Wanderlei Wants To Lift MMA Up Like The NFL

“You put the guy on a contract. You need to take care of this guy. When the guys open their eyes, that’s going to be better for the sport. Because When the fighters have more money, the guys can have better trainers, eat better, can train better. When the fight is better, you’re gonna make the new idols, you’re gonna make the classics too. We’re going back to the top again, because right now the MMA goes down. All the numbers. You can check the pay-per-views, you can check the views.

“Before, in my time, we had the fights and we topped the couches with people around the world. Everybody was talking about this guy against this guy, big fight, huge fight. This does not happen anymore. I want to make MMA ready to go into the next steps to be like the NFL, like American football.

“I want the fighters to have a better life. Like a better life in general. Because sometimes the guy (MMA promotions) treat the guys good, just only when the guy is fighting good. When the guy is fighting bad, the guys are fighting the sometimes on the internet, on twitter; ‘this guy is no longer part of the company anymore’. The guys don’t call to say ‘hey, you can’t work for us anymore. No this is not fair. And sometimes in the press conferences they say ‘this guy is this, this guy is that, this guy needs to retire, this guy..’ no. We make the show. We need respect. The guys need to respect us, and this is why I don’t want to fight again.”