2.) Up-and-coming fighters will be able to focus more on training:
Another obvious surface impact of the deal is the built-in income that debuting and/or up-and-coming fighters will earn.
The UFC has been largely blasted for their low fighter pay in recent years, and it’s the lower ranked fighters that incur much of the hardship caused by the uncertainty of being an MMA fighter, even at the highest level.
In the past, lower ranked fighters had to struggle to find sponsors to help pay the bills, something that almost certainly took away from time focused on training. Now, those fighters will have a guaranteed income coming their way each and every fight, and while they’ll start out at the lowest level of the multi-tiered pay system, a major weight will have been lifted off their shoulders.
Now they’ll be able to stay working towards their goals, with the potential to rise up the rankings (and therefore pay levels) with impressive performances.
It’s difficult enough to be an emerging professional fighter, and having the added security of the Reebok sponsorship deal undoubtedly lends rising UFC talent a big hand.
We’ll have to wait and see if this translates into an influx of new and exciting talent who are no longer stressed out by a lack of sponsorship, but the potential for positive expansion is there.
