"We didn't get what we were worth. No athlete gets what they are worth; they get what they negotiate. None of us ever got paid what we were worth, but people always paid because they wanted to see us fight. But back in the day, none of us got what we deserved," stated former UFC title challenger Frank Trigg, who took a look back on his UFC and MMA career. Check out what else he had to say!
FRANK TRIGG:
As far as the class action lawsuit that current and ex-fighters have going against the UFC, they definitely have a leg to stand on because we were definitely treated unfairly. We didn't get what we were worth. No athlete gets what they are worth; they get what they negotiate. None of us ever got paid what we were worth, but people always paid because they wanted to see us fight. But back in the day, none of us got what we deserved...ever! And now, with the anti-trust and everything else going on, yeah, the fighters got a leg to stand on, but the problem is, the fans are fans of the fighters that are in the sport here now. They have come on board in the last 5 to 8 years. In our sport, everything happens immediately; from fight announcements to breaking news, it gets out everywhere immediately. And now, you got guys like John Morgan and myself giving you a play by play from our phones. So in a sport where things happen instantaneously, I think this is going to take a long time, and yeah, they have a leg to stand on, but honestly, how much money are we talking?
I think the older guys who got into this thing early got screwed for two reasons. We had managers and attorneys that didn't know what was going on and of course because the UFC had all of the power. Fighters before, I mean, they were only doing 3 shows a year, and now they are doing damn near 4 shows a month. Back then, they didn't have that many cards. You weren't making that much money and that's just the way it was. The promotion wanted to have as little going out as they could and as much coming in as they could. They didn't have to reinvest in us because they created their own little world.
When it is all said and done, the only thing that I am bitter about is that I don't have a full-time job working for a promotion as their full-time commentator. And of course it's me and my ego, but it just makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't you have Frank Trigg as part of your broadcast team for the UFC? Bellator, why don't they have Frank Trigg as part of their broadcast team? It doesn't make sense that these companies don't hire me to do in-the-ring interviews, fighter interviews, or behind the scenes. I just don't understand it and that's the only thing I'm really bitter about from the whole MMA game. And now, guys are better taken care of. They have health care and they are getting smarter about retirement. And the only other thing I'm actually bitter about is I have nothing to show from being a fighter. I never did make enough money to buy a house, never did make enough money to buy a car, and barely making enough to put enough food on the table when I was married with my wife and kids. It's just so frustrating to me to see how much money became available after I hit my prime. When my prime was over, the money started coming; I just couldn't catch up. I could have made money if I would have beat Koscheck, but I was a little older and just couldn't do it. So now that there was money, I just didn't have the skill level to do it anymore. That's the only thing I'm bitter about. If I could look at a house and say, "Yeah, it's paid off and the UFC bought it for me," that was pretty much all I wanted was to have my pay high enough where I could say the UFC bought me that house or competing in the UFC bought me this house, and it never happened. It never worked out for me.
The one thing that's always confused me was having non-fighters talk about fighting. Why bring guys in that have never competed and not give that job to someone who has actually competed and benefitted the company? And I get Rogan because he's been around from the very beginning. He was the first real superstar to love this sport and get behind this thing and to get behind a mic. I wanna say since UFC 3, but I could be incorrect on that. But he's been around for a very long time. Him and Goldie have been working together and that's the team that everybody strives to be; pretty much in any sport in the world, they strive to be as in tune as Goldberg and Rogan. They just know how to talk; they know what each other are doing and going to say. They are just two professionals and amazingly good dudes and just great guys. Am I a different style of commentary as Joe Rogan? Yeah, I am because I do things differently because of the way I was brought up in the game on FOX and in Pride. It was just how I was taught. They helped me with my speech impediment. I don't mumble so much. You go back and look at some of my old work with Pride, I was a mumbler. I really had a hard time and I didn't understand. I had to have Jerry Millen and Mauro Ranalli really sit down with me and say, "Look, you gotta change your style up." I learned the hard way and worked my way into it. I have a different style than Joe, but the only thing I have over Joe, and the reason I say Joe and not Anik, Goldberg, or the rest of the guys is because Rogan is the top of our food chain. He is at the top of our sport. Even Bellator, Jimmy Williams and those guys do an amazing job and they are really, really good and I enjoy listening to Jimmy when he's talking about fights, but I mention Joe so much because he is at the top of the food chain. He is where everybody wants to be in the game of commentary. He has that kind of power where people hang on to his every word. Joe changed the name of things because that was the name he gave it when he was broadcasting. He changed the name of a particular move and now people know it as the rubber guard. They know that from Joe because that's what Eddie Bravo taught him. It became famous from Joe and now it's known as rubber guard instead of high guard. That's how good and powerful he is. I want to be Joe Rogan where I have steady jobs coming in for MMA. I would love to be like Joe Rogan. That's the guy we all wanna be. When I grow up in the commentating world, I wanna be like Joe Rogan!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]