Lucas Middlebrook, Leslie Smith cut ties to Professional Fighters Association

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Wild

Zi Nazi
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Dec 31, 2014
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Two of the biggest public names linked to the Professional Fighters Association (PFA) have cut ties with the organization.

Lucas Middlebrook, the PFA's labor lawyer known by many in MMA circles as Nick Diaz'sattorney, and UFC fighter Leslie Smith will no longer be involved with the PFA after information of a possible board of fighters was recently leaked to the media, they told MMA Fighting.

Baseball superagent Jeff Borris and Middlebrook announced the formation of the PFA at a press conference in August. The group has set out to unionize UFC fighters in an effort to balance the pendulum between promotion executives and the talent. The UFC was sold to talent agency powerhouse WME-IMG for more than $4 billion in July.

Smith, who was one of the few UFC fighters public in her support of the PFA, told MMA Fighting that she helped compile a list of potential fighters to target for a spot on a "fighter board." Those fighters, Smith said, told her they might be interested, but had not committed to anything.

Smith said all talks with those fighters were meant to be confidential and she was shocked when their names — and other pertinent info about the PFA — ended up in an article onMMAjunkie.com earlier this month.

"I promised confidentiality to everyone I talked to," Smith said. "And Jeff promised me confidentiality and Lucas promised me confidentiality, too."

After the leak, Smith said she asked Borris about the situation. In the process of doing so, Smith said Borris told her that he had put together an advisory board of MMA agents. That news further upset Smith, because she hadn't intended for agents to be part of the unionization process.

After a few weeks of thinking it over, Smith said she told Borris that she would not be part of the PFA anymore last week because of the breach of trust.

Middlebrook, Smith cut ties to PFA after info leak
 

Howard Moon

Posting Machine
Sep 6, 2015
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Good for Smith and Middlebrook. You only get one chance to start this thing properly, and if there are already serious issues it's best to blow it up now and start from scratch.
 

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
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Any follow up stories on this? Didn't like the smell of agents being an "advisory board."
 

SuperPig

Enjoy yourselves
Aug 7, 2015
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Any follow up stories on this? Didn't like the smell of agents being an "advisory board."
No. Unless he's still working for a payday quietly, it seems like Borris is moving on to greener pastures.

It's sad that the only stable group working for an association or union is the first group that's led by a dickhead politician. It's also the one that wants an independent 3rd party for rankings and mandatory fights along with the Ali Act that while helping some could also lead to MMA being a shit show like boxing is where fighters would rather give up their belts than have to face someone.
 

Hwoarang

TMMAC Addict
Oct 22, 2015
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could also lead to MMA being a shit show like boxing is where fighters would rather give up their belts than have to face someone.
And you prefer that as oppose to the champs now that get to keep their belt and don't have to face anyone?


 

SuperPig

Enjoy yourselves
Aug 7, 2015
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And you prefer that as oppose to the champs now that get to keep their belt and don't have to face anyone?

I get your point but anyone that has watched boxing in the last 30 years is tired of the politics in boxing where you can't even get the champions in the same divisions to fight sometimes because they have bullshit mandatory fights against guys that no one has heard of.

The Ali Act in it's current form would cause more harm than good for the sport of MMA. I do think fighters need protections and bargaining power but they also need to be smarter in general and fight out contracts and test the open market. That's something that until the last few months you never really saw even though it's something that is the easiest thing for a fighter to control in regards to potentially making more money.