Fler fighters ställer sig bakom Mark Hunt när det gäller ett fack för fighters och en av dem är Bellator-fightern och den före detta UFC-lättviktsmästaren Benson Henderson.
Det har blivit mer än bara protester mot hur UFC har behandlat situationen kring Brock Lesnars (6-3) positiva dopingtest utan nu pratas det om att MMA-fighters ska organisera sig i ett fack. Det är Mark Hunt (12-11-1) som leder detta i frontlinjen och han har fått stöd i ingen mindre än den tidigare UFC-lättviktsmästaren Benson Henderson (23-6). Henderson pratade med MMA Fighting om detta.
”I 100 percent support Mark Hunt, everything he’s doing and talking about. I think it’s a long time coming, it should have been here a long time ago.”
Hunt är inte den ende som har pratat om att organisera MMA-fighters i ett fack och Henderson ger ett par exempel på detta.
”There are a lot of other guys, Cung Le, Jon Fitch, there have been guys who have talked about it for a long time. I show my support and solidarity with those guys. As a mixed martial artist, I definitely support them.”
Enligt Henderson är det en stor skillnad mellan MMA och andra sporter på hur man ser på saker och ting. MMA-fighters ser inte sig själva som idrottsmän och de är inte är vana vid att få saker, som man gör i andra sporter, till exempel på vilka rättigheter man ska ha som fighter.
”MMA is such a young sport. The NFL has been established, it’s been around a long time, boxing has been around a long time, Major League Baseball has been around a long time, but MMA as a sport is so young, that a lot of guys who do MMA, the fighters of MMA, don’t really know what it is like to be a professional athlete.”
”So as a professional athlete you think, oh, I should get this. There are certain things, for actors, it’s the same way. They get to enjoy the Screen Actors Guild, they’re, ‘this is what you should get.’ It’s not an extra thing, it’s not something nice. If you go on the set, and you’re there for a 10-hour shoot, you’re supposed to get lunch, they’re supposed to provide lunch for you. It’s not ‘oh my god! They gave us lunch and sandwiches, awesome, this is great!’ No, you’re supposed to get that, you should get that.”
Men nu verkar det som att MMA-fighters börjar hamna i samma tänk som boxare, att de har rätt till vissa saker.
”Boxers are used to it. They know they are supposed to get this and supposed to get that, and what it’s supposed to be like and how it is supposed to be conducted. Us, as mixed martial artists, we’re finally getting like, ‘oh yeah, we should make this much money.’ NFL, they had a lockout so that they could get 51 percent of the total gross revenue. Us fighters, we get, like, seven percent, maybe seven percent of gross revenues. So, us as athletes, we’re not that smart and it took us awhile to get our act together.”
Foto: Patrick Jenkinson
