Veteran manager Alex Davis insists his position is now more important than ever

I heard recently that Mike Dolce made a comment on managers, that fighters don’t need them. Now, I respect and like Mike very much, so I actually thank him for this opportunity to educate him and everyone else on this. Put simply, it was a dumb comment!

I’m assuming this comment was probably made because he was having a hard time with some manager who was haggling with him because that manage didn’t understand the need for a nutritionist! But to the contrary, managers are becoming an absolute necessity – along with other professionals – in the careers of these young mixed martial artists. The quantity of information that has to be processed – just the sheer amount of paperwork – schedules that must be followed and organized, appointments to make, and many other issues that must be handled on a daily basis. It can be simply overwhelming.

A fighter, who for the most part will not have his forte in these areas, will simply not have time to handle all this and still be able to train, rest and have a life. And that part about Joe Silva calling and taking calls from 500-and-something fighters? Yeah, right. I am sure Joe would actually appreciate the added burden!

Not that he doesn’t talk to fighters – he does. But to have to track down each and every one of these fighters as he matches them up would probably mean that he would spend more time leaving voicemails than he would actually making the matches.

No, my friends, the days of those sleaze-ball managers raking in dollars at the fighters’ expense while smoking cigars at the office are gone, if they ever even really existed. The truth is, there are a lot of hard-working serious professionals out there working long hours and shouldering a lot of responsibility so these boys can fulfill all the rituals and rules and get up there in that octagon and give their best. Sure, it’s true that there are a lot of people out there trying to be and calling themselves “managers” who want to be managers for all the wrong and self-fulfilling reasons. But one by one, they must change and learn better, or they will be run out of the business as the serious people produce results and ease the burden for the fighters.

Fighters usually have a specific set of specialized skills, one that permits them to get up in that ring and put to use the many complex techniques that they have developed to fight. It is asking a lot to expect them to be able to deal with all the other stuff in their career, as well. Reality just is not like that.

Managers are, and will be more and more, part of this business.

Alex Davis is a lifelong practitioner of martial arts and a former Brazilian judo champion. A founding member of American Top Team, Davis currently oversees the careers of a number of prominent Brazilian fighters, including Edson Barboza, Luiz Cane, Rousimar Palhares, Antonio Silva and Thiago Tavares, among others. Davis is a frequent contributor to MMAjunkie.com, sharing his current views on the sport built through his perspectives that date back to the Brazilian roots of modern MMA.