PFA loses key supporters Leslie Smith, Lucas Middlebrook

The Professional Fighters Association is dealing with its first round of growing pains.

On Tuesday, UFC strawweight Leslie Smith and Lucas Middlebrook (Nate Diaz's manager) told MMA Fighting that they will no longer work with the association, which was formed in August by longtime professional baseball agent Jeff Borris with the intention of creating a union that would force the UFC to engage in collective bargaining with its fighters.

According to an open letter posted to Facebook from Smith, she and Borris failed to meet eye to eye on several issues.

Confidential information about the formation of the association that included the names of fighters who had expressed interest but didn't commit to the idea became public shortly after the news began to spread about the PFA. Smith was disturbed to learn that the information may have come out because Borris was sharing it with agents he was negotiating with to form a board for the PFA, which also went against Smith's expectations. She was under the understanding that fighters themselves would form the board.

Borris denied knowing how the leak occurred, and insisted that agents are a necessary part of the process.

"I told her that if you look at every major sport - baseball, basketball, football, hockey - they have agent advisory boards in each sport," Borris said. "And there's lots of good agents, too, and they have their finger on the heartbeat of the industry. I need them and I will rely on these agents to help guide me as far as what issues they see as being important to them in collective bargaining."

The departure of Middlebrook coincided with Smith's, as the two have been working together toward unionization. In a tweet, he wrote that "The path (of the PFA) didn't comport with my concept of a democratic fighters' union."

Smith concluded her Facebook post with an outline to establish a board of UFC and Bellator fighters, form a constitution, and be certified by the National Labor Relations Board.

"I am excited to make the unionizing of fighters a reality. I want to focus now on making sure when it does happen, the union will be our union - led and chosen solely by fighters."