With a number of big-name UFC fighters currently seeking their value on the open market – all of them represented by the Florida-based firm First Round Management – the firm’s CEO, Malki Kawa, admits he’s not sure if we’re seeing a new era in contract negotiations or simply an interesting anomaly.
“I don’t know if this is necessarily going to be a wave of the future,” Kawa told MMAjunkie. “I can tell you I’ve been doing this in the UFC for about seven years, eight years now, and this is the first time I’ve been in a position where I’ve had four clients all in the same month just become free agents. If I told you that I planned this out, I’d be lying to you because that’s not what happened.”
Nevertheless, Kawa and his firm are currently working with Benson Henderson, Aljamain Sterling,Alistair Overeem and Sarah Kaufman, all of whom fought out their UFC contracts within the past month.
The first high-profile athlete to complete his deal was Henderson (23-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC).
“My partner Wayne actually is meeting with the UFC this week to start negotiating his deal,” Kawa said. “They’ll make an offer, they’ll hear Ben out, and we’ll go from there. If Ben wants to shop around and see what it is, they’ll probably let him do it. Then he’ll go get an offer and bring it back to them, and they’ll have an option to match it or let him go.
“I think they’re going to do that rather fast as opposed to slow. I think that from a matchmaking standpoint, they have to get their plans together for 2016.”
While the UFC typically retains exclusive negotiating rights for fighters for the first 90 days after their contract expires, Kawa said the UFC was happy to waive that period for Sterling when the two sides didn’t agree on a new deal. The UFC still maintains matching rights, meaning they can decide whether or not to match any formal offer made by a competing promotion.
“Aljamain’s case it was, ‘Here you go. If you think guys can get a better deal than what we’re offering, then go ahead and go look around and bring it back,’ and that’s where we are with Aljamain,” Kawa said. “I didn’t have to wait 90 days. I think the UFC, with having so many shows and having so much stuff going on, them holding a guy doesn’t make any sense for them either. Let’s move forward. Are we making this happen or not?
“‘Why don’t you go see what he’s worth, and come back and let’s talk when you have some solid numbers. Let’s not pull numbers out of the air.’ And I appreciated that. That’s something that worked out for Aljamain.”
LINK: Free agent update: Henderson to meet with UFC this week, Sterling clear to seek offers
