Rampage asked to be released, UFC told him to fight out the remainder of his contract and then he left. He did lose three in a row, but if they wanted to be real scumbags wouldn't they just keep him under contract, knowing that he was just going to go to Bellator and do good business for them?
A lot of this stuff is news to me. Is there a guy who wanted out of the UFC, fought out his contract and the UFC wouldn't let him go? Is there an instance like that on record?
They let Rampage go because his market value was low after losing multiple times. If he beat Jones he would not have been allowed to leave. If he won 2 fights after Jones, they would still re-sign him. But the fact of the matter is that THEY decide who leaves, not the fighters.
BJ Penn left with the WW belt after beating Matt Hughes and then went to K-1 to fight. Dana was super angry, yelled at BJ and then the UFC created the champions clause so this never happens again.
Randy Couture wanted to fight Fedor Emalienenko but the UFC would not let him leave the UFC to fight him. He tried to sue and everything they would not let him go.
I do agree with the Champions clause though. I think its a wise move on a company's part. If champions left it would devalue the belt but that's a different debate hehe.
And like you say they are doing that with Wanderlei Silva. They won't let him go. Hes not allowed to fight for the UFC and they wont let him fight in Japan either. They are freezing his contract. He can't do anything about it.
so don't you think an association would be good here so fighters can get some benefits? So they can have some leverage in contract talks instead of it being so one sided?