UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal will be making a long-awaited return to the Octagon after over a year off at UFC 287 this April. Masvidal recently revealed on The MMA Hour that he’s effectively self-managed these days, doubting the ability of an MMA manager to earn their percentage of a fighter’s income.
“The last three, four years, I’ve been negotiating my contracts. I’ve been getting on the plane and going over there to Vegas and sitting down in front of [UFC COO] Hunter [Campbell], sitting down in front of [UFC President] Dana [White] and saying like, ‘Well this is my worth, and this is why I think so.’ And then they tell me to go f*** and fly a kite, and then we have another meeting next week, and then we talk, and then we come to the agreements.
Jorge Masvidal Negotiates His Own UFC Contracts
I told [FRM co-owner] Abe [Kawa] … ‘If I got to get on the plane and put 10.5 hours on my back and take that off from training to go over there and talk to somebody, why am I giving you the percentage again?
Because you don’t set up my training. You don’t pay for my training. You don’t step in the cage. Like, what what am I doing? You’re setting up interviews. Oh, you’re talking to Ariel Helwani for me? No. You know you got to do a little bit more than that.’ They were like, ‘Well, if you want this type of money, you gotta get in front of Dana. You got to get in front of Hunter. You gotta talk to these guys.’ I get that.
But now do you get me? Why am I gonna pay hundreds of thousands of dollars when I’m the one that’s talking to the head honchos over here.”
Masvidal, as of this writing, is free to work with whomever he pleases. “I’m working with a lot of managers, a lot of companies, there’s a lot of great managers out there. This is no secret. I’ll say this…everybody knows FRM doesn’t have the best relations, or any relations, with any of the other managers. … A lot of sponsors, they have their own way of doing stuff and it just doesn’t appeal to a lot of people. There’s a lot of people that weren’t talking or I had … or not talking because they got beef with them.
I’m talking to everybody now I’m having business. Every other f****** week, somebody’s trying to get me to go to lunch to pitch me on some f****** either movie script this, or sponsorship there, and it’s like OK, one door closed, but 2,000 windows opened. So I’m managing myself.”
What do you think of this foray into management? Let us know in the comments.
