Filed under: News, Radio Highlight, UFC

A.J. Hawk remembers the introduction to his sixth season in the NFL: closed doors.

Hawk, a linebacker, was fresh off a win at Super Bowl XLV with the Green Bay Packers. Competitively, he was at his peak. But when negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement failed, team owners initiated a lockout and shut out the players.

Four months and a few court battles later, he and his teammates went back to work. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) had won additional concessions from team owners, including increased minimum salaries and additional medical benefits. The owners also won concessions.

It wasn’t the most comfortable time in Hawk’s career, but he can’t imagine what his career would’ve been like without the NFLPA at the bargaining table.

“Having the NFLPA is huge,” he told MMAjunkie Radio. “I don’t know how the NFL would be without the union.”

Hawk retired one year ago after 11 seasons and turned his attention to media work, joining Sirius XM as a college football analyst. He also took a shine to MMA.

Hawk would never consider himself a technical expert on in-cage action, but he knows firsthand the benefits of participating in a unionized sport. And while MMA lends itself far more easily to the formation of an association over a union, which organizes employees, he believes it would make a huge difference in fighters’ lives.

“It would really help them out to have a collective bargaining agreement, where they could come together and you had someone to back you when you’re fighting a suspension, or you’re fighting for more pay from Reebok,” he said. “You want a bigger piece of the pie.”

A voice at the table might have helped fighters negotiate a bigger increase in sponsorship pay from the UFC’s official apparel maker, which the promotion restructured to give $3,500 to fighters with one to three fights, while those with four or five get $5,000.

Hawk has immense respect for MMA fighters and wants them to get what they deserve. At the same time, he’s watched MMA long enough to know the difficulties inherent to organizing a global sport with a disparate group of athletes.

At the present moment, he sees only one fighter who could be the catalyst for collective bargaining: Conor McGregor.

“If (the fighters) want to realize what kind of power they have – it would be absurd to think they could do it – but let’s say Conor gets booked on a fight,” Hawk said. “He’s headlining. If they shut down the fight – if Conor goes about his business, and all of a sudden, the day of, he says, ‘No, we’re not fighting unless we get these terms, and we’re going to come together, (and) this card does not happen tonight,’ – if it was for a card like that and you shut down a whole card.

“I just don’t know how you get all the fighters to come together, because you’re asking people to sit out fights and not get paid, possibly, for the greater good of the future of the sport. It’s just really tough to get everyone on the same page.”

So far, only few have. Efforts to organize fighters – via the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association (MMAFA), The Professional Fighters Association (PFA), and the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) – haven’t been able to build a groundswell of support among UFC or Bellator fighters.

McGregor, for his part, has voiced his support for some sort of organization, seeing the need to protect younger fighters in the sport. But he’s also blasted recent efforts like the MMAAA, which at one time boasted now-former champ Georges St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC), current bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw (15-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC), and perennial contender Donald Cerrone (32-10 MMA, 19-7 UFC) – as ham-handed and insincere.

“There needs to be something – I just don’t know what it is, McGregor said. “I’m focusing on me. I’m focusing on my family’s security, my family’s financial security. That’s all I can do. So I when I saw that, I just thought it was the biggest, fakest load of (expletive) I’ve ever seen in my life.”

McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) reportedly is taking active steps to protect his cash flow if and when he returns to the UFC. The Irish champ, who banked over $100 million to box Floyd Mayweather, wants to be the sole pay-per-view earner on a UFC fight card, according to UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley (18-3-1 MMA, 8-2-1 UFC).

Woodley, like many UFC fighters with a direct stake in an event’s success, pines for an opponent that could bring a huge payday. For those who haven’t quite gotten to his level, the best way to earn a bigger piece of the pie is to continue winning at all costs.

Whether a fighter is a newcomer or champion, though, victory remains the most effective negotiating tool.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Dan Tom. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

Filed under: News, Radio Highlight, UFC