Zuffa steps up for the fighters!

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AgPtjOMYKJjoZT0rJwN64Z09Eo14?slug=ki-iole_ufc_offers_fighters_accident_insurance050811

by Kevin Iole, Yahoo.com

The Ultimate Fighting Championship provides a $100,000 insurance policy on each fighter during one of its cards to cover any injuries the athlete sustains in a match. Most state athletic commissions require $50,000 worth of coverage and some require as low as $25,000 per athlete.

But the worst-case scenario for a mixed martial arts fighter is to suffer an injury days before a fight that requires him or her to pull out of a scheduled bout. That means no paycheck, as well as a stack of medical bills, because the event insurance only covered injuries suffered during a match. As independent contractors, the fighters are only paid if they compete and, until now, the UFC has not been responsible for paying for out-of-competition injuries.

Zuffa LLC, the company that owns both UFC and Strikeforce, is taking steps to erase that problem. Lorenzo Fertitta, the UFC’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the company plans to offer accident insurance that will cover approximately 350 athletes in the event of out-of-competition injury, effective June 1.

MMA fighters and boxers are not employees. They are independent contractors and thus aren’t eligible for things like health-care coverage.

But injuries to fighters, either in the cage or during training, can be disastrous. That’s why Fertitta said he and UFC president Dana White began looking into the potential of offering the fighters accident insurance nearly three years ago.

Zuffa will pay 100 percent of the premiums, Fertitta said, and will have a full-time employee who will coordinate the claims process.

“We looked at this as a necessity for the sport and something that needed to happen,” Fertitta said. “We have talked about this for a long time and we have always had the same position when asked how fighters could have insurance outside of the fights. Like we said, it’s tough enough to get insurance just as a business, in and of itself, with how expensive it is.

“When you go to an underwriter and say, ‘Hey, we potentially want to insure 400 ultimate fighters,’ they pretty much close the door on you pretty quickly. We didn’t just give up, given the responses we were getting and the answers we were getting from a lot of these carriers. We continued on and it has been a 24-to-36-month process we have been going through to do it. We were adamant we were going to find a way to put this together.”

Fertitta said Zuffa has paid expenses for fighters who suffered training injuries previously, but noted that by getting a carrier – Houston Casualty Insurance Company, an A+ rated carrier by A.M. Best – the new plan will guarantee that all are covered.

The insurance the fighters are being provided is separate and distinct from health care insurance many workers get through their employers, which pays for things like doctor’s visits, hospitalization and prescription drugs. Zuffa is not offering the fighters that type of coverage.

But the accident coverage would have been helpful to former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz several years ago. He injured his back in a fight and filed a claim under the UFC’s plan. But because Ortiz had done an interview in which he said the injury occurred in training, the insurance carrier denied the claim.

With the policy Zuffa is providing its fighters as of June 1, the injury Ortiz suffered would have been covered. And because it is accident insurance, the plan will cover a fighter if, for example, he slips while walking on ice and sprains an ankle.

“This will cover accidents that occur while a fighter is under contract with us,” Zuffa general counsel Lawrence Epstein said. “Those accidents could occur in training or it could also be something like an automobile accident. A fighter could be driving to the grocery store and gets involved in an automobile accident and has an injury. This policy would cover him.

“It’s not a policy you would typically see in an employer-employee relationship. It’s more akin to an auto insurance scenario, where any acute injury is going to be covered. Training injuries, a guy falls down the stairs, an automobile accident, those would be covered, but it wouldn’t be something like the flu or some disease or illness. It would only cover accident-related injuries.”

Excellent, and well overdue.

About time.

freakzilla wrote:

About time.

this

Horrible news. Sad day for MMA.

LMAO! You are full of it OU. What would bother me is if when they cancelled due to injury, that he UFC got some sort of payback. Because at this point, they are making money hand over fist.

I'm glad you are finally backing up the fighters Drew they deserve it. I'm glad you work for Zuffa.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

LMAO! You are full of it OU. What would bother me is if when they cancelled due to injury, that he UFC got some sort of payback. Because at this point, they are making money hand over fist.

You can't see how this is killing MMA? This is the move that will put the UFC under. I give it 2 years before Zuffa is forced to sell.

OU wrote:

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

LMAO! You are full of it OU. What would bother me is if when they cancelled due to injury, that he UFC got some sort of payback. Because at this point, they are making money hand over fist.

You can't see how this is killing MMA? This is the move that will put the UFC under. I give it 2 years before Zuffa is forced to sell.

R U joking?

This announcement was made this morning. 5 min later Frankie Edgar is calling up Dana, someone is beeping in, it's Gray Maynard.

If that starts happening, they they will kill the insurance, it will be that simple. I have never not backed the fighters, but I tend to lean towards the side of management in most cases, because their view of business is less myopic than an inividuals. Besides, seeing what boxers get paid (the undercards, not the main event guys) vs. MMA Fighters, it is easy to see that the Zuffa's of the world are much more fair. Some of those boxers were getting paid $50 a round vs. a guy getting $3,000 to not be seen on TV? Shit, give me the MMA.

I was obviously joking, with pretty much every post in this thread lol

How could anyone trust Zuffa to know what to do post buyout? I mean Zuffa? what do they know?

LA wrote:

How could anyone trust Zuffa to know what to do post buyout? I mean Zuffa? what do they know?

LOL, yes this proves Zuffa could do no wrong. How could I be silly. All you fighters out there(even the women) can rest easy. Zuffa will clearly make all the right moves for you.

OU wrote:

LA wrote:

How could anyone trust Zuffa to know what to do post buyout? I mean Zuffa? what do they know?

LOL, yes this proves Zuffa could do no wrong. How could I be silly. All you fighters out there(even the women) can rest easy. Zuffa will clearly make all the right moves for you.

Looks like they are LOL

LA wrote:

OU wrote:

LA wrote:

How could anyone trust Zuffa to know what to do post buyout? I mean Zuffa? what do they know?

LOL, yes this proves Zuffa could do no wrong. How could I be silly. All you fighters out there(even the women) can rest easy. Zuffa will clearly make all the right moves for you.

Looks like they are LOL

There is still a long, long time before we see how everything plays out. But you remain extremely optimistic.

As I should

This was something that should of been done. They are doing what they should of before being forced to by a collective of athletes.

No fighters were saying do this or were out, Zuffa just did it out of nowhere, probably were planning it for a while before hand.

You imply fighters wouldn't or shouldn't?

They would of eventually.

This doesn't just come out of nowhere, it's preemptive in nature to address real issues fighters at all levels experience as it relates to being able to be contracted for use by zuffa, it is a cover on both ends, hence, it is something that should be done. This is smart for zuffa because it is the easy way now and a early strike against athlete consolidation.

I'm saying out of nowhere like we got no indications it was to happen, I followed with them probably having been planning this for a while. And I never implied anything, simply responded to your post implying the fighters forced their hand, instead of giving credit to Zuffa.

All indications with zuffas growth have pointed to some form of zuffa safeguarding their products. This is decided solely on their terms. I never made a post implying fighters forced this, I said they would eventually, and they would, fighters are more improtant than the UFC. And my first post here is a positive reaction on this decision for the impact it can potentially have for the majority of athletes contracted by zuffa.

There was no indication that this was coming at this time, eventually sure, anyone could come to that conclusion, but today, no. The fighters part was a bit of a misread but how I was responding at the time of that post to other posts and past lack of confidence in Zuffa, you can see how I'd confuse that.

Thats why it's preemptive. Before fighters start getting irate and talking about forming a coalition for MMA fighters rights which causes a complete clusterfuck for a promoter(look at the NFL right now) they offer this small token(in the grand scheme of it all) to keep fighters isolated to the camp level for now. They call it divide and conquer in other circles. I do agree this is a great thing to do but lets not lose sight of who's best interest is really at heart here.