Have you ever wondered how Ronda Rousey could show up at WrestleMania and judo toss Triple H? Or how a bevy of UFC fighters can film action movies in between fights? These extracurricular business ventures all pose risk to a fighter’s career. You truly never know when a knee can go out or an accident can occur, yet they are allowed to do these things while under contract with Zuffa.
That’s because exclusivity is in the eye of the beholder.
Let’s take Ronda Rousey for example, she’s seen flipping and fighting in all of her movies and although it’s a controlled environment there’s still the possibility of injury. The UFC allows its fighters to film stunts in movies or perform moves at WrestleMania for an extra buck, so will holding Conor McGregor out of a Floyd Mayweather boxing match hold up legally?
Without knowing the exact details of McGregor’s contract, we can speculate that he’s allowed to “perform” in other ventures that are non-MMA related. He’d simply have to bring up the fact that boxing and professional wrestling share many similarities. There’s a ring, physical contact and both are contracted through a non-Zuffa corporation.
Allowing Rousey to compete at WrestleMania under contract, yes even celebrity guest have to sign contracts, and denying McGregor his right to do the same would give him a pretty strong case if he had to petition the UFC in court. There’s a good chance the bout won’t billed as a legitimate fight, but a 12-round PPV exhibition between the two would sell just as well as any sanctioned title fight.
McGregor is pushing the boundaries of what a UFC fighter can do and without previous precedent in the matter McGregor will able to schedule this Mayweather fight before the UFC has documented rules prohibiting the match up.
With that being said, there’s still very little chance that a fight like this ever occurs. Boxing and MMA are two different worlds. McGregor will have to find another way to captivate the fight world.