A fighter competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship - guy by the name of Jon Fitch - has been booted off the circuit by the sport's organisers, along with a bunch of his American Kickboxing Academy team-mates. Reason? They refused to sign a video game deal. See, the UFC have a licensing agreement in place with THQ. THQ publishes the UFC games, and UFC fighters...have to put their names to a contract singing away their name and likeness forever. Not one year, not five years, for their entire lives. Fitch, who says he was trying ot be reasonable about the whole thing, is obviously a little upset:
I'm more than willing to work with them, but I don't see why we have to give up our whole lives for this. Why not a time limit? If we did a 10-year deal with them, is that that unreasonable? I don't understand how this happened, honestly. It's tough.
Guy's got a point. If anything, a lifetime deal on the part of the UFC and HQ is being optimistic, about the future of either organisation. No signature, no fighting [Sports Illustrated, via GameSpot]