One of the hottest topics in mixed martial arts today is fighter sponsorship. Several fighters have made public comments about the new policy in the UFC including Brendan Schaub and Tim Kennedy.
The one side of this story that hasn’t really been told is what do the actual fighter sponsors think of the new rules in the UFC?
To get the answer to this question, I turned to attorney Trent Cotney. He has a law firm based in Tampa, Florida and has sponsored multiple UFC fighters in the past.
So how does an attorney based in Tampa end up deciding he wants to sponsor fighters?
“I have always been involved in martial arts and sort of mixed martial arts in the periphery, I took taekwondo and Wado karate through college and law school,” Cotney told The MMA Report. “When I got out of law school and came to Tampa 16-17 years ago, I stayed involved and wrote for several websites. Fightline, Fight Ticker, and several other websites. Interviewed various fighters and was always interested in the sport. Appreciated martial arts and I wanted to continue to stay involved. I saw the UFC was coming to Orlando and I reached out to various managers.”
“Actually, I had a conversation with Dynamic Fastener because I am heavily involved in the roofing industry nationwide and they sell fasteners and other materials for roofers,” Cotney continued. “I had run into them at various association events and I contacted Kevin Perz, the president. I just asked him, ‘what is going on here? Why are you doing this?’ He basically explained that it was a hobby and he enjoyed doing it. He sort of gave me the ends and out of it. That is how I got my feet into it. I sponsored Seth Baczynski at the Orlando event and from there on, I started adding one after another. Seemed like each month I was doing it, the total month I spent was going up $1,000-$2,000 every month until the end there.”
One of the terms you may have heard about sponsorship is return on investment (ROI). Throughout my years covering this sport, I have heard many people in the industry wonder about this when it comes to fighter sponors. Cotney admitted that he has not made any money on fighter sponsorship and he does it to support the athletes.
“For me, I have not gotten one piece of business off of sponsoring,” he explained. “It’s not like contractors are calling me and saying they say me and want to hire me because you sponsored a fighter. For me, it’s more about supporting the fighters. I know how hard it’s for the guys on the prelim card and Fight Pass to get by. They are not concerned about buying their next Bentley. They are concerned about feeding their family and kids. So for me, it’s about that and because I enjoy the sport. I enjoy allowing everyone that works for me to be able to participate in a positive way. It’s fun and exciting to be part of the event. Clearly, I am incapable of fighting myself, but I enjoy being part of the sport.”
Just like Dynamic Fastener, Cotney did not have to pay a sponsor tax to the UFC. If the UFC asked for him to pay a sponsor tax, it would have changed his outlook on sponsoring fighters in the UFC. With no sponsor tax for Cotney, he was able to sponsor mutiple fighters and ended up working with Elite Management Group’s Jason Karpel to sponsor as many fighter as he could before the UFC/Reebok apparel deal went into effect.
“I work a lot with Elite Management Group and Jason Karpel, who is another lawyer out of Arizona. He manages a lot of different fighters and we speak the same language, which is very important to me. I like things to be in writing and I like things done a certain way. I hit him up and said ‘look, get as many fighters as you can before the cutoff.’ We tried like crazy to get everyone on. Danny Martinez, we got him on the last fight in Fort Lauderdale, which I was real happy because he is a great kid. He did that and afterwards, we brainstormed and tried to figure out what we can do to support these guys.”
“One of the ideas that we came up with was — I sponsored Tim Means for four fights. We thought originally that he was going to be on the main card and then he was going to do a Countdown show. If you read the Reebok clause, there is nothing that says you can not have a t-shirt on during the Countdown show. We were going to try that and then it obviously got moved to the main event of the prelim card. What we have done is shout out and social media type sponsorships around the fight. But it’s a fraction of what it would be if I could get any cage time.”
Being a fighter sponsor for Cotney is about supporting the fighter directly. He continues to sponsor fighters and most recently sponsored Roman Salazar, Ray Borg, and Frankie Saenz at UFC Fight Night 73 earlier this month. He plans to continue to sponsor fighters in the future, including fighters on upcoming Invicta FC cards.