Sports figures form group in effort to unionize UFC fighters

Several influential sports figures have joined forces with the goal of unionizing the UFC roster.

According to MMA Fighting's Marc Raimondi, the newly formed Professional Fighters Association (PFA) will attempt to broker a collective bargaining agreement for UFC fighters.

The group, who put out a press release on Thursday, has yet to be officially recognized as a union, though it hopes to gain its credentials through the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

The PFA is headed by a triumvirate comprising baseball agent Jeff Borris, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, and labor attorney Lucas Middlebrook. The MMA world is likely most familiar with Middlebrook, who is Nick Diaz's legal counsel.

The release states the union-to-be will be "governed solely by fighters," who will "control their own futures."

The PFA has the blessings of each of the "big 4" sports as well as Major League Soccer's players' unions. Included in the press release were supportive statements from Donald Fehr, Tony Clark, DeMaurice Smith, and Bob Foose, executive directors of the NHLPA, MLBPA, NFLPA, and MLSPU, respectively.

The group is not the first to set its sights on a fighters' union. New York law firm Lichten and Bright claim they will reach out to hundreds of UFC fighters for the same purpose.

Current estimates put UFC fighters' revenue share at around 14 or 15 percent.

Read the full press release here: