I’m starting to get the feeling that Urijah Faber, Mike Brown, and Miguel Torres got together a while ago and agreed that they were going to start pushing for mo’ money. Because it seems like every interview they’re involved with lately includes a part where they talk about it. Here’s Faber’s latest interview with MMA Weekly:
“What we have is a company that’s growing right now; they’re kind of putting that on the shoulders of some of the people. I feel like we should be looked at as investments,” he commented. “If they’re not making money right now, they’re spending money on a lot of other stuff to help build their business and the fighters are part of that.
“I’d like a little bit more attention, money put into the WEC brand. It doesn’t grow overnight, but they really should be making a big push. We’ve got a lot of guys that are extremely marketable. We’ve got the most exciting fights in the world for sure.
“I feel like I’m making a pretty good name for myself and I’d like to be compensated for this. I don’t feel like being someone that is gonna build up something and not reap the rewards, but in all honesty, they do have the fighters interests in mind.”
And Faber is asking the right people. Here’s him telling RawVegas about the time Zuffa tried the old “These are different companies” speil:
“I definitely don’t think it’s a fair scale,” Faber told RawVegas’ Dave Farra. “They say that WEC is a different company than UFC.”
Zuffa, headed up Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta along with Dana White, owns both fight organizations. When he’s been told by Lorenzo Fertitta and White that WEC and UFC are different, Faber joked, “well then can you talk to the owners and see if you can pull some strings?”
Doesn’t Dana always say “You don’t know how much these guys are really making so STFU”? How does that statement gel with the fact that fighters who complain about pay get scrubbed out of existence and even then you’ve still got three of the biggest WEC guys talking about getting the shaft? Sure, everyone wants to make more money but when you’ve got the owners of the organization buying 28 million dollar mansions while it’s champions and stars are hoping they can retire in a few years with enough in the bank to own their own home and gym, it makes you go hmmmm
