts.
Despite no divisional titles being on the line at UFC 244, the card will almost certainly garner enough PPV buys to justify the decision. Nate Diaz has proven himself to be a bona fide star in the MMA world while Jorge Masvidal has never had more hype behind him courtesy of his amazing knockout win over undefeated Ben Askren. While this author can’t say that he’s not looking forward to this “BMF” showdown and the reveal of the new belt, this situation does invite questions regarding how close fighters are to coming together to fight for more.
In keeping with tradition since mixed martial arts was legalized in the state of New York, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to Madison Square Garden on Nov. 2 for UFC 244. On the card will be Darren Till making his middleweight debut against Kelvin Gastelum and Corey Anderson taking on surging light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker. In the main event, Nate Diaz will fight for the second time this year when he takes on Jorge Masvidal for the “Baddest Motherf---er” title, complete with a belt that is being created by the UFC exclusively for the fight and which company president Dana White has said will be a “one-and-done” affair.
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“What happened exactly was the UFC came to me and offered me a basic challenger’s rate,” Covington said in an interview with MMAFighting. “They didn’t give me a negotiation. They said, ‘Take this or we’ll just move on to someone else.’ That’s not negotiating. That’s bad business and if that’s how they want to do business, that’s their problem. That’s not my problem.”
After the talks with Covington fell through, reports began to surface of Usman taking on other challengers. According to Dana White, Usman’s camp apparently “didn’t jump on” other offers, and, as a result, the Masvidal vs. Diaz bout was made by the promotion. While this type of behavior is common with the UFC, with switching headliners being one of the organization’s preferred tactics in trying to limit fighters’ leverage, UFC 244 is different in an important respect: It is proof that the UFC will replace title fights with non-title fights as pay-per-view main events if it means retaining the upper hand over fighters.
Now, while there technically is a title on the line (there will be a real belt made which will be awarded to the winner, possibly by The Rock), this will be the first time since UFC 202 that a division’s championship will not be scheduled to be defended in the main event of a PPV. It will also mark the first card under Endeavor ownership where this is the case, as the infamous McGregor vs. Diaz rematch at UFC 202 had been finalized before the UFC’s sale to WME-IMG. Although a non-title fight between Anderson Silva and Israel Adeysana did headline a card as recently as UFC 234, that was due to middleweight champ Robert Whitaker’s same-day withdrawal from the event due to medical issues.
The decision for Masvidal and Diaz to headline the New York card is significant for myriad reasons. Although there have been several interim title fights that have materialized due to fighters trying to rework contracts, it was believed by many that under Endeavor a divisional title always needed to be on the line in the main event of a PPV card. By barely engaging in discussions with Covington and Usman, not only did the UFC show that they are willing to put a non-title bout in the top spot of a PPV event, they also sent a clear message to fighters that the promotion is willing to do whatever they have to in order to get the best outcome for them, even if that means creating a fake belt for one night only. As happy as this turn of events will make fans and pundits like myself, who want a Diaz vs. Masvidal war to last the full twenty-five minutes, it’s nevertheless another in a long list of provisions used by the UFC to weaken fighters’ bargaining power. As revealed in the recent antitrust lawsuit against the promotion, the UFC has threatened fighters with tough matchups or withheld scheduling a fight for a particular athlete if they refuse to accept contracts that often favor the organization. Couple that with the fact that Endeavor has explicitly stated in internal documents that its goal is to keep fighter pay at no more than 20 percent of event revenue and it is clear that fighters have an uphill battle when it comes to securing fair compensation for their efforts.
Despite no divisional titles being on the line at UFC 244, the card will almost certainly garner enough PPV buys to justify the decision. Nate Diaz has proven himself to be a bona fide star in the MMA world while Jorge Masvidal has never had more hype behind him courtesy of his amazing knockout win over undefeated Ben Askren. While this author can’t say that he’s not looking forward to this “BMF” showdown and the reveal of the new belt, this situation does invite questions regarding how close fighters are to coming together to fight for more.
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