A number of UFC fighters are continuing to voice their disapproval regarding their potential earnings from the new Rebook uniform sponsorship which begins in July.
Tim Kennedy was amongst those who made it clear on Twitter that he was less than happy with the tiered system that the UFC have now officially unveiled.
“Dear @ufc
Am I to understand that for my exclusive apparel sponsorship I’ll make $2,500?
I’ll pass. Thanks for the generous offer.
#reebok” – Tim Kennedy
Kennedy then further stirred the pot by sending a message to his ex-Strikeforce boss Scott Coker who now runs to the Bellator promotion, saying, “Hey Scott, miss your face.”
It appears Kennedy has jumped the gun slightly though as the UFC do make it clear in their documentation regarding the new Reebok deal that prior fights in the Zuffa owner Strikeforce and WEC promotions also count when working out which tier a fighter is in.
Kennedy only has four fights in the UFC which normally would put him in the lowest tier which earns $2,500 per fight, but add on his eight fights for Strikeforce and that takes him up to 12 fights in total and means he would actually pocket $10,000 per Octagon outing.
In fairness, for a veteran fighter like Kennedy that’s still likely to be an underwhelming amount, but nonetheless it’s not quite as bleak as he thought it was.
Whether he’s come to this realization himself, has woken up with a cooler head, has been given a wrap on the knuckles by his current employer, or most likely is just being mischevious, today Kennedy wrote, “My Twitter got hacked yesterday.”
Meanwhile, another UFC fighter Al Iaquinta is continuing to live up to his reputation as one of the lightweight divisions most outspoken fighters by adding his two cents worth in about the Reebok deal.
“First thought as I woke up this morning… I’m making 5 thousand dollars in sponsors for my next fight! 💪 yay @Reebok ! 🙏” Iaquinta wrote sarcastically on his Twitter account.
“Hey Floyd here’s 40k and no you can’t have Burger King walk out with you!” he continued. “Here wear these generic shorts all week don’t likem? Too bad. Lebron unless you have 20 seasons, you are still at 2nd tier in sponsors bro.”
With nine fights under his belt in the Octagon so far, Iaquinta will have to take one fight at the $5,000 tier before that doubles to $10,000 for his 11th UFC fight.
Myles Jury was one of the first people to publicly blast Reebok about the deal at the start of the month, even before the tiered structure was officially unveiled.
He went as far as to take a picture of a trash can full of Reebok trainers along with the caption, “Take advantage of people & no morals/values? YOU’RE TRASH.”
It turns out that there’s more to Jury’s grievances than first meets the eye though. Apparently Jury was already in negotiations to secure a sponsorship deal with Reebok before the UFC deal was ever announced, at which point his own deal fell through.
Despite being ranked at No.8 in the division, with seven fights to his name Jury now ends up falling into the $5,000 per fight tier, so perhaps he has a reason to feel hard done by.
In fact, even UFC President Dana White seems to agree with that assessment as he’s stated that he’ll look to make amends with Jury, though he disapproves of the way ‘Fury’ handled the situation.
“We are going to make it right,” White stated during a media conference call yesterday. “We gotta fix it. So we’re going to get together with Reebok, we’re going to get together with Myles and we’re going to fix it. But yeah, he can’t go out trashing Reebok, but he did have a personal falling out with them. It did happen. I’m going to have to manage it and fix it.”
