If MMA fighters want to break out of the grip of the controlling organizations - the only chance they have is to break away and promote themselves. They are facing an uphill battle at this point as the UFC brand name has become synonymous with MMA in many parts of the world. However - all it takes is the right two high profile MMA figthers to break away and build a stellar PPV around their fight and they could start the ball rolling for fighters to start controlling their own destiny. Boxing went through these same issues over the years with the boxers receiving little of their pay and the promoters running away with the rest. It took proactive fighters that demanded more pay such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Leonard to break down the barriers and help fighters receive larger paydays. In the recent years, boxing has seen the rise of Golden Boy promotions which purports to have fighters as the controlling promoters - spearheaded by Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins. It took those two legendary fighters coming together to allow them to break away from the grip of boxing promoters. Now, Golden Boy is considered the biggest promoter in boxing. If this was 2006 - a Couture vs Fedor fight would have done just that - which is why the UFC never let Couture get away from them. Now it will take someone else and I'm not sure who those fighters are. Perhaps a Lesnar/Fedor fight could be the one to capture the public's imagination - but Lesnar doesn't seem to be having problems with the UFC at the moment and doesn't look to be leaving them any time soon. MMA fighters need to take note from their fellow fighting sport's history and someone needs to take a chance on breaking the organizations' grip on their paycheck or else they will just have to keep fighting for what they can get.
