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Comment by rippercushions | Hacker News Reader

> UFC champion and superstar Conor McGregor lauded news of the pending deal Sunday evening. “Incredible. What a powerhouse!” he said in one tweet, following up with another tweet displaying an image of him brandishing UFC and WWE championship belts.

I would not be happy about this if I was a UFC fighter/WWE wrestler, since less competition will mean less compensation. Where's the anti-trust busters when you need them?

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Both UFC and WWE athletes are already independent contractors and have to privately buy stuff like health insurance while participating in a literal combat sport (UFC) and wrestling over 200 days a year (WWE). It's already a race to the bottom.

The UFC and WWE have already vertically integrated their respective niches. They're pretty much the only game in town. If no one cared when WWE bought ECW and WCW--and no one cared when the UCF bought Strikeforce--nothing is gonna be done now.

There's a monopsony (buy-side monopoly) case against the UFC already, as the monopsony buyer of professional MMA services. WWE isn't MMA but rather combat-themed theatre though, so the merger shouldn't affect that.

>I would not be happy about this if I was a UFC fighter/WWE wrestler, since less competition will mean less compensation. Where's the anti-trust busters when you need them?

You know, there's a good Ari Daivari, Slim J & Jeeves K joke in here somewhere..

That’s not how anti trust works…

Besides, what you are describing is not a “monopoly” it would be a “monopsony” even if the same people would be going from WWE to UFC.

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