A proposal within the California legislature is seeking to give again to retired MMA fighters.
The subject of fighter pay and the therapy of athletes in fight sports activities has continued to realize traction. Whereas Dana White and the UFC are actively trying to squash the concept that their fighters are mistreated, many proceed to name for change.
For his or her half, the state of California is seeking to institute some change of its personal. State assemblyman Matt Haney from San Francisco launched a invoice earlier this month to create a pension for MMA fighters. The invoice has already gained the help of the California State Athletic Fee, and different retired athletes.
A kind of retired athletes is former UFC ladies’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. ‘Rowdy’ competed within the promotion from 2013 to 2016, finally retiring after losses to Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm. Regardless of her personal success, Rousey feels the game must be giving extra again to fighters.
Beneath this new proposal, $1 from each ticket bought to an MMA occasion in California will go to the fund. Checks might be despatched out yearly to fighters which are 50 and older. Moreover, to be eligible, athletes will need to have competed 13 instances within the sport.
It’s price noting California already has a pension arrange for retired boxers, with the typical boxer receiving $19,000 from their annual examine. With that in thoughts, an MMA pension would work in the same method.
“We all know that that is an extremely standard sport,” Matt Haney said in an interview with ESPN. “It’s a sport that’s rising. It’s additionally one that may be harmful and folks put their our bodies on the road for our leisure. And as followers, we recognize it, however we must always be sure that they’re taken care of after they retire.” (h/t ESPN)
“You may have a a lot shorter window [in MMA] as a result of your physique takes a lot extra of a heavier toll,” Ronda Rousey added within the interview. “The distinction with these sort of fight sports activities, with all this contact and the neurological accidents concerned, you don’t know the day that you simply’ve taken one hit too many. You’re going to search out out that you simply crossed that threshold many a long time later while you not have that further earnings.
“It’s while you’re coping with the repercussions of that profession is while you not have that earnings stream.”
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