UFC Fighter Pay Compared To Other Pro Sports

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Blackjack

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Approximately what percentage of the gross revenue the UFC makes that goes to the fighters? In other pro sports, which all have unions, 55 to 70 percent of the gross goes to the talent. In contrast, in pro wrestling which has no union, the wrestlers get paid only 15% of the NET, not even 15% of the gross. How does The UFC compare in how they pay their fighters?
 
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UFC makes pennies compared to NFL, NBA, MLB etc.
 
Based on the reported payouts you hear about after every event I wouldn't be surprised if it was south of 10%
 
Blackjack said:
Approximately what percentage of the gross revenue the UFC makes that goes to the fighters? In other pro sports, which all have unions, 55 to 70 percent of the gross goes to the talent. In co trust, in pro wrestling which has no union, the wrestlers get paid only 15% of the NET, not even 15% of the gross. How does The UFC compare in how they pay their fighters?
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I dont work for or have aspirations of working for the UFC and do not give af how much the entertainers make.
 
Rebook pays a boatload.
 
it's near 50% according to lorenzo!.


but for real it's probably closer to 15-20% of net
 
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WWE pays better than the UFC.
 
Are you looking for a career in MMA and thinking of taking your talents elsewhere?

It's really tough to know what % of the revenue is paid to the fighters because we don't know how much the revenue is, nor do we know how much they actually pay out after bonuses, PPV points etc.

UFC and WWE don't have the same deal as Football and Baseball, because most of the bigger shows for the former are on PPV, where they have to give the PPV provider like half of the PPV money, whereas other sports get paid every time they are on. More importantly, they are team sports in different cities all over the country.
 
milliniar said:
it's near 50% according to lorenzo!.


but for real it's probably closer to15-20% of net
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Yeah, 50% sounds high. Even if he meant 50% of net rather than gross revenue. I hear a few of the top guys get a percentage of the PPV revenue but most don't. Cormier and Jones will, Lesnar will, but Hunt won't and most or all of the others on UFC 200 won't either. That's why Cormier and Jones are especially happy that Lesnar will fight at UFC 200. He helps them make more money by getting them a PPV butyrate they couldn't touch without him. I think they're going to get 2 million buys.
 
nostradumbass said:
Are you looking for a career in MMA and thinking of taking your talents elsewhere?

It's really tough to know what % of the revenue is paid to the fighters because we don't know how much the revenue is, nor do we know how much they actually pay out after bonuses, PPV points etc.

UFC and WWE don't have the same deal as Football and Baseball, because most of the bigger shows for the former are on PPV, where they have to give the PPV provider like half of the PPV money, whereas other sports get paid every time they are on. More importantly, they are team sports in different cities all over the country.
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Also WWE and probably UFC as well count their talent as "independent contractors" and there is no union. Those two factors are the biggest ones.

No, I'm not interested in working for The UFC in any capacity. I just happen to be interested in both the business and performance sides of things.
 
Blackjack said:
Approximately what percentage of the gross revenue the UFC makes that goes to the fighters? In other pro sports, which all have unions, 55 to 70 percent of the gross goes to the talent. In co trust, in pro wrestling which has no union, the wrestlers get paid only 15% of the NET, not even 15% of the gross. How does The UFC compare in how they pay their fighters?
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In other sports they're really all right around 50% net revenue sharing (NBA 50%, NFL 47%, MLB 48%). That being said... I would bet the UFC gets it's fighters around 20% and that's maybe a little high. It is really hard to even get a total number for disclosed fighter pay and bonuses annually... so the 20% is a shot in the dark but having looked at what some of the PPV's make in ppv sales, ticket sales and advertising, the costs to put on a PPV disclosed by Dana and comparing it to disclosed fighter pay and bonuses, it's around 17% for the average PPV, the huge PPV's it isn't even 10% but then you have to think about the FS1 shows and Fox shows and I bet those percentages are a lot higher... so I'm guessing around 20% but it's just a guess.
 
Blackjack said:
Also WWE and probably UFC as well count their talent as "independent contractors" and there is no union. Those two factors are the biggest ones.

No, I'm not interested in working for The UFC in any capacity. I just happen to be interested in both the business and performance sides of things.
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I think an easier comparison would be ATP tennis or PGA golf, since those are individual sports as well. The top players get rich, and the lower-ranked guys, not so much. If there was a union, guys couldn't get cut after losing a bunch, and if guys can't get cut after losing a bunch, there won't be enough room for new talent and we'd just be watching the same guys getting concussed until they can't speak and have to retire.
 
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