The 2020 U.S potential Presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, has slammed the UFC for poor labor practices during his recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience. Yang, who is 43 now, has been a fan of the sport of MMA ever since his bachelor party, a decade ago, that came to be around the time of the TUF 12 Finale. However, according to a report by MMA Fighting, Yang was not too impressed with an article he read about the president of the UFC, Dana White, openly disclosing the valuation of the promotion, while arguably disregarding the feelings of underpaid fighters.
During his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Yang was seen speaking in depth about the subject of Universal Basic Income. With the advent of technology and its application on the industries of the world, Yang foresees an age where jobs would become completely automated, thereby impacting the livelihoods of people. Speaking further, Yang suggested that the solution to the problem would be to have $1000 transferred to the bank accounts of adults, considering the scarcity of opportunities in the era of hyper-intelligence.
MMA fighters in the UFC receive only 10-15% of revenues vs. ~50% in other sports. I would apply the Ali Act to MMA and allow fighters to unionize. Firing @LeslieSmith_GF when her opponent didn’t make weight was clearly retaliatory. @danawhite should stop boasting about revenue.
— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) March 10, 2019
Presently, after being sold to the WME-IMG (now Endeavor) for $4 billion, the UFC currently stands at a valuation of a whopping $7 billion. During his interview with MMA Fighting, back in September of 2018, Andrew Yang reflected on the same, saying:
“I just found it disgusting, because the reason why it’s supposedly worth $7 billion is because they are underpaying fighters by a factor of four, relative to what they should be paying by any common sense standard. And also by the standards of other major sports. So Dana White is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He’s like, ‘MMA is going to be the biggest sport in the world, MMA is the biggest thing,’ and then he’s paying people 10, 12 percent of revenues when every other major sport is paying between 47 and 51 percent.
“So, I just got angry about that. That Dana White is such a moron, honestly. Because if you’re going to exploit workers, you might want to keep that valuation under your hat. That to me is fairly common sense.”
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