Could Francis Ngannou be MMA's Michael Jordan?

In the wedding episode of Succession, Connor Roy says to his soon-to-be mother-in-law that Ebenezer Scrooge, beneath it all, was actually a great wealth creator. Scrooge, for those who don’t know the story (shame), is a wealthy but miserly old businessman that employs a significant portion of the town in which he does business. The point Connor is winkingly (but also sincerely) making is that without Scrooge, nobody would have any work.

Sure, he underpays, but at least he employs and pays at all!

I bet that Dana White has a similar mindset.

Dana White has a personal net worth of $500m due to his sizeable stake in the UFC. He is ultra-wealthy. That ultra-wealth is largely built off the blood, sweat, and lost brain cells of fighters whom he pays generally less than 20% of an event’s total revenue and for whom there is no insurance or protection after their careers are over.

Yes, Dana White has made many people middle-class but he has done it in such a way that has made him a true 1 percenter.

Compare that to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s new movie Air. The take home message of that movie, delivered by Viola Davis in her performance as Deloris Jordan, is that the people responsible for the creation of the profits, should actually share in the profits. She delivers this message in the context of asking Nike to grant Michael Jordan equity in every Air branded shoe that gets sold. Ultimately Nike agrees, Michael Jordan is a very rich man and Nike is the biggest shoe company in the world.

The message becomes more powerful and undeniably more compelling when you consider the thesis of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s new production company Artists’ Equity, The thesis and driving force behind that company is that creators and crew share in the profits of the movie.

The company does not pay the individual, everybody shares in the success of the product.

I wonder if Francis Ngannou felt like getting out from underneath Scrooge when he left the UFC and Dana White?

News emerged this week that Francis Ngannou signed a deal with the PFL, probably the second biggest global MMA promotion in the world after the UFC. That is not necessarily the big news. The big news is the contract that he signed. The details of the deal are as follows: it is a short term deal for only 2 or 3 fights; guarantees a high 7-figure purse for each fight; a guaranteed portion of an event’s profits; a signing bonus or salary to serve as a PFL brand ambassador; the right to bring with him his own sponsors; non-exclusivity which allows him to box; no clauses that trigger extensions; a minimum $1m salary for his opponent.

For context, the UFC literally would not allow one of the above contractual terms. By way of example, Georges St Pierre, perhaps the greatest UFC fighter in history, sought in 2021 to box Oscar De La Hoya for charity. His last fight under the UFC banner was in 2017. However, despite being long-retired from MMA, the UFC would not release him from his UFC contract and would not grant him the non-exclusivity that Francis has just obtained.

Aside from the poor money, the UFC simply does not offer short term or flexible contracts. Holly Holm, at 41-years-old, signed a 6 fight UFC contract. She will not see the end of that contract, but she will also not fight for anyone else until it is done.

So, Francis won?

Today, yes Francis won. He won the headlines. He has basically achieved what he has sought to achieve, even as the UFC and some UFC fighters have sought to sling mud at a man of principle and athletic excellence.

The real question is what will the impact of this be?

Will it be like Michael Jordan, where he truly did blaze a trail for other elite athletes to share in the profits of products with their names on it?

Jordan truly broke the mould in that sense. Where Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wore Converses, Jordan wore Jordans and got a piece of every Jordan shoe sold. The Jordan model, for players at a certain level, is now the norm.

Or will it be more like boxing?

Main event boxers have long shared in the profits of the events they participate in, have the flexibility to sign short-term promotional contracts, (as Ray Leonard and more recently Devin Haney have done) and generally, at a certain level, make significantly more money than UFC fighters of a comparable stature - but that has not stopped the game from chewing them up and spitting them out.

In one of the greatest boxing books of all time The Life and Crimes of Don King, Jack Newfield said while talking of Larry Holmes that “boxing is the only jungle where the lions are afraid of the rats”.

Perhaps that is no longer true. Perhaps MMA has joined that jungle, even with Dana White’s new and chemically improved body. Or perhaps Francis Ngannou will have blazed a trail for MMA fighters to be treated more fairly by an organisation that seems to both resent and require them.