You wanna be a MMA champ? A top fighter in the world, if you win you can make...

[celtsxpatsxsox]

My main problem with fighter pay is how you always here Dana White claim the ufc has the best athletes and best fighters in the world yet some of the low level fighters are only making a little more than the main event fighters in the regional circuits around here. (from what I have heard). Now I am not a Dana White hater but I do have a problem with James Toney getting one of the highest purses and yet Dana White claims Toney was "following" him around begging for a fight.

Now I could be way off base since I have no idea how much the ufc gives with locker room bonuses and what not. Mostly just going by what I hear at my gym.

[EmpireWF]

Depends on the guy. There are some former WEC fighters who are barely making 5 figures base and to win.

No name guys who get signed to start at the bottom are probably lucky if they can get $30,000 to show and win.

It's how the format is and unless fighters band together, it's not likely to improve across the UFC anytime soon.

[Tailback U]

I understand what you're trying to say Rob, but the fact is that these guys workout all day and then fight and are getting paid for it. That about sums it up.

[Liquidrob]

Whats always funny is how many fans don't want fighters to get paid more

It's the only sport where the majority of fans don't want these guys to get paid like everything other sport, the UFC pays it's fighters/players the least amount of money compared to every other sport, I can't remember the actually number, but the split of profit or whatever you want to call it is around 15-20% compared to other sports which are above 40% and usually in the 50% range

'oh well, screw the fighters, they should be happy they get to fight'

For some odd reason, fans are happy go lucky about some crap baseball player on the bench making a mill a year, but comes up with reason after reason on why fighter X shouldnt get more money, 'he can't draw', 'he doesnt sell tickets', 'he doesnt talk enough trash', etc...

[EmpireWF]

I understand what you're trying to say Rob, but the fact is that these guys workout all day and then fight and are getting paid for it. That about sums it up.

The guys who can train full-time (a good number of guys have actual full-time or part-time jobs to get them by) usually have about a 3 month training camp specifically for 1 fight.

After that, if they have any significant injuries, they're fucked because they may not be able to train for weeks or even teach classes. Basically, they can probably only work on cardio.

All the while they have to make enough from fighting, sponsors, perhaps classes, "real" jobs to pay the rent, car bills, insurance (in the UFC, they only cover certain things), food, etc.

And for those who are lucky to make a real living at it, training and fighting is their 9 to 5.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Whats always funny is how many fans don't want fighters to get paid more

It's the only sport where the majority of fans don't want these guys to get paid like everything other sport, the UFC pays it's fighters/players the least amount of money compared to every other sport, I can't remember the actually number, but the split of profit or whatever you want to call it is around 15-20% compared to other sports which are above 40% and usually in the 50% range

'oh well, screw the fighters, they should be happy they get to fight'

For some odd reason, fans are happy go lucky about some crap baseball player on the bench making a mill a year, but comes up with reason after reason on why fighter X shouldnt get more money, 'he can't draw', 'he doesnt sell tickets', 'he doesnt talk enough trash', etc...

See, this is off base. I think most sports fans are pretty disgusted with how much money most athletes make, especially scrubs.

[Liquidrob]

See, this is off base. I think most sports fans are pretty disgusted with how much money most athletes make, especially scrubs.

But they really don't care, wer are talking about guys making close to a million compared with guys making thousands, the sports fan is warped and always comes up with reasons fighters should be low paided

The UFC has done an amazing thing by getting the fan to care more about the business model of the UFC than the fighter

[EmpireWF]

What does fans caring or not have to do with the issue of fighter pay?

[Liquidrob]

What does fans caring or not have to do with the issue of fighter pay?

A lot actually

Plus it's just funny to me that MMA fans in general care more about zuffa's money than the fighters who get there head punched in for there amusement

[Warner2BruceTD]

I can only compare MMA to other combat sports. Team sports isn't really a fair comparison. And MMA fighters do better than boxers on all areas of the card with the exception of the tippy top headliners like Pac or PBF or Klitchko or a few others. On comparable sized events, MMA middle and lower guys make much more than boxers in the same position. Kickboxing isn't even on the map outside of K1.

Tito Ortiz, Wandy Silva, Chris Leben, they walked away with a ton more than whoever fought underneath Klitchko/Haye 3rd or 4th from the top on the same day.

Rob's gripe with UFC level main eventers is valid. Nothing else is out of line.

[Bigpapa42]

Gotta agree with W2B - its kinda tough to compare a combat sport to a team sport like football that's been around for more than half a century.

I would love to see fighters get paid more. But I am also realistic about what that would mean for me, the fan. If Zuffa decided to ensure that everyone on the card made at least $50k per fight, where does that money come from? Three options, basically - Zuffa decides they don't need to profit as much, they find new revenue streams (major sponsors, etc), or it comes from the fans. And I believe that at least part of it would be placed on the fans. I bristle at paying $50 for a PPV... Ask me to pay $75 or $100 and it ain't happening. Paying $250 per seat for shit seats to a live UFC is bad... Paying three times that wouldn't happen.

Almost of all team sports have suffered to some degree for putting part of the burden for massively paid athletes onto the fans. I'm not sure that's a great model to follow.

[Liquidrob]

Lol @ the burden will be put on the fans

The UFC is the most expensive 'league' in pro sports to follow, YEAH FOR ZUFFAS MONEY!

[Warner2BruceTD]

Lol @ the burden will be put on the fans

The UFC is the most expensive 'league' in pro sports to follow, YEAH FOR ZUFFAS MONEY!

Look, I don't think the PPV's or tickets are cheap, but you can easily follow the UFC without paying a penny. They give away hundreds of free fights per year. Every single prelim can now be viewed for free via facebook/youtube/spike/ion. Multiple free shows per year on Spike/Versus. Unleashed is on practically every night for shit you might have missed.

If you start paying these main event guys $20M per fight, of course the fans will feel that. I'm not sure they can afford that anyway. Big boxing tickets are far more expensive than UFC tickets. Much bigger gates.

[Bigpapa42]

Lol @ the burden will be put on the fans

The UFC is the most expensive 'league' in pro sports to follow, YEAH FOR ZUFFAS MONEY!

Way to deflect the basic question - is the UFC decides it is going to double its pay per show to the fighters, where does that money come from? Is Zuffa really going to decide they are cool with taking signficantly less profit than they current are? So where does that difference come from?

[Liquidrob]

Yes, let's use 20 million is good guideline, instead of talking about main event guys getting 40k and some bonus money

Keep them low paid, we don't want these guys making NBA and MLB bench money, because that guy at the end of the bench entertained you as much with his towel waving compared to carlos condit flying kneeing someone in the head