How to become a mma manager
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Reputations, intentions, competence and job performance. That feeds into how fighters form their perceptions. When a fighter aligns with a manager - relationships can begin with lengthy multi-year contracts or handshake deals - it’s an arrangement dripping with good intentions. “There are a lot of managers in this business that give management a very bad reputation,” Butler said. That made the fighters’ opinions “disheartening to hear” but not surprising, said Brian Butler, founder and CEO of SuckerPunch Entertainment, a 13-year-old management company that represents more than 200 mixed martial artists.
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The term has different definitions, but all align with MMA, which operates on the perilous edge of athlete protection. The “dirty manager” has existed in combat sports for as long as fighters needed representation. “At the end of the day, you can’t put the time and attention into a fighter if you can’t put food on the table.” “The fact that Conor (McGregor) and Ronda (Rousey) and some of these upper-level athletes seem to be tied into the big PR marketing machine makes me believe there are some people out there that find managing a fighter a worthwhile endeavor monetarily,” a veteran fighter surmised. Many fighters said the “yes/no” aspect to the question made it difficult to answer because there was a lot to consider - timing and experience, the good and the bad - and if any piece of their career wanders through shades of gray, it most certainly is interactions with managers. Meanwhile, 40.6 percent say managers do their jobs well enough to outweigh negative perceptions of their competence and intentions. I think a lot of managers are afraid to take a strong line with promoters because it could have a bad knock-on effect for the rest of their rosters.” “I know mine does, but there are a lot out there who don’t. “On a broad scale, no, I don’t think managers represent fighters’ interests,” one UFC competitor said. That exchange has gone against fighters enough times to become cliche, leading participants in The Athletic’s confidential and anonymous fighter survey to indicate managers do not serve their clients well. Whatever sponsorship money they can get usually includes a 20 percent cut for managers. They present an opportunity and I’m capitalizing on that.”įor those services and a variety of others, fighters pay reps anywhere from 5 percent to north of 25 percent of their purses. I don’t think I’m leveraging anything or they’re leveraging anything. I’m giving them the best fighters in the world. “The UFC is giving my guys opportunities. “It’s a partnership that’s good for everyone,” said Abdelaziz, the firm’s founder. Gaethje is an Ali Abdelaziz fighter with the well-named Dominance MMA. Lloyd Pierson from Ballengee Group, a multi-sport firm out of Dallas, repped Ferguson. The most important fight of that stretch was clearly Tony Ferguson’s main event against Justin Gaethje at UFC 249, which capped off the first night in two months that mixed martial artists had a chance to step inside the UFC octagon.
#How to become a mma manager series#
In all, 25 managers of various prominence and scope, including three fighters who represented themselves, negotiated the appearances of the talent UFC matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard needed to construct the most logistically challenging series of cards in the promotion’s history.įrom the biggest Hollywood talent agencies, to athlete management firms that added MMA to their portfolio, to fight-game talent evaluators and gym operators, to coach/manager types, to MMA-specific large-rostered powerhouses, to mom-and-pop shops, the fighters who secured bout agreements arrived for the trio of Jacksonville events from May 9-16. Much of the sports world was shuttered, but for several weeks, at least some of the athletes contracted to the UFC had been preparing as best they could for shifting opponents, dates and locations, all of which were postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.ĭespite false starts to get ahead of the reality of the times, UFC President Dana White eventually sorted out a blueprint for reopening the live sports business in the U.S., and his matchmakers were tasked with booking three cards over eight days in the open-for-business state of Florida. Sixty-eight mixed martial artists descended on Jacksonville, Fla., itching for a fight and a payday.