Dana White: Myles Jury can’t trash Reebok, but we’ll fix situation

Myles Jury

This past week, UFC President Dana White probably wasn’t too happy at what he saw on the Twitter feed of Myles Jury.

The UFC lightweight posted a picture with a trashcan full of Reebok sneakers with a pointed message: “Take advantage of people & no morals/values? YOU’RE TRASH.”

Reebok, of course, is one of the UFC’s flagship sponsors. This past December, the two companies struck a five-and-a-half year deal reportedly worth $70 million dollars that, starting at UFC 189 on July 11, will pay fighters per fight based on their experience in the promotion’s octagon.

Today, the UFC announced the financial particulars of a tiered payout system, which starts at $2,500 for fighters with 1-5 bouts and tops off at $40,000 for champions.

The way it looked, Jury (15-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) was planning on opting out of his tier, which would pay him $5,000 per fight from the Reebok deal. Such an action would be a violation of the UFC’s code of conduct, UFC COO Lawrence Epstein said today on a conference call detailing the payout tiers for Reebok.

White, though, said it hasn’t come to that point.

“What happened with Myles Jury, it happened,” he said today on the call. “We’re going to fix it.”

What exactly does that mean? According to White, the promotion will attempt to mediate between the two sides.

UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, who also spoke on the call, said he knew not everyone would be happy with the UFC-Reebok deal. But as it turns out, some were unhappy even before the numbers were made public.

“Before we did the deal with Reebok, he was talking to Reebok,” White said. “This happens, and we’re going to make it right.”

Presumably, that means easing Jury’s concerns to the point where he’s no longer interested in taking public shots at a company with whom the UFC has aligned itself over the next half-decade.

In his most recent UFC bout, Jury’s undefeated record was broken by UFC contender Donald Cerrone. He may not yet be a champion, but still, messages like his make an impact when they’re widely distributed around the Internet.

Now, it’s up to White to smooth things over.

“Yeah, he can’t go out trashing Reebok, but he did have a personal falling out with them,” White said. “It did happen, and I’m going to have to manage it and fix it.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.