Former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson has seen a lot of crazy things during his decade-plus career as a professional MMA fighter.
The big show vet has heard about the work being done by groups such as Project Spearhead to unionize fighters, but he doesn’t think their will ever be a fighters union in the UFC.
“I don’t see any way that there’s gonna ever be a fighter’s union, because that fighter now that (White) is talking about, he’s on Cloud 9,” Thomson explained on Sammy & The Punk. “He’s the one that is like ‘OK, now I’m in the good graces of Dana White, and I’ma do whatever it is to support this company.’ Whereas the younger guy, whoever he was hyping before is now no longer hyped, that person’s like ‘Man, how do I get back in the good graces?’ That’s all he’s thinking.”
Project Spearhead arguably has the best shot of getting the fighters unionized, but even their legal advisor has said that union card signings have dropped after interim president Leslie Smith was ousted from the UFC.
Thomson also believes that Dana White has too much power over a fighters career simply with the words that come out of the UFC President’s mouth.
“Here’s the thing, is he can hype you up in one moment for whatever fight it is you’re having, then if you have a bad performance, he can talk you down,” Thomson said. “He could just destroy you and say all this sh-t about you. Because it doesn’t really make a difference because then, the next guy who fights could end up winning. He could build that guy up to be a star, and then that person will like him. Not only are you crushing him when he’s down, if he loses one or two more, you guys cut him and he’s gone and we never hear from him again. And then when you leave, you’re just a bitter old fighter, or you’re just a bitter fighter that is upset that you lost and you got cut. When in reality, it could’ve been something that Dana could have probably propped him up and said ‘Look, good fight, tough fight, I’m sure he’s a tough guy, he’ll be back.’ But we’ve never heard things like that come out of his mouth, and that could change a young athlete’s career.”
Kajan Johnson, who serves as interim vice president of Project Spearhead, recently stated in an interview with James Lynch of Fightful that the group will continue pushing forward and that big things were coming in the near future.
