Thread by @shaunalshatti

Let’s take a second and talk about last week’s anonymous fighter survey.

It was an exhaustive project. So since it turned out to be the MMA team’s last hurrah together, I’d love to share some of our data & findings. Certainly feels timely after the chaos of last week. THREAD.

First, a few stats. Feel free to tag anyone who may be interested.

* When asked for the biggest issue facing MMA fighters today, an overwhelming 70.6% of respondents answered w/ issues of pay

* 93.5% also either outright supported a fighter’s union or were not opposed

* When breaking down the norms of fighter pay, we found our 170 respondents lost an average of nearly a third of their biggest fight purses (32%) to expenses before a check ever cleared

* For foreign athletes, because of taxes, that number was even higher (nearly 40%)

* Perhaps related: Just 15.9% of respondents deemed the UFC-Reebok deal to be good for the fighters

* On the topic of health, over 70% of fighters said they worried in some way about longterm brain damage because of their MMA careers

* 28.8% were already potentially feeling some effects of CTE/brain trauma in their daily lives

A few miscellaneous stats:

- 66.4% of fighters viewed weight cutting as a serious problem in MMA
- 80% favored the adoption of a men's 165-pound weight class
- 45.9% used marijuana for recovery or recreation (and at least another 20% were liars lol)

- Just 15.9% believe the UFC pays its fighters appropriately

- The topic of whether managers adequately represent fighters' interests was easily one of the survey's most divisive

Read @yay_yee for context on the latter: theathletic.com/1850937/2020/0…

Now let's talk rules and regulations.

- A whopping 79.4% of respondents supported a move to open scoring

- Downward/12-to-6 elbows were the most-wanted illegal technique, though grounded knees to the head made a strong run

- 2.9% of fighters actually wanted groin shots (lol)

- The runaway winner for best referee? None other than @HerbDeanMMA

- Worst referee was a two-horse race between (who else?) Mario Yamasaki and Steve Mazzagatti

- No surprise here, but MMA fighters have absolutely no faith in judges (and yes, the low bar "competent" was our exact phrasing)

- Nor do they have faith in state athletic commissions

And finally, a few miscellaneous fun ones

- Most underrated/overrated
- Best commentator
- Biggest jerk

- Who's the GOAT?
- Dirtiest fighter
- Favorite fight of all-time

There's seriously still so much more in there I didn't even cover.

Please take the time to read some of these stories.

Many of them have been unlocked (🔓) and are readable for non-subscribers: theathletic.com/tag/2020-mma-f…

Just want to end by saying how proud I am of the work we did here. This project was @DannStupp's brainchild, and I'm so glad we were able to see it through. Hopefully you find this data helpful, or at least interesting.

Now I'll stop barraging your timelines.