[hunterkiller]

[quote]

Originally Posted by kc56

And as I pointed out, that insurance would come with much stricter guidelines much like other pro sports. Fighters would likely be held to tighter fight minimums to ensure return on investment. Right now, if a fighter pulls out, sure the UFC loses whatever marketing they put into it, but not health insurance for that long span of time. They would only get more strict in regards to what the fighters can and cannot do on their off time (I.E. riding motorcycles playing contact sports etc...)

I don't think the UFC contracts are too strict. And the stuff going on in their offtime like riding motorcycles and playing contact sports, prohibit it. Look at Frank Mir. He was the heavyweight champ and on the verge of being a massive star and he's out riding a motorcycle and gets badly injured. There is plenty of time after your sports career is over for that stuff. I agree with the ban in other sports and wouldn't have a problem with it in MMA.

Also, it's not the same. In other pro sports, the demands are MUCH higher. Football players play at least 16 games (barring injury) over an 18 week period (not including playoffs).

I would consider the 2-3 months preparing for a fight to be considered part of a fighters MMA "season" if you will.

Another point that needs to be made is that in order for MMA to be taken seriously or mainstream as you put it, their should be some sort of proving grounds of feeding stream to weed the low level fighters out and just have the true pros make it (ala college football / basketball).

I agree here. I think right now in the UFC in particular has too many of the lowered tiered prelim guys who are basically there to be stepping stones to the other guys. I think that they could cut that roster to back to where they have 5-6 quality fights on their cards instead of 8-10 cards filled with lower tiered guys. It would make the standards for "making it" a little tougher to achieve and free up money for benefits for the proven guys. Let some of the smaller guys prove their mettle in smaller orgs. It works this way in the real world. You have to be with a company for a certain amount of time and be considered a full time employee to qualify for medical benefits. I think it should have to apply here as well.

Because I am sure that fact is so very highly guarded that only Dana and all of us forum dwellers are privy to such top-secret information. Someone like Bill O'Reilly could never find out something like that...

Bill O'Reilly is a blow hard who only reports what is on the headlines or what he is told to report on. He knows nothing about MMA except for what his producers tell him which is why his argument with Dana was hilarious and he wouldn't let Dana talk. (This is one of the moments where I agreed with Dana).

So you say insured for a fighter's training. That raises an excellent point. Most fighters may train for 6-8 weeks for a fight. So would they be covered for the other 2-10 months that some fighters take in between fights?

Insure their training and their fights. If they take time off to do something else, they aren't covered. Unless maybe they have some kind of health plan to cover illnesses like we all have.