Five lessons Roger Huerta can learn from Tito Ortiz
Published by on August 24th, 2008 in Current Events

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By Zach Arnold

It was three months ago that Tito Ortiz had his last fight in UFC. Ortiz, who lost to Lyoto Machida in an ugly fight, thought that he would soon land a big payday in another MMA promotion. After all, he was supposed to be MMA’s ‘hottest free agent’ due to his loose ties with Donald Trump through The Apprentice TV show.

Three months later, Tito Ortiz is still unemployed. Let this be a lesson to anyone and everyone in the MMA business that you, too, can join the ranks of the unemployed as fast as any average American working in the fast food industry.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Promoters like Affliction and Elite XC were supposed to throw millions of dollars at the feet of Tito Ortiz because of his celebrity and the fact that his woman is Jenna Jameson. Ortiz was supposed to end up as the ‘ace’ for one of UFC’s rivals. Instead, promoters are refusing to buy into his demands. Is Tito Ortiz officially done as a major player in the MMA business? There was a rumor that Tito Ortiz was going to sign the largest MMA fight contract in the history of the business with Affliction. Affliction quickly denied those rumors and Ortiz has yet to be hired by the organization. It just goes to show you that even the best self-promoters in MMA can sometimes get burned in a big way.

Roger Huerta is another fighter who is learning this lesson the hard way.

It’s hard to imagine the precipitous drop in Huerta’s stock, but it’s happening right now and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of stop-gap solution for it. Since Huerta was featured in Sports Illustrated magazine a little over a year ago, the man who many people thought would bring a large Latin audience to UFC has not panned out as expected. UFC matchmaker Joe Silva booked Huerta against some very tough competition and did not give him any pattycakes to fight. As a result of this style of matchmaking, Huerta found himself in fights against the likes of Kenny Florian. The fight against Florian in Minneapolis a few weeks ago was exactly what the doctor ordered… for Florian, not Huerta. Huerta lost decisively to Florian and the loss couldn’t have possibly come at a worst time for him, given recent comments the fighter made to Fight! Magazine in which he was talking about concerns he had with UFC management. That resulted in Dana White calling Huerta “a moron.” At least Dana was being nice about it this time around.

Huerta is staring down at a make-or-break career situation at such an early age. He has a fight left with UFC and who knows what UFC plans on doing with him. Will Huerta eat crow and sign with UFC for a limited amount of cash or will he believe that signing with a promotion like Elite XC (that has a $55 million USD deficit) is the right path to take long-term for his prospects in the business?

One man who Mr. Huerta might want to talk to is Mr. Ortiz. They do share some things in common as far as gripes with UFC. In fact, Roger doesn’t even need to pick up the phone and call Tito. All he has to do is take a look at what has happened to Tito Ortiz over the last three months and learn five important, valuable lessons that could save his MMA career on a major-league level.

Out of sight, out of mind

It’s amazing how fickle North American MMA fans are when compared to their Japanese counterparts. However, the Japanese MMA scene on a large scale is toast right now and fighters should understand what the business climate is in MMA right now. If you aren’t actively fighting and having your fights aired on conventional TV or PPV broadcasts, you will have little or no exposure whatsoever to your typical, casual MMA fan. UFC has done such a magnificent job of building up their brand name that the average MMA fan wants to watch UFC first and certain fighters second. Yes, fans want to see great fighters, but they also trust that UFC is booking the best talent in the world.

Without Zuffa pushing Roger Huerta, his name value is next to nothing in the MMA business. Sure, someone like an Elite XC might overpay him to come in and fight, but what kind of competition would he really be facing at 155 pounds outside of UFC? Second, being on TV or PPV doesn’t automatically guarantee you stardom or fame. What matters the most is who exactly is promoting and marketing you. In North America, if you are not getting a push from UFC, you aren’t taken nearly as seriously as a fighter.

Since Tito Ortiz’s last loss in UFC, has there been a giant clamoring from MMA fans to see him fight again? No, there hasn’t. The demand to see Tito Ortiz in 2008 is not at anywhere near the level of money that Ortiz himself thinks he can draw at the moment. Roger Huerta needs to understand that without major players marketing him, his career will always have a ceiling in the business.

Learn how to be a politician

Even if you agree with some of the criticisms that Roger Huerta made in his interview with Fight! Magazine, understand that they were politically dumb comments to make. Just because MMA is not professional wrestling doesn’t mean that the same industry rules don’t apply. Right now, Dana White is a nicer version of Vince McMahon. What he says goes, and fighters need to have a sense of fear or else they may find themselves on the sidelines very quickly. If you say anything remotely controversial or make controversial statements that can rock the boat with UFC, you are in big trouble.

Many folks like to credit Tito Ortiz for being a great politician in the MMA industry, but the reality is that the type of politics Ortiz practices can also lead to the prospects of burning some bridges very quickly. There are limits to the art of good self-promotion and Ortiz may have crossed that line this time around. There are media reports claiming that Ortiz, after all of his bluster saying that he would never fight for UFC again, is now suddenly and allegedly opening up a dialogue with… UFC. No matter how much Tito Ortiz was embarrassed by Dana White with that Spike TV special on the Ortiz/White feud, Ortiz knows that UFC has all the power and is the only major player willing to pay him any kind of serious money right now.

Realize that UFC is the only game in town

It’s amazing how many fighters showed their hands politically when Affliction made its debut in the MMA scene. Suddenly, the group with the open ATM was everyone’s best friend in the business. Fighters who were quiet were suddenly getting some courage to speak out against other promoters in the business. Then, reality set in as more and more fighters started to realize just how much money Affliction lost on their debut show and could end up losing in the business.

It always amazes me that whenever someone new comes into the MMA business with a lot of money that fighters are always willing to play off of someone they think is a money mark in order for a short-term gain. The IFL seduced fighters with the concept of full-time employment, insurance, and stock options. Affliction lured in the best heavyweight talent in the world with insane amounts of cash. Elite XC has lost millions of dollars in the time span of two years. And yet, despite all of the tangible evidence that continues to mount, fighters seem more than willing to talk trash about UFC at a time when UFC is the only major promoter making money in the business right now.

If you’re not fighting in UFC right now, fans don’t know anything about you or care about your career. If you can’t navigate the waters politically in this Zuffa-dominated climate, then you have no long-term prospects in the business. Furthermore, if you can’t get it through your head that UFC is the only game in town, then be prepared to do something else for a living other than fighting in a sport that you spent so many years training to compete in.

Never bargain from a position of weakness

Roger Huerta is about to find out the hard way what Tito Ortiz has found out in the last few months, which is that you never talk trash or make bold statements publicly unless you are in a great position of strength. For Ortiz, he lost his boring fight with Lyoto Machida and found himself with little or no leverage to use to play other promoters off of each other. When it became clear that Ortiz was politically weak, UFC was in the catbird’s seat as far as how they handled the Ortiz situation. If Tito Ortiz wants to fight in UFC, he will have to do it on their own terms and by their own rules. They won the political and business battle with Ortiz and there’s no way that he will be able to re-write history on that matter.

Huerta just lost to Kenny Florian and is too young of a star to command a big salary. One of the complaints Roger Huerta mde clear in his Fight! Magazine interview is that UFC only wanted to pay $50 per diem for a media appearance. What wasn’t considered by Huerta (and perhaps his management) is that instead of looking at media appearances simply in terms of what kind of paycheck he would get for them, he should have looked at the situation as free advertising for not only himself but for UFC as well. Meet fans, shake hands, kiss some babies, do some ground work in terms of promotional activities. Establish an emotional connection with fans. Just because you spend many hours a day in a gym and fight on national TV doesn’t mean that fans have any sort of emotional attachment to you. After all, if you can’t connect with the fans, then you aren’t drawing serious money for a promoter in the first place.

Whether Roger Huerta understands (or accepts) this premise, nobody really knows.

Have a strong management team and organize plans to try to make more money outside of the Octagon than in it

As we have recently seen with other fighters in other MMA promotions, having a strong management team in your corner is a big deal. A lack of quality representation for fighters is becoming a bigger problem every day in the MMA business. As Dana White once stated in an interview, you have fighters who have their uncles or cousins representing them at the bargaining table with no contractual or business experience. As an end result, you have fighters who generally make poor business decisions.

A smart, young, and up-and-coming fighter would realize that making friends with powerful sports managers & agents might be a very good thing to do. Tito Ortiz is a classic example of a fighter who is backed by a strong management team and has managed to make as much money away from the Octagon as he has by fighting in it. If you simply rely on the money you make in the ring to build your retirement nest egg, you’ll run out of money by the age of 40.

There has been a lot of controversy about corporate sponsorships and what UFC will or will not allow in terms of what sponsors can be affiliated with which fighters. However, this policy has not stopped many of UFC’s top stars from making big money in terms of autograph signings, special event appearances, and television/movie work. Ask Randy Couture about what it takes to make money outside of the MMA world. Ask Tito Ortiz what it takes to get your name established (as he has with Punishment Athletics) in MMA-related business. Frank Trigg is another good example of a fighter who has figured out what needs to be done to help supplement his MMA career.

Without a solid management team guiding your career, you end up negotiation from a position of weakness in the fight business. When you have no leverage and do not conform to the political climate of the industry, you will get burned and buried in terms of media exposure. Without media exposure, North American fight fans quickly forget about you and lose all interest in what you are doing professionally. Roger Huerta is in the process of learning these painful lessons right now.