The UFC's new uniform policy, which will require its fighters to wear approved Reebok-branded apparel, is set to launch in about two month's time, and there's at least one UFC fighter who is quite displeased.
That would be top-10 lightweight Myles "Fury" Jury. The Alliance MMA-trained fighter took to Twitter Friday night to trash the new uniform deal...literally! "Take advantage of people & no morals/values? YOU'RE TRASH," he said on Twitter, alongside a picture of three pairs of pristine Reebok sneakers jammed into a trash can.
Take advantage of people & no morals/values? YOU'RE TRASH. Much love to the genuine people out there like @DeeZeeMfg. pic.twitter.com/GCp3QoK3GV
— Myles Jury (@FuryJury) May 1, 2015
As if that move wasn't bold enough, Jury took it a step further, tagging his fellow Alliance training partners Phil Davis, Jeremy Stephens, Dominick Cruz and Alexander Gustafsson, as well as UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta. Jury would take a step back and admit to fans that he was actually planning to donate the shoes to people in need, but the proverbial shot has been fired.
While the Reebok deal is a major undertaking for the UFC in 2015, there have been rumbles that fighters have been paying a hefty price for it thus far due to the mass exodus of other apparel companies and sponsors from the sport.
UFC heavyweight and Fox Sports personality Brendan Schaub discussed on the The Fighter and the Kid podcast how, in spite of his steady rise on UFC cards, his main card bout with Travis Browne at UFC 181, one of the biggest UFC cards of 2014, was a financial dud for him. "It’s the lowest I've ever made on sponsorship money...Ever, ever in my 13-fight career," he said (h/t MMAFighting.com's Guilherme Cruz). "It’s crazy, right?" Former WEC champion and frequent UFC title contender Urijah Faber also voiced his concerns in an interview with ESPN.com.
Details of the Reebok deal came out in April with the Boston Herald reporting that the UFC would use a tenure-based tier system to determine how much fighters would receive from the deal. Jury, who has seven professional fights in the UFC (not counting his two bouts on The Ultimate Fighter season 15), would reportedly make between $8,000 and $10,000.
