(The Booyaa Fight Girls: Voted most likely to lie to you about working their way through community college.)

Banning clothing brands as potential sponsors is so much fun, Zuffa is at it once again.  MMA Payout reports that the newest addition to the blacklist is Booyaa Fightwear, an apparel-maker whose loose affiliation with the King of the Cage organization was enough to torpedo their proposed sponsorship of Mike Budnik in his WEC bout this week. 

King of the Cage was part of the Pro Elite network of organizations, but is one of the few entities that can still promote fights and is still somewhat capable of scratching out a living as small-timers.  Apparently this makes KOTC, and by extension Booyaa Fightwear (if ever there was a company name more inspired by the mid-nineties, I’ve yet to hear of it), a perceived competitor of the WEC.  And we all know how Zuffa deals with competitors. 

Booyaa is the first potential sponsor to be banned for merely sponsoring another organization.  They join Affliction, which got ousted for starting its own company (understandable), and MMA Authentics, which drew Zuffa’s ire when it nabbed the coveted Wal-Mart shelf space that the UFC thought was all theirs (a little less understandable, but okay). 

Now they ban a brand for sponsoring another minor, regional organization.  Anyone else see some very aggressive business tactics developing lately?

Perhaps the message here is: don’t do business with any other MMA org if you hope to one day do business with the WEC or UFC.  If so, that’s Zuffa’s prerogative, but it sure sucks for guys like Budnik, who just lost a little much-needed cash as collateral damage in this war for ultimate supremacy.  At least there’s always Condom Depot.  Just go ahead and put the decal right on your ass, there.