Several days ago former UFC heavyweight champion decided to protest against Reebok on social media.
You’ll notice the Nike sign prominently featured in the picture above.
And the caption goes along the lines of:
“I’m not generic, I’ve been Nike since I was a little kid” #Suck #MyB*lls #Reebok
He posted a video earlier today in Portuguese explaining that he wasn’t fined by UFC or Reebok but instead got removed from television obligations as a penalty for his infractions.
Werdum had previous experience being an on-air personality on UFC shows airing in Latin America. He explained the situation
I just want to make everything clear about my post of @Nike and @Reebok. I did this to protest about the sponsorship. Before Rebook got into UFC all the fighters use to make a lot of money with other sponsors, including me, and now they are paying me only $5,000 per fight. I didn’t get penalized because I have no contract with them, but they cut me out of the tv broadcast.
And Werdum has no contractual obligation to Reebok.
“The people thinking I will get in trouble, nothing will happen,” he said. “I even tell the fighters, if some company won’t sponsor you, you have to cover up their names, gloves, shin guards, don’t make free promotion. That’s our job, our image, our fights. Just because someone sends you some gloves you don’t need to keep making several posts with them. That’s not how it works, you have to value your image.”
