"They have been giving these MMA retreats for so long and it's been such a joke from day one. They never brought in anyone who gave really good advice for money management or anything like that...My running joke with the UFC is in order to be successful, talk a lot of trash or be from a country that the UFC wants to break into. They will put their media behind you. If all you do is show up and fight to the death and show respect for your opponent, the UFC has no idea what to do with you," stated former UFC title challenger Nate Quarry, who shared his thoughts on the UFC and much more. Check it out!
PC: The UFC recently held a fighter retreat out in Las Vegas. I'm sure you have attended some of these retreats in the past. Is it much of the same from everything that you are seeing from this recent retreat?
NQ: Ah man, I remember when they first started doing these MMA retreats; it's a way, in my opinion, of the bosses saying, "Hey, we're just one big family. We're bringing in Snoop Dogg to put on a concert for y'all, we got Kobe Bryant here to talk," when in reality you should save that money and spend it on the fighters. Because as cool as it is to see Snoop Dogg, it would be much cooler to have a house that you live in that you've been able to pay for because you're compensated justly for the work that you've done. They have been giving these MMA retreats for so long and it's been such a joke from day one. They never brought in anyone who gave really good advice for money management or anything like that. To see now that some of the fighters, I think his name was Kajan Johnson, actually stood up and asked legitimate questions; things that the other fighters were thinking about, but don't have the stones to stand up and ask. And Leslie Smith asked questions about the Reebok deal and Leslie actually asked Kobe Bryant what his thoughts were on the NBA association and Kobe Bryant said that was the best thing for us and that's what changed the entire sport for us. So of course she got shut down immediately as well because for the UFC, they want these guest...they want Kobe Bryant to deliver the message that they want the fighters to see. And from Kobe, it's just going to be, "Wow man, you're living everybody else's dream. So go out there and fight hard. This is awesome!" They don't want Kobe out there saying, "Boy, this is a short window and you need to take advantage of it as much as possible because as much as you're living a dream, this is also a business. And if you do not treat it like a business, at the end of your career, you will be broke and broken because everybody around you is treating it like it's a business, whether it's your manager, your agent, and you know the UFC is." Especially now because with the new owners, the only way they get paid is by hitting certain benchmarks. So they are cutting costs. They are cutting bonuses and doing all of these things to cut expenses, while (laughing) for sure you know the executives are making a lot more than probably all of the fighters. It was shown where just Dana White, since the sale of the UFC, received more than all 500 fighters over that past 20 years. That would not surprise me at all and it's pure speculation and I'm sure someone could take that number and chew it up, but the fighters are just so ridiculously underpaid and the UFC will go out and spend all of this money to put together an MMA Summit. And what they are really trying to do is hopefully get the fighters to be quiet and get back in line and not question how the business is being run.
PC: The speaker...well, one of the speakers at the summit told the fighters that all of them should act like Conor McGregor. I thought that was interesting considering it used to be based on individuality and being yourself.
NQ: My running joke with the UFC is in order to be successful, talk a lot of trash or be from a country that the UFC wants to break into. They will put their media behind you. If all you do is show up and fight to the death and show respect for your opponent, the UFC has no idea what to do with you. They don't know how to market that at all. I mean, can you imagine the NFL trying to promote someone who plays hard and actually wins games and doesn't talk trash? They do that all of the time. But that's the NFL, but with the UFC, they only know how to market trash talkers. They will do that over and over again. What's so hilarious is when they are telling the fighters, "You just need to be the next Conor McGregor," how many guys can be Conor McGregor? First off, one, there is only one Conor McGregor. Secondly, there is only one champion per weight class. No matter how many times the UFC puts up an interim title, it's not a real title until the one with the title loses it or gets stripped; not a two week layoff so they can get their next guy to fight for a title, no! On top of all that stuff, let's look at all the backing the UFC put behind Conor McGregor. When he flew for his title fight against Chad Mendes, he was flying on a private jet. Chad Mendes was flying Southwest Air. So can we have the same backing that they were putting behind Conor McGregor because that seems to be a pretty important part of that. Let's look at how much money he's been getting paid. Why is it that Sage Northcutt is making 10 times what Neil Magney is making? You have guys that are fighting and doing such a phenomenal job and actually winning their fights, but the UFC picks and chooses the person that has the look or the voice or comes from the country that they want to expand into and they will give that guy extra air time and extra specials. They pick and choose their opponents a little more carefully, they give them a little bit more money so that for their next fight, they have more money to spend on their fight camp. These are all things that when you actually look at what the UFC is saying, it all falls apart because they are not running this like an actual sport. When the Ali Expansion Act comes into place and it is now against the law for a promoter to have a vested interest in a fighter, their whole business plan falls apart. Because in the world of sports, the best rise to the top. You all start with an even playing field. You don't have a promoter coming in and saying, "Hey, I'm going to give you an extra $500,000 so you can have the best camp because I like the way you look!" No, that's illegal in the world of boxing. Could you imagine if the NFL said, "You know what, we want LA and New York in the Super Bowl because obviously this is what's best for the sport. They are both highly populated areas and well known throughout the world. This is going to make everyone a lot more money and the sport is going to get a lot more exposure, so we're going to lift the salary cap by $10 million for the LA team and the New York team and the rest of you teams out there, you just need to understand that this is what's best for the sport. Oh, and by the way, both LA and New York get to play the Cleveland Browns 7 times a year." Their whole business model would fall apart because that's not sports. That's pro wrestling where you have a promoter manipulating things behind the scenes. And we have seen that with the UFC over and over where they claim to be tougher on their drug policies, but then they bury Vitor Belfort's drug test so he can go fight Jon Jones for the title. They don't let Jon Jones know and they threaten everybody that knows about Vitor Belfort's failed test. This gets into the world of not only immoral, but illegal when you have a promoter who knows that one of their competitors have failed a drug test and then they bury the test and don't tell the opponent. At the very least, they should've told Jon Jones, "Look, Vitor popped positive for this banned substance and we feel it's in our moral turpitude to at least let you know what went down." No, they don't do things like that. For them, it's the almighty dollar and how they can get to it and playing up to the fighters as if we are all this big family. But when it comes down to it, the conversation is so one-sided with the UFC. It's like, "Hey buddy, you know we had somebody fall out last minute. Can you take this fight? I know it's not a good fight for you because you haven't had much of a training camp, but do us this solid and we'll take care of you in the future." So you take the fight, you lose the fight, and now you got a loss on your record and then you go back to the UFC and you say, "Hey, remember when I did you that favor and I took that fight last minute? I could really use some help with this situation." And when it comes from the UFC, it's always, "I'm sorry, that's against company policy. If we did that for you, we would have to do that for everybody and we can't do that. It's just business, you understand." Well, it wasn't business when you asked me for a favor. So how about you quit asking me for favors then. But the UFC does that because every fighter out there knows that if you don't do the favors the UFC requests, your outlook for a happy career with the UFC get worse and worse.
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK FOR MUCH MORE WITH FORMER UFC MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE CHALLENGER NATE QUARRY
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