By MikeM, In honor of UFC 100 tomorrow
Marxism has had a tough run against the test of time, almost every society has categorically rejected Marx’s ideas as the enemy of freedom and prosperity. With that being said, it’s necessary at times to understand Marxist ideology through a modern example and to see the drama that Marx envisioned when he penned Das Capital. To me, there is no better example of capitalists exploiting the labor of its workers than the fastest growing sport in America, Mixed Martial Arts.
MMA began as a backwoods, unregulated sport that received mockery and horror from local government. Matches were bare knuckled no holds barred violent displays of human competition. Mouth guards, gloves and other safety equipment were uncommon, and refs didn’t have the power to stop a bout until about UFC 4. No other match demonstrates the pure brutality of the early UFCs than the first ever match, which consisted of a sumo wrestler getting his teeth kicked out and having his tooth fly onto the scorers table.
Cooler heads prevailed, in the long run of course. The original ownership passed off the group to a group of high school friends; two of which happened to be wealthy owners of Station Casinos in Las Vegas. This group was Dana White and the Fertitta brothers, this group named the holding company Zuffa, which is now the most powerful company for MMA in the world.
To begin, Zuffa began implementing tighter regulations and protocols into the sport. A meeting of the minds by the New Jersey Athletic Commision produced what are known as the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The rules specified a great deal of restrictions and safety protocol, which provided Zuffa with the framework they needed to peddle their sport to other states for regulation. After the Nevada athletic commission officially regulated the sport in 2002, the UFC stopped putting on unregulated shows all together, a policy they have upheld throughout their rise to power.
With a bit of history out of the way, how does MMA relate to Marxist superstructure? The biggest answer is how the UFC exploit’s the output of its fighters. Fighters must sign exclusive, multiple fight contracts for which there are stuck for the duration. In contrast, the UFC can cut a fighter for any reason. Fighters only have their name sakes to bargain with, with more popular fighters commanding higher salaries while entry level fighters often have get paid a paltry five thousand dollars to make an appearance.
The contracting out of labor is the perfect example of how the UFC behaves as a capitalist class while fighters are stuck in the same conditions as the workers. For one, many under card fighters have a difficult time training full time making only 10 thousand a fight. Some have to supplement their income through working full time jobs in between fights. Others simply go without training for a bit so that they can pay the bills. The example of income inequality is striking, with the top paid fighters receiving six figure per fight contracts along with a cut of the Pay Per View share while the under card fighters are thrown peanuts.
Zuffa’s defense of this is that they offer locker room incentives and bonuses to exciting fighters. So if an under card fighter puts on a good show that makes the PPV, than the UFC will often come into the locker room and cut the fighter a check of bonus money. The UFC claims that these bonuses are very generous to up and coming fighters, although this claim cannot be verified as the bonuses are not reported to the athletic commission. To make matters worse, managers are not separately credentialed for backstage access, so often times a business transaction will take place without the fighter’s representation present to ensure fairness. The UFC also comes out looking like the good guy, and can endear themselves to fighters without necessarily going through the proper channels.
This is the base of MMA, or the way that fighters and the UFC go about providing the service of MMA. The UFC can reap profits from the fighters, and reinvest into the sport ad-nauseum because every single card they put on is profitable at this point. So, how can this relationship actually be beneficial to fans, fighters and promoters? How can this relationship, while exploitive on the surface, give rise to the benfit of all?
The answer is the essential ingredient that is missing from any discussion of Marx, incentives. Incentive to reap profit and create a predictable relationship with fighters that can be calculated in advance of how to make profit is Zuffa’s reason for the restrictive contracts. Fighters are not helpless though, many have gained a life of their own and substantial income from outside sponsorships through the use of their name power. One agent estimated that his client would make about two million dollars over the course of a year from holding the UFC championship belt in his weight class. Fighters can also accept and refuse fights offered to them, allowing them some degree of bargaining power. The more fights they win, the greater their power, meaning that the UFC must compensate them for their final contribution to the product. Popular fighters have much more leeway in contract negotiations and compensation that unknown commodities that first enter the UFC.
In addition, fighters have agitated or expressed their displeasure in the past, and every single time it has turned into a PR hit for Zuffa. Fighters had better remain placated, or Zuffa will find itself at the center of the scorn of its most hardcore fan base, who get all of their information on the internet as MMA is sparsely covered in traditional media. The internet and blogs that do major MMA reporting are a ripe place to echo unfavorable news about an ugly split. Zuffa’s best strategy so far for these situations is to placate them early, or before they even happen. It serves Zuffa well to listen to and respond to their fighters concerns before any beef goes public.
Further, Zuffa assumed an enormous amount of risk in trying to grow the sport of Mixed Martial Arts from its base as a no holds barred competition to a mainstream sport it is today. It’s been widely reported that Zuffa lost 44 million dollars until they saw a single dollar of profit. The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC’s reality show that saw its finale hit 3 million viewers is credited with saving Zuffa and turning red ink to black, but it was still Zuffa’s tireless pursuit of legitimacy that provided the framework for the explosion to take place. Fans and fighters benefit from the externalities created by Zuffa putting up 44 million of its own money. Zuffa has earned their right to be compensated in this manner, and besides, the relationship between them and their fighters is more symbiotic than exploitive.
Marxist thought is very good at providing a narrative for how capitalism can be problematic for certain individuals. Where Marxism fails is providing the most compelling narrative in modern capitalist society. Marxism falls behind other explanations when it fails to account for individual incentives and the trade offs between workers and their employers. There was a day when Marx was a relevant and dynamic thinker who provided new explanations to the world he lived in, but now he is little more than a curiosity, to be thrown in a trash heap for the annals of history.
