The Borrowed Faces Trap

There is a loophole in most fighter contracts.

It doesn't cover wrestling. Or BJJ. Or freestyle grappling. Only MMA. Only striking.

That loophole is now a business model.

RAF — a new freestyle wrestling promotion — is building its cards around active UFC fighters. Arman Tsarukyan. Henry Cejudo. Uriah Faber, now Khamzat Chimaev. Some of them still under UFC contract. Still competing in the octagon. Legally showing up on someone else's card because the UFC never thought to close the grappling door.

And from the fighter's side, it's a no-brainer. Lower injury risk. No knockout, no suspension. More activity, more income. The UFC can only put a fighter on a card every few months. RAF can put them on every few weeks. The sport is different enough that it doesn't burn the same resources.

So both sides have incentive. The promotion gets a name. The fighter gets a check. Nobody's breaking a contract.

I understand why it keeps happening. I've done it.

At Karate Combat, we had Georges St-Pierre. Steven Thompson. As ambassadors and on-camera talent. At Dirty Boxing, our first private event headlined by Yoel Romero, and it worked — we got viral because of him, and our product was good enough to convert some of those eyeballs into real fans. Craig Jones did it with CJI. Jake Paul built a boxing career on it — he just called his borrowed faces Nate Diaz and Tyrone Woodley. The Netflix MMA card is doing it now with Ronda Rousey, Francis Ngannou, Mike Perry. PFL, BKFC, GFL(lol) same.

The pattern is older than any of these promotions.

Here is where it breaks.

You don't own what you borrowed. These fighters are journeymen. Whoever pays most gets them that weekend. You cannot build a roster around talent that owes you nothing. You cannot build a narrative around fighters you can't lock down.

Worse — you start lying to yourself about what your brand actually is.

I watched a RAF card where two World (and Olympic medalists) wrestling champions were buried three fights into the card while the UFC names headlined the event and marketing. The message sent to the people who were supposed to be the core community: your champions don't matter as much as someone else's fighter.

It's a licensing arrangement with a live event attached.

And there is a real short-term case for it. Sponsors, distributors, and broadcast partners all ask the same first question: who are your biggest names? Borrowed names get you in those rooms. Some partners don't have the budget to go directly to a marquee athlete. Others don't want the liability of going all-in on one or two individuals. Sponsoring a league that carries those names is an easier check to write.

But here is what sophisticated money figures out fast: if those fighters are journeymen, if they're on show-by-show agreements and not exclusively yours, the asset isn't worth what it looks like on paper. People do their due diligence. They know the difference between a fighter under contract and a fighter who showed up for a weekend. And that is where the fake confidence becomes dangerous — not just internally, but in every investor and sponsor conversation you have.

When UFC names are selling your tickets, you don't actually know if people are following you or following them. The day the UFC closes the loophole — the same way they've already closed boxing and kickboxing — you go back to zero and the brand you thought you built isn't there.

The promotions that survive are the ones that build their own talent and make those fighters stars. That's what aome of the boxing promotions and the UFC figured out. They didn't just sign fighters. They built a platform that made fighters worth signing. The exclusivity compounded because the platform was real.

There is a version of this that works. Use borrowed equity early to buy attention and legitimacy when you have no other option. But those names have to be a bridge, not a foundation. And the smarter play isn't paying them to fight — it's making them partners. Equity. Ownership. A reason to stay that isn't just the highest check this weekend.

Ambassadors became journeymen too. The creator economy killed that model. Fighters will go wherever the money is unless they have a stake in where they're going.

Borrowed faces get you in the room.

They don't keep you there.

Have a great week,

Adam

P.S. If you're building in combat sports and want to think through the business side — reach out at SKOVAX.CO​

P.P.S. Want to catch up on past issues? Browse the full archive HERE.

P.P.P.S. Get Paid To Fight - A Practical Guide to Sponsorship, Branding, and Getting Paid as a Fighter