Back in May, Mark Pavelich instructed the world that he doesn’t want a statue built of him, but he just wants a ‘thank you’ for the work that he has accomplished in the MMA industry. Damn, I wish he would have given all those Canadian sculptors the heads up before he canceled whatever statue that was planned to be erected in his honor. Now Canada is filled with a bunch of humanized glops of clay that mildly resemble Charlie Sheen, and North America will just have to live with it.
In a press release sent just minutes ago, Mark Pavelich brings his beef to the next level by breaking down how Dana White is ‘destroying’ the sponsorship industry in mixed martial arts. Trust me, you definitely want to read every gem of his statement.
I am disgusted by the way MMA clothing brands are buckling to “DW’s” handling of contracts regarding the sponsorship of specific fighters.
It’s almost comical – not on his part but on the part of these clothing companies. They cave in and pay his organization a great deal of money just to have the opportunity to sponsor fighters, who they then pay an individual fee to as well. What these clothing brands fail to understand is that the entire organization that “DW” runs is sponsored by a competing clothing company.
These other brands are paying to represent themselves, yet they will never get the brand recognition they are seeking since the company itself has what would be considered a title sponsorship with another clothing brand – probably the most-recognizable brand in the industry. You are competing in an uphill battle that you can never win.
Now “DW” has instructed these other clothing brands that they have to stop sponsoring other MMA events or they will not be allowed to sponsor fighters in his event – even after fully paying him for the right to sponsor and paying the fighters individually. He is collecting money by the armored truck full from these companies, and yet he’s still able to tell them where to spend the rest of their money at the same time. Has he or anyone in his company ever heard of something called “restraint of trade?”
In a million years, you would never get away with this is other sports. I would like to see Nike, Adidas, or Reebok be told how and where they can spend their sponsorship dollars. It would never happen.
Maybe it’s time the Maximum Fighting Championship stopped helping MMA clothing brands build their business, and for these businesses to be bullied into these types of situations, caving in, and walking away from what helped them get launched in the first place. These companies are compromising their long-term futures and don’t even realize it.
Right now they are not even running their own companies.
“DW” is running his show … and yours.
Wait, let me get this straight, Pavelich doesn’t want a statue commissioned in his honor but he wants to revolutionize the sponsorship scene? Damn. Looks like we better take all these spare plywood back to Home Depot. We’re just kidding. We don’t even know where Home Depot is.
Update: Dana White’s response…
