Dana White and the UFC have gone through a variety of changes since he took charge in 2001. White has taken the company from bankruptcy to the billion-dollar business it is now. Over the years, the promotion has evolved, but not every change was welcomed with open arms. One of them was banning custom shorts with advertisements, and Joe Rogan seems to have a way to bring it back.
UFC made this massive change in 2015 when they entered a massive deal with Reebok. UFC wanted a rather uniform and professional look for their fighters and wanted to gain control over advertisements. Joe Rogan and Israel Adesanya recently talked about it in the latest JRE podcast. The UFC commentator suggested an idea.
If they didn’t like some because it didn’t represent the sport. Then just f**** have a list of ones that you agree to.
Joe Rogan via JRE MMA Show #165
Adesanya seconded Joe Rogan and mentioned that UFC can have a filtering process. In this process, the promotion can carefully go through all the sponsors before giving it the green light. By doing this, fighters could earn more money on top of their fight purse. This could help in minimizing the discussion of Fighter Pay.
UFC has always been the opposite side of criticism when it comes to the fighter’s pay and this reduced a lot after the Reebok deal. Recently, UFC has brought back customized shorts at UFC 300. However, there is still no huge monetary benefit for fighters. In the past, the Reebok deal had caused a variety of controversies around UFC.
UFC veteran accuses Dana White of stealing his Reebok deal
The UFC-Reebok deal sparked criticism since it resulted in huge financial losses for fighters who had previously relied on sponsorships. The set payments were judged insufficient, particularly for middle-level and inexperienced combatants. Standardized attire took away fighters’ ability to exhibit their personal style, which many resented.
Quality difficulties with Reebok apparel, as well as a lack of team remuneration, fuelled criticism. Overall, the agreement was viewed as benefiting the UFC at the expense of fighter income and individuality. Since his retirement, UFC veteran Rampage Jackson has frequently mentioned how Dana White sabotaged his Reebok deal.
I‘m the one who brought Reebok over there when I had that shoe deal with them, and I couldn’t even wear Reebok on my shorts. Now they do a whole deal with Reebok and you have to wear their stuff and I heard Reebok isn’t paying the fighters much for wearing it. So I fell out with them and they are with UFC and I don’t want to wear Reebok. That’s my only thing with UFC.
Rampage Jackson via The MMA Hour
In 2021, Dana White terminated its contract with Reebok and signed Venom as a new partner. Similarly to Reebok, the Venom partnership did not benefit the fighters financially. While numerous media outlets constantly discuss this injustice, the absence of support from fighters on this subject has resulted in no progress towards its resolution.
