‘I was chewed up and spat out – fighters deserve better': Danny Roberts on starting fresh after post-UFC pain
For British ex- UFC star Danny Roberts, he knows this all too well. 'I was a kid that came from a tough upbringing, a lot of adversity and abuse.' The Croydon-raised brawler grew up without a father figure and came into the sport not to build a personal brand or take over the world, but to provide a certain life and be 'the man that he didn't have' for his children.
Roberts, 37, spent close to eight years fighting under the UFC banner. In that time he had 14 bouts, one of which in 2022 came against current welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena. But it's since his departure that things have come into perspective on the MMA industry as a whole.
'Hot Chocolate' has not fought since his final UFC outing, a wild clash against Jonny Parsons in his home city in July 2023. His eventual cut in January of this year was far from the perfect end, with the UFC toying with his future to leave his source of income in limbo for over a year.
'My last fight in the UFC, I got fight of the night,' he told The Independent. 'Then I got told I was to have another fight, but it got to the point where a year had passed by. If I would have turned around and just left then, I could have probably been back where I needed to be a lot sooner. But that is what it is.
'As far as the UFC is concerned, I had an absolutely phenomenal time. It's part of my life that I'm never ever going to forget. But there is definitely a lot of ups and downs and a lot of things that could be better for the athletes – look after the athletes better and have their best interests in mind, because we're at the bottom of the food chain. It's like crabs in a bucket.
'Everyone's fighting to get to the top, and if you're not at the top, you ain't got s***. That's not good enough. We're talking about the premiership organisation of the world. The 20 years of your f****** life you give to be a part of that, training every day and being away from friends, family, relationships to be able to do what you can do. It's not very stable – it's like the one per cent of the one per cent.'
Close to two years out of the cage, it looked like he would be making his return in the fledgling GFL, which was fronted by major names including Tony Ferguson, Alexander Gustaffson and Uriah Faber. However, the star-studded promotion collapsed before it even began, cancelling its inaugural two events, the first of which included Roberts's planned clash against Neiman Gracie.
'This is one of the things all fighters have issues with,' he said. 'There is no governing body, there is no one that can look after our best interests, so it's very hard. We get used, we get chewed up, we get spat out, and the only thing that we have is to look after ourselves.
'As fighters we're very hopeful, very ambitious, very driven, so you go and give us some sort of magic in front of us, our eyes light up. The GFL was that. It looked like it was legit.'
Roberts has since found stability in the PFL and is set to make his promotional debut on 5 July, assuming the villain role as he main events against undefeated hometown hero Patrick Habirora in Brussels, Belgium. 'Creating the upset is something I relish,' he says, repeatedly expressing his gratitude to the company for the opportunity.
However, he has not lost sight of the wider issues with MMA, an industry where inequality and poor communication with its 'pawns' are rife. To Roberts, unionisation would be a way to combat these problems.
'There should be,' he says when asked if the sport should have a union. 'Can you look at any other sport in the world [that doesn't have unionisation]? This isn't me trying to badmouth, I'm just speaking the gospel truth about it.
'We put our livelihoods on the line and miles on the clock. We do irreversible damage to our bodies. Yes, it's obviously our choice to do that, but it's one of the hardest ways to go and earn a paycheck, and whether you've got to be tapped in the head or just delusional to do that, we should still be valued.
'We're athletes also. We're doing what we need to do to be able to get the best for our families, and I've experienced – within a few months of leaving UFC – scraping around to find pennies to pay bills. When that comes as a realisation, it's not good.'
Problems with the fighting world he may have, but Roberts is not yet ready to step away from the cage for good. 'My heart and my head are still very much in this game.' Retirement is not on his mind as he embarks on his latest career chapter in PFL, seeking to 'shoot for the stars and succeed'. But with 15 years on his professional fighting stopwatch, Roberts is fully aware that outside of the cage, the room for improvement is endless.
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