{"id":207674,"date":"2016-10-18T08:31:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T15:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=207674"},"modified":"2016-10-18T08:31:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T15:31:34","slug":"report-morale-suffering-ufc-hq-atmosphere-compared-morgue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/wme-img\/report-morale-suffering-ufc-hq-atmosphere-compared-morgue\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Morale is Suffering at UFC HQ, Atmosphere Compared to “A Morgue”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, the UFC was sold for a whopping $4 billion<\/a> \u2013 quite a jump from the $2 million Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta purchased it for back in the year 2000.<\/p>\n

With this groundbreaking sale, which saw the company’s reigns handed to talent agency WME-IMG, the UFC seemed poised to reach new and exciting heights. Yet while the UFC has experienced some interesting changes under this new ownership<\/a>, things have not been looking especially good for the company over the last few months.<\/p>\n

Most notably, fighters have been revolting left, right and center.<\/p>\n

MMA legend Georges St-Pierre<\/a> recently announced that he’d terminated his contract with the UFC. Interim featherweight champ\u00a0Jose Aldo<\/a>\u00a0is also keen on ripping up his UFC agreement. Undefeated lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov<\/a> has said he’ll attempt to leave the UFC if he’s not given the next shot at the lightweight title. Top female bantamweight\u00a0Julianna Pe\u00f1a<\/a> is also considering a departure from the UFC. Japanese featherweight veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri<\/a> has asked out his contract with the organization. Streaking lightweight Al Iaquinta<\/a> abandoned his UFC career for one in real estate. Ranked welterweight Lorenz Larkin has opted to test free agency rather than resign with the UFC. Former middleweight champions Luke Rockhold<\/a> and Chris Weidman have both recently butted heads with the UFC over their contracts.<\/p>\n

The list goes on and on, and seems to be growing by the day. Fighters, it seems, are not happy with the way the UFC is currently operating.<\/p>\n

According to the ever-reliable Ariel Helwani, morale is not much better among the UFC’s non-combatant employees. On Tuesday morning, the highly regarded reporter took to Twitter with reports of massive layoffs at the UFC’s Asian offices, and plummeting morale at the organization’s Vegas headquarters.<\/p>\n

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Update on our UFC biz discussion on yesterday's #themmahour<\/a>: I'm told around half of the UFC's Asia office has been let go.<\/p>\n

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 18, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n