The Military's UFC Feud: Union, Vets Want Sponsorship Axedhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/katiedrummo ... c-marines/Update: This story has been updated to clarify the role of the Unite Here union in this petition, and to incorporate comments from UFC representatives.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has found itself pitted against a surprising new adversary: A war veteran’s committee who assert that UFC culture — in particular, they allege, a tacit acceptance of homophobic and sexist behavior and slurs — is an insult to the military’s guiding principles.
But the story isn’t so simple: The committee is one branch of the Unite Here union, an organization that’s spent more than a decade trying, without success, to unionize 13,000 employees at Las Vegas’ Stations Casinos — which are owned by the very brothers, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who head up UFC.
UFC, a mixed martial arts promotions company founded in 1993, has since then made a steady crawl towards mainstream success. The company’s events, essentially caged knockout bouts meant to showcase the most effective techniques of unarmed combat (whether derived from boxing, karate or myriad other fighting disciplines), now fill major American stadiums and attract millions of TV viewers through a partnership with FOX Sports.
The company, and the sport it represents, have also attracted a dedicated military following. Several UFC fighters, including former Special Forces Staff Sergeant Tim Kennedy and Marine Corps’ Captain Brian Stann, are themselves veterans. UFC fighters often pay visits to military bases, and the armed forces now hold their own mixed martial arts competitions among soldiers. Some military leaders have even lauded UFC fights as a prime means of recruitment.
“Many of those [UFC] viewers are eligible recruits,” wrote Major Kelly Crigger in 2008. “The UFC provides a great venue to get the Army name into the minds of millions of young Americans.”
But the relationship between UFC and the military is now being spotlighted by the Unite Here committee: The group solicited 5,000 signatures (from war veterans, civilians and members of other advocacy groups) for a petition that was distributed to Marine Corps recruiting stations in seven cities last week. The petition’s request? That the Marines “renounce support of the UFC immediately.”
That support, according to the petition, runs taxpayers around $2 million each year. It’s the approximate sum that the Marines spend on commercials during televised UFC fights and on other promotional materials (like this joint UFC-Marines website that offers instructional videos on how to “train like elite warriors”). Money aside, petitioners say they’re also concerned that the military’s affiliation with the UFC sends a disturbing message to soldiers and civilians alike.
UFC representatives tell a very different story, namely that after years of unsuccessful unionization attempts at Palace Station casinos, the Unite Here union has taken to harassing the company’s leadership. “What’s happening with the Marine Corps is another example of this harassment,” Lawrence Epstein, UFC’s executive vice-president and general counsel, tells me. “I could give you a long list of the dirty tricks these guys have played.”
Whether or not this is another union ploy to indict UFC leadership, it has attracted the attention — and support — of at least one military advocacy group. “Why the Marines would turn around and support a group that so openly disparages women and gay people is beyond me,” Lory Manning, executive director of the Women in the Military Project and herself a retired Navy Captain, tells me. “The UFC community is completely out of line with Marine Corps mandate.”
Manning and her cohort of veterans aren’t the first to criticize UFC culture. Earlier this year, for instance, the National Center for Domestic and Sexual violence assembled a lengthy list of instances where UFC fighters “[contributed] to a culture of violence against women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.”
Recently, a UFC fighter taunted his opponent by threatening to act like former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with 52 counts of molesting boys. UFC fighter Rashad Evans said, “Cause I’m gonna put those hands on you worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State.”
UFC representatives, however, say they don’t disagree with Manning’s worries. “We share her concerns. These athletes were wrong, they made mistakes and they’ve apologized,” Epstein says. “We do extensive training to make sure these athletes know what is and isn’t acceptable.”
Included in that training, Epstein says, are routine “fighter summits” that include talks from former professional athletes, sensitivity trainers and UFC president Dana White himself.
In addition to the petitions distributed last week, Manning’s organization recently sent a letter to General James Amos, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, asking him to re-evaluate the money being spent by the Marine Corps to support the UFC. Thus far, however, the Marines Corps haven’t made any concrete promises.
“We are monitoring the issue and continuously evaluate the effectiveness of our advertising and lead generation partnerships,” Maj. John Caldwell, a Marine Corps spokesperson, told Marine Corps Times. “If corrective action is not implemented, we reserve the option to respond accordingly.”
Ironically enough, the Marine Corps might see their sponsorship of the UFC nixed whether they agree with the petitioners or not. Congress is already considering an amendment to the 2013 Defense Appropriations Bill that would prohibit the Pentagon from using taxpayer funds “to sponsor professional or semi-professional motorsports, fishing, mixed martial arts, wrestling, or other sporting events.”
Update: Mere hours after this post was published, Congress in a vote of 216-202, rejected the bill to cut $72 million in military sporting sponsorships.
