Lightweight fighter Joe Lauzon, like every other fighter in the UFC, gets paid a sponsorship fee from Reebok for wearing the companies fight gear at UFC events.
While there are a lot of fighters that have complained about the situation, the Boston native would also suggest that the deal as a whole backfired.
“We’ve basically become toxic at this point,” Lauzon said on The MMA Hour. “There’s no way that Nike, or Under Armour or some other sponsor is going to come in, because, the UFC took the best offer they got, right? Reebok offered the most money. It’s not like Nike came in and was going to give them more money and the UFC went, ‘no, we’re going to go with Reebok instead.’ They went with the best offer, so Reebok was willing to spend the most, and take a gamble on us, and it’s backfired, it’s shot them in the face, right? It has not worked out at all.”
Since the moment the Reebok deal was announced, it has been on the receiving end of mostly harsh feedback from the fighters.
Lauzon also wants the lower tier fighters in the UFC to be more realistic about sponsorship money.
“Some of the newer guys, like Kajan Johnson, so he’ll probably be fighting on Fight Pass when he comes in,” Lauzon said. “Any time you’re on Fight Pass, that means nothing in sponsors. No one’s watching. So like, these guys that are just coming in, that are complaining they’re not making money, they’re probably on Fight Pass and they probably wouldn’t be making money anyway. I think that everyone is hearing about the golden days of sponsors where guys were getting $150,000 to wear a walkout T-shirt and they’re thinking ‘oh like that would be me,’ and that’s just not the case.”
The lightweight star doesn’t have a fight scheduled at the moment and his last bout was a loss to Stevie Ray at UFC Fight Night 108.
