UFC bantamweight title contender Sara McMann has blasted the UFC's upcoming uniform deal with Reebok.
Apparently, not many fighters are fans of the UFC's new uniform deal with Reebok. Speaking with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Sara McMann, a former Olympic wrestling silver medalist, said the deal was unfair to the women competing in the organization.
Many fighters have come out publicly against the UFC's new deal, too. UFC fighters will get money from Reebok depending on the amount of fights they have under the Zuffa banner, according to records on MMA Fighting.
"[Men] are getting the majority of that chunk and we're being left high in dry because we were just recently added," McMann said. "That doesn't mean we haven't had full careers and these women don't deserve it. We're not the same as just a younger guy who just made it to the UFC. We shouldn't be treated that way."
According to the UFC women's bantamweight star, the pay structure to female fighters competing in the organization is unjustifiable.
Women were added to the UFC in Feb. 2013 and the promotion's first fight involving women came when Ronda Rousey fought Liz Carmouche at UFC 157.
As UFC's upcoming sponsorship program is widely based on tenure, with fighters generally receiving between $2,500 and $20,000 per fight with respect to how many fights they have under the UFC's promotional umbrella, it's out of question for women to have reached the upper tiers of the deal's pay structure, and this has led to McMann speaking to a lawyer, Bleacher Report noted.
"The women are just recently added," McMann noted. "But that doesn't mean that these girls haven't been fighting for years or been in other sports for years and they don't deserve to be compensated for that."
Sara McMann stated that 86% of women in the UFC will be placed into the bottom tier of the upcoming Reebok deal, thus merely making $2,500 per fight. The remaining 14 percent are holdovers from Strikeforce, the organization that popularized women's MMA to the American mainstream, including Miesha Tate, Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman.
Miesha Tate recently stated that she stands to "[lose] probably 90 percent or like 80% of what I make in sponsorships" as a result of the Reebok deal. Tate echoed that the deal is unfair to women.
Sara McMann is all set to speak to a lawyer, one who is experienced in Title IX cases, about the situation and then take her grievance to the UFC. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education, generally college athletics.
Citing the tenure-based system, Carla Esparza, who became the UFC's inaugural women's strawweight champion after winning three fight in The Ultimate Fighter season 20 and has also competed in Bellator and Invicta FC, may be set to receive just $2,500 in sponsorship money, the same as a UFC newcomer.
