American Top Team boss claims no concerns with videogame exclusivity
The MMA world was taken aback with Wednesday's news of the UFC's release of top-ranked welterweight Jon Fitch -- and severed ties with the famed American Kickboxing Academy -- prompted by contractual disagreements regarding the rights to use fighters' likenesses in an upcoming UFC videogame.
Additional comments by UFC President Dana White from USA Today suggested other camps were also presenting difficulties that he deemed unacceptable.
Although rumored to be one such camp, American Top Team President Dan Lambert today told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) that ATT is just fine with the UFC's new requests for videogame exclusivity.
"All of our guys signed off on [on the exclusive videogame-rights agreement]," Lambert said. "I don't really think they were giving that much up, anyways. I didn't really see much of a demand for a videogame deal outside of the UFC. So I didn't think I was doing a disservice to my guys in recommending that they sign the deal. [The UFC] takes care of our guys in more ways than one. So, no problems on our end."
ATT houses several of the UFC's elite-level fighters, including Thiago Alves, Thiago Silva, Wilson Gouveia and Roan Carneiro, among others. Lambert said he recommended his fighters sign the agreement several weeks ago without concern that the deal would prove a negative for his camp.
"I didn't think it was an unreasonable request for them, and we signed off on it," Lambert said. "Other times you have to pick the battle. If you're in for a new contract and you've got to fight for your guy to get the best deal, you've got fight for the best deal possible. But they understand that. [The UFC] has always been reasonable with us, and they asked for a favor on that one. Again, we have no issues on it."
Initial reports from Fitch and AKA officials indicated a heavy-handed approach from White in attempting to get full compliance from the UFC roster in a deal that would leave fighters unable to lend their likenesses to any other videogames, including a potential project from THQ rival developer EA Sports. Lambert said White's pitch to him was far less aggressive.
"I actually got a call from Dana a couple weeks ago that basically explained the nature of [the UFC's] deal with THQ," Lambert said. "He basically said he was asking a personal favor of all the guys to step up and sign off on the videogame side of it, which was basically already in their standard agreements. It was just a non-exclusive. But he said he was asking a personal favor to change it all to an exclusive basis."
Lambert said he wasted little time in agreeing to the change.
"Dana's ... done a lot for this sport," Lambert said. "They've always treated us right. He asks a favor, (and) you've got to pick your battles. That wasn't a battle we chose to fight. All of our guys agreed."
The reason Lambert declined to protest White's request was the minor market and profitability for his fighters that the videogame market represents. The ATT executive believes there has been much confusion in the public eye -- and even the industry itself -- as to what White and the UFC were actually seeking.
"There was a merchandise deal that got a little bit of press a while back," Lambert said. "And basically when I read the merchandising agreement that they had asked guys to sign in the past, it was a non-exclusive merchandise deal whereby [UFC officials] were going to use their contacts and get merchandising deals for guys. And they were going to give a pretty generous percentage to the fighter on a non-exclusive basis.
"So if [the UFC] had a deal with XYZ distributor where they were going to sell a Thiago Alves shirt, they were going to pay Thiago a percentage of it. But if Thiago got his own deal with somebody else for a shirt deal, it didn't exclude him from doing so. I thought that was a good deal for the fighters as well."
(Many fighters and managers, though, decried the agreement and said it paid the UFC a disproportiante amount of revenues. Many still haven't signed the deal.)
Lambert said that while this new videogame agreement differed in that it was an exclusive deal, the limits only applied to the videogame market -- a market that the UFC already reserved fighter-likeness rights for anyway.
"This deal was different," Lambert said. "It was the videogame, and it was exclusive. It's going to forbid you from doing any other type of [videogame] deals without the UFC saying, 'It's OK.' But it's not like those deals are really out there to be had anyway right now. The UFC had in their standard agreement whereby they had the right to put you in a videogame without any compensation due to you anyway. They were just simply saying we need it to be exclusive.
"I didn't think it was really giving up that much for the fighter given the other opportunities they get and the promotion that it would be for you to be on the game. I think it's going to help you anyway. So I think there may be some confusion out there if guys think the UFC was asking them to sign away their lives with respect to all merchandising. That's just a mistake. That's not what it said."
Lambert said White never made any suggestions that ATT fighters' futures would be in jeopardy should they refuse to sign the new agreement. But then again, the negotiations never escalated to hardball tactics by either party.
"Possibly it would have gotten to that point if we had refused, but Dana basically gave me a call and explained what he was asking us and why he was asking us to do it," Lambert said. "It seemed reasonable, and my guys agreed to do it. I didn't think [White] was asking anything unreasonable.
"The guy that's done this much to get the sport where it is asks for a favor, and actually presents it in that manner, if you want to turn him down you better be prepared for the consequences. But he didn't word it like that in any way shape or form. He said, 'I'm asking for a favor not to go out and do a competitive videogame deal that's going to hurt the UFC's current deal with THQ.'"
Lambert insisted that if the UFC had presented an agreement that would have negatively impacted his fighters, he never would have encouraged those affected to sign the deal.
"If [White] was asking me to do something that would hurt my guys and maybe taken some serious money out of somebody's pocket, I probably would have had to fight him on it," Lambert said. "But that's not really the situation that's out there, and I don't see it coming out there any time soon. If he had asked us to sign this deal that any merchandising is exclusive to the UFC -- and you don't get anything for it -- I probably would have said, 'No. It's not reasonable.' But I didn't think this was anything along those lines. He just asked us to do it, and we said, 'Yes.' No threats, no consequences. He asked a favor and we said, 'OK.'"
While the dynamics of the current situation surrounding the UFC's relationship with Fitch and AKA has been hotly debated since the story's initial reports, Lambert believes opinions are being formed far too quickly.
"I don't want to sound like a company shill, and I don't think I am," Lambert said. "I think I've always done right by our guys and they've always done right by us. But I think every time I read something, it always makes the UFC out and Dana out to be the evil empire. They think that they don't take care of the fighters and they don't look out for the fighters' best interests -- that they're only looking out for the company. I think that couldn't be any farther from the truth.
"I think they've always taken care of the guys, at least my guys. In my experience with them, I think they're looking out for the betterment of the sport. I think they've done a tremendous amount for the sport. And to allow the fighters and the managers and the trainers and the agents and even your local John's Karate Academy to do so much more in this sport and with their lives and their moneymaking ability than many people ever thought possible. I think before people just cast judgment and say that they're the bad guys, they ought to check out all the facts. In this case I didn't feel like they were asking anything unreasonable whatsoever."
