UFC and Francis Ngannou Negotiation Essay: Problem-Solving Strategies

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed martial art promotion organization based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. Fighters who participate in UFC fights are provided with contracts that involve vigorous negotiation from both parties (Corby, 2023). In 2022, the organization had a fallout with one of its top fighters, Francis Ngannou, who was the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion in 2022, resulting in the fighter living the most lucrative contract the organization had ever offered. The fighter recently joined Professional Fighters League (PFL), where he negotiated a better deal to make him the highest-paid fighter in MMA history. This paper aims to show why problem-solving negotiation strategies results in the best possible negotiation outcomes.

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           Ngannou had three key demands when negotiating a new UFC contract. According to Raimondi (2023), the fighter wanted a new sponsorship deal, a fighter advocate at board meetings, and health insurance for fighters. UFC wanted Ngannou to continue fighting under the previous agreement with a pay increase. However, the fighter wanted more for UFC fighters, which would have improved working conditions for them. UFC did not give in to any of the fighter’s demands, even when he agreed to a one-year contract that would allow him to participate in three fights within a year. They terminated their relationship, and Ngannou was free to source for new partnerships with other organizations.

UFC and Ngannou could have employed problem-solving negotiation strategy to avoid collapsing the negotiation. There are four basic negotiation strategies; contending, problem-solving, inaction, and yielding. Problem-solving tactics would have involved increasing compensation, and available resources, minimizing the cost of concessions, exchanging concessions on low-priority issues, and creating new mutually beneficial options (Gates, 2022). These would have resulted in the best outcome of the negotiations. The contention strategy tends to focus on self-interests. The tactic includes irrevocable commitments, inflated demands, threats, and persuasion. The strategy is the most likely path the organization and the fighter used, leading to negotiation collapse. Yielding and inaction tend to reduce parties’ aspirations. They are usually successful when issues are unimportant and hence could not be employed in the case scenario.

. After the negotiation failed, Ngannou opened new negotiations with PFL. The goal of the new negotiations was to access better salaries and benefits, management of sponsorship deals, and the ability to influence the recruitment of fighters. PFL and the fighter came into an agreement offering him an eight-figure salary to him and his opponent, flexibility to participate in boxing and MMA fights, the ability to manage sponsorship deals independent of the promotion, as well as recruitment of fighters from Africa (Mahjouri, 2023). PFL employed a problem-solving strategy where each team exchanged concessions until they were all happy with the outcome. This strategy was more effective than the contending strategy employed by UFC (Fells & Sheer, 2019). Thus, the poor negotiation strategy by UFC resulted in the organization losing its top performer who brought immense revenues, to a top competitor in the industry.

In conclusion, every party participating in negotiation has its own goals and objectives. Both parties must engage and negotiate in good faith to allow positive outcomes. When either party only intends to serve its own needs, it creates a hostile climate, eventually leading to negotiation collapse. To ensure the best outcome in negotiations, the organization must accept to concede some of its goals to ensure the best possible outcome; problem solving strategy.

References

Corby, D., (2023) Francis Ngannou outlines his three demands which UFC rejected during talks. Mirror https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/mma/francis-ngannou-ufc-mma-news-28985188

Fells, R., & Sheer, N. (2019). Effective negotiation: From research to results. Cambridge University Press.

Mahjouri, S., (2023) Francis Ngannou says money was not primary reason for UFC departure: ‘I was slapped in the face with money’ CBSSports.com https://www.cbssports.com/mma/news/francis-ngannou-says-money-was-not-primary-reason-for-ufc-departure-i-was-slapped-in-the-face-with-money/

Gates, S. (2022). The negotiation book: Your definitive guide to successful negotiating. John Wiley & Sons.

Raimondi, M., (2023) Francis Ngannou on UFC exit: ‘In that contract, I’m not free’ ESPn https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/35468383/francis-ngannou-ufc-exit-contract-not-free