Reebok News

Tom Taylor - February 19, 2018

Last night, the UFC touched down in Austin, Texas with an exciting, 12-fight card. In the main event of this action-packed broadcast, long-time UFC welterweight contender Donald Cerrone picked up a knockout win over Yancy Medeiros, rebounding from a three-fight losing streak in the process. In the co-main event, meanwhile, Texas’ own Derrick Lewis burst back into heavyweight title contention with a stoppage win over Poland’s Marcin Tybura. Elsewhere on this action-packed card, we saw big wins from James Vick, Curtis Millender, and Sage Northcutt – though the latter was quite controversial.

Tom Taylor - February 11, 2018

Last night, the UFC made its debut in the beautiful Australian port city of Perth with the action-packed UFC 221. In the main event of this anticipated card, former Olympic silver medalist and long-time UFC middleweight contender Yoel Romero executed one of his best wins to date, clubbing former champion Luke Rockhold to a third-round knockout win. With this win, Romero seems to have secured himself a rematch with the division’s current champion Robert Whittaker.

Tom Taylor - February 4, 2018

Last night, the UFC touched down in Belem, Brazil with UFC Fight Night 125. In the main event of this 11-fight card, struggling former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida turned back the clock with a close but impressive split decision win over formerly undefeated prospect Eryk Anders. In the co-main event, meanwhile, former UFC bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko authored one of the most lopsided victories of her impressive career thus far, eating Priscila Cachoeira alive in a brutal flyweight showdown.  At present, the official fight purses for this entertaining card have not yet been disclosed. We do, however, know how much the 22 fighters on the bill earned through the UFC’s athlete outfitting deal with Reebok.

Tom Taylor - January 28, 2018

Last night, the UFC returned to our screens with UFC Charlotte, an exciting, 12-fight card that aired on FOX. In the main event of this card, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza improved to 2-0 against Derek Brunson, putting his fellow contender down with a first-round head kick and a storm of followup punches.

Tom Taylor - November 19, 2017

Last night, the UFC touched down in Sydney, Australia with UFC Fight Night 121. In the main event of this 13-fight card, which registered as the longest in UFC history, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum picked up a fun decision win over rising Polish contender Marcin Tybura. In the co-main event, meanwhile, short-notice replacement Jessica Rose Clark made good on her UFC debut, picking up a decision over the veteran Bec Rawlings. Elsewhere on the main card, we saw Belal Muhammad, Jake Matthews, Elias Theodorou, and Alexander Volkanovski pick up key wins.

Tom Taylor - November 12, 2017

Last night, the UFC touched down in Norfolk, Virginia with the riveting UFC Fight Night 120. In the main event, we saw long-time lightweight contender Dustin Poirier score a strange but thrilling TKO win over former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. In the co-main event, meanwhile, we saw the probably retiring Matt Brown author a hammer-like elbow KO win over fellow veteran Diego Sanchez. Elsewhere on the card, finally, we saw big wins from veteran fighters like Andrei Arlovski, Clay Guida, Raphael Assuncao and others.

Tom Taylor - October 22, 2017

On Saturday, the UFC returned to Poland with the exciting 11-fight UFC Gdansk card. In the UFC Gdansk main event, rising British welterweight Darren Till picked up a career-changing knockout win, levelling long-time contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the first frame. In the co-main event, meanwhile, Polish strawweight contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz picked up a sorely-needed win over Invicta FC veteran Jodie Esquibel.

Tom Taylor - September 17, 2017

Last night, the UFC returned to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with UFC Fight Night 116, an exciting 10-fight card. In the main event, we saw former UFC middleweight champ Luke Rockhold return from an absence of more than a year to batter former World Series of Fighting champ David Branch to a second round tapout via strikes. In the co-main event, meanwhile, Mike Perry picked up another brutal KO win, this time over late replacement Alex Reyes. Other highlights of the card, meanwhile, included thudding KO wins from Anthony Smith, Kamaru Usman, Uriah Hall and Gilbert Burns, who flattened Hector Lombard, Sergio Moraes, Krzysztof Jotko and Jason Saggo respectively.

Tom Taylor - September 5, 2017

It is arguable that the most criticized aspect of the UFC today is the promotion’s outfitting deal with sports apparel giant Reebok. This outfitting deal is constantly trashed by fans and fighters alike, primarily for the its often paltry payouts, but also for its total lack of aesthetic variety. With the exception of national colors, and a bit of gold for title-holding fighters, the Reebok ‘fight kits’ as we have come to know them are all pretty similar. As it turns out, that is finally changing.

Tom Taylor - June 27, 2017

The UFC has received a tremendous amount of criticism for its athlete outfitting deal with Reebok over the years. Fighters from Al Iaquinta to Matt Mitrione to Nate Quarry to Ryan Bader have spoken out against the deal, disgusted by the fact that they’re being deprived of the far larger paydays they could earn if they were allowed to pursue their own sponsorship. The financial hit that many fighters have felt since the UFC’s deal with Reebok launched has caused a significant exodus of talent from the UFC to Bellator, where fighters are allowed to work with their own sponsors. Fighters such as Matt Mitrione, Ryan Bader and Rory MacDonald have all made the jump, and Bellator President Scott Coker believes the Reebok deal is a significant contributing factor to this trend.

Tom Taylor - June 19, 2017

Last week, we learned that UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor’s much discussed boxing match with undefeated great Floyd Mayweather was officially a go. Unsurprisingly, the finalization of this fight took a good deal of negotiating, as McGregor is still under contract with the UFC. While the UFC ultimately allowed McGregor to bend the terms of his contract to compete in this fight with Mayweather, however, it was not immediately clear how his sponsorship situation would pan out. As a UFC fighter, after all, McGregor is required to wear Reebok during his fights.

Tom Taylor - June 11, 2017

Last night, the UFC touched down in the country of New Zealand for a second time with the exciting UFC Auckland card. In this card’s main event, we saw Kiwi MMA legend Mark Hunt collide with surging American heavyweight contender Derek Lewis. Hunt would win this fight by punishing an exhausted Lewis to a fourth-round TKO.

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2017

Over the weekend, the UFC invited 400+ members of its talent-rich roster to the combat sports mecca of Las Vegas, Nevada for a weekend-long athletes’ retreat. Over the course of this event, there were laughs, fun and games, and even a Sunday night brawl. While it was these things that kept fans entertained over the weekend, the athletes retreat did serve an actual purpose. Its function was to give the UFC’s athletes some face-time with their bosses, and make sure everyone was on the same page heading into the summer.

Tom Taylor - May 14, 2017

Last night, the UFC touched down in Dallas, Texas with the stacked UFC 211. In the main event of the evening, UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic defended his title for a second time, putting former foil Junior Dos Santos away with a barrage of first-round punches. The co-main event, meanwhile, saw UFC strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk defend her title for a whopping fifth time with a dominant decision win over the game Jessica Andrade.

Tom Taylor - April 20, 2017

Nate Quarry, who is a TUF veteran and former UFC middleweight title challenger, is involved in a class action lawsuit against the UFC, and stands out as one of the promotion’s most outspoken critics. One of the issues that gets the former fighter most fired up is the UFC’s outfitting deal with sports apparel giant Reebok, which pays fighters small sums to wear Reebok clothes in place of the sponsorship deals they would initially pursue themselves. At this stage, it’s been made quite clear that most fighters actually lost money as a result of this deal. According to Quarry, however, it’s worse than most of us can imagine. Quarry tore the UFC-Reebok deal to shreds on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.

Tom Taylor - March 19, 2017

UFC London is now in the rear-view, and it was a good one. In the main event, we saw England’s own Jimi Manuwa score a crushing, first-round knockout of the game Corey Anderson, flaunting some solid takedown defense in the process. In the co-main event, we saw Icelandic grappling specialist Gunnar Nelson drop Alan Jouban with a punch before locking up a submission for the victory. Elsewhere on the main card, we saw UK MMA pioneer Brad Pickett come up short in his retirement fight, succumbing to a third-round Marlon “Chito” Vera head kick, while rising featherweight prospect Arnold Allen scored a competitive win over fellow prospect “Mr. Finland” Makwan Amirkhani.

Tom Taylor - March 5, 2017

Last night the UFC returned to Las Vegas, Nevada with UFC 209. In the card’s co-main event, we saw welterweight champion Tyron Woodley narrowly defeat Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in a rematch of an exciting, 2016 draw. In the co-main event, we saw David Teymur score a close decision over Lando Vannata in an exciting lightweight war. Other highlights of the main card, finally, included Alistair Overeem’s crushing KO of Mark Hunt, Dan Kelly’s foiling of Rashad Evans’ middleweight debut, and Cynthia Calvillo’s abrupt submission defeat of Amanda Cooper. As always, the 22 fighters on this 11 fight card were compensated for wearing Reebok in the Octagon, which is the product of the UFC’s oft-criticized outfitting deal with the sports apparel company.

Tom Taylor - February 20, 2017

On Sunday night, the UFC touched down in snowy Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for the second time. In the card’s main event, we saw streaking heavyweight destroyer Derrick Lewis collect another skull by weathering an early storm to KO Travis Browne in the second. In the co-main event, meanwhile, we saw former welterweight champ Johny Hendricks make a successful middleweight debut with a hard-fought decision defeat of former Bellator champ Hector Lombard. The rest of the card, finally, featured big wins from some of Canada’s top fighters, and talented athletes from far further afield.