More Power Politics In The UFC

Dana White is often credited with being the most powerful man in the sport of mixed martial arts. He's a major stockholder in and president of the UFC, the worlds undisputed goliath when it comes to MMA, but recently he's looked a little bit like an angry third grader, pointing fingers and calling names.

When M-1 announced the signing of #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, who the UFC had been chasing for some time, Dana could be heard referring to Fedor's management as "crazy Russian[s]." You'd expect the whitest collar in the room to be mature, but that's not the way things are looking right now.

With the recent resignation of the UFC's heavyweight champion Randy Couture and major contracts like Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Chuck Liddell dropping bouts to stepping stone opponents, Dana is in a tough position.

For starters, he has a heavyweight division that lacks any real top. With fighters like Cheick Kongo, Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, all of whom could be considered for a title shot, Dana has to realize that it's going to be a while before he has a real dominant posterboy in that division.

Second, he's spending money on fighters who don't deserve it, and drastically underpaying guys who deserve alot more money. Fighters on smaller contracts who are starting to get the limelight, like Houston Alexander and Keith Jardine, are going to need more money when the UFC starts negotiating to resign them, and judging by the amount of time it took the UFC to renegotiate a contract with Brandon Vera (one of the fighters they are now paying alot of money to fight in the middle of a card) it's hard to say that we are confident in the UFC brass's ability to handle their money.

The UFC is really considered the show, but with the recent vacuum created in the heavyweight division, the possibility of an organization like M-1 creating a solid heavyweight division and building from there, eventually posing a threat to Dana and his boys, is significant.

Besides just the issues of how the fighters are performing in relation to how they are being paid, there's alot of concern over whether the UFC's wages are fair. The top fighters and faces of the organization are living confortably, and Dana is certainly bringing home the bacon, but many contracts for UFC fighters seem inadequate, since there are so few sponsorships to go around.

Even in the deal that the UFC offered to Fedor, top sports agents thought that he was being exploited. Imagine the guys who's contracts aren't getting looked at by the big sports agents.

Dana White doesn't seem to be captaining a sinking ship, but he's got a challenge ahead of him. All we can hope is that for the sake of the Octagon, he pulls through.