So, after 2 events with these new Reebok uniforms, I can officially say I’m not impressed. One of the main reasons, they’ve taken a sport that is focused on individuals and made it about non individual as possible. I was of the impression that they would be doing custom uniforms and designs for each individual fighter, or at least give them some color options. This was not the case. This was actually as far from the case as possible, Once they stepped into the cage there were 3 options, and those were the types of shorts. One corner was deemed white the other black, with one exception, Robbie Lawler who had gold trim signifying he was a champion.
The walkout shirts were slightly different, I believe based on country of origin, but that was also very confusing, as I saw many guys I know to be american wearing other colors, I believe Jeremy Stephens, born in Iowa and training in So Cal came out in the colors of Mexico, so there is always that. But as different as they were, they were all exactly the same, once again with zero individualism in what is sold as an individual sport.
Dana white keeps selling this as the way all team sports are, well I have two arguments about that. One, there is no such thing as a team, the UFC is making all the decisions, maybe they should put color choice and design in the Team\Gym’s hands, wouldn’t it be cool to see it set up much like the ATT vs Blackzillians ultimate fighter? Make the teams choose colors and keep other teams from choosing those colors. Every fighter in the UFC should be affiliated with a team. Two, why does the UFC get to sell all the space on the cage still? It seems like a double standard to me, these fighters are taking significant pay cuts with the new model, but the UFC id getting paid more, doesn’t seem quite right to me.
So lets find a happy medium here, guess what, Lebron James isn’t wearing his team uniform to press conferences, why are you telling the fighters all they can wear all week is Reebok gear? And for pennies on the dollar, that is their choice. Let’s get some more options, lets let this individual sport, be individual. And most importantly lets find a way to get better revenue sharing from the UFC with the fighters and camps from all those other advertisers.`
We know the UFC can and will do what it is that they feel they want to do, this has been proven, we just hope that if other organizations, al-la WSOF or the like that they take heed and find a way to make it work better for the fighters.
You must log in to post a comment.