Becoming a MMA fighter is a really bad career choice. By the numbers: (long read)

Grijswaarde

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A lot of young kids want to be Conor McGregor, and yes, as far as finances go he is set for life. Same goes for a handful of other MMA fighters, but apart from them becoming a MMA fighter really is one of the worst career choices you can make. Let's just look at the numbers:

Chances of becoming a UFC fighter

According to multiple internet sources there are currently about 5000 active professional MMA fighters. UFC currently has 650 fighters under contract. That means about 13% of all MMA fighters fight for the UFC. That means 1 out of every 7.6 fighters gets to sign a UFC contract. And yes i know there is money to be made in other orgs, but still UFC is obviously the most important org around.

What does the average UFC fighter make?
Of the 18 UFC events held in 2016 for which fighter payouts were publicly disclosed, the median fighter's annual salary was $42,000, according to a Bleacher Report analysis. This includes $50,000 post-fight bonuses but excludes all the Reebok money.

$42,000 really is not a lot of money, especially since fighters have to pay for a lot of expenses like coaches, nutrition etc. The median income in the US is $31,099.

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But what about the fighters who become millionairs?
There are without a doubt a lot of fighters that made over a million. But then again, once you earn that $42.000 dollar a year, working 40 year will make you almost 1.7 million. A lot of us if not most of us will make over a million in their lifetime. And even if, let's say 40 MMA fighters got super rich, that is still less than 1% of all MMA fighters.

The worst thing about being a MMA fighter
Brain damage. Physical mileage. Permanent injuries. Constant stress on the body. Constant stress about the next fight. Having only 2 to 3 opportunities a year to climb the ranking. A short career span of about 4 to 8 years. Having to deal with judges and weird decisions. Dealing with the chance of a lucky shot of your opponent.

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Gary Goodridge was one of the best MMA fighers of his era. Now he is not rich at all and suffers from severe brain trauma.

Yes it sucks to be a MMA fighter. There is only a very very very small chance of you becoming a rich superstar. Apart from that you will just have an average income, no other career opportunities besides opening a gym and a lot of physical mileage and possible brain damage.
 
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Wow, 1 out of 7.6 making UFC is actually very good chances. Compare that to the number of basketball players being drafted for NBA for example.
All of these MMA fighters from non-privileged backgrounds have other jobs to support their career.

It's especially not a bad idea for those with extensive amateur backgrounds living in countries where the $ is far superior to their local currency. They didn't earn a ton of money when they were in the amateurs i.e Yoel Romero.

By the time your career is over, you will be in your 30's which isn't ancient. You would've had a proven career as a hard working individual and your characteristics will be appreciated by many employers.
 
Goodridge is a terrible example because like half of his KO losses are in Kickboxing and IIRC he also did some toughman Boxing, and also fought in the gloveless era of MMA.
 
"5000 active professional MMA fighters" = just a guess that those stats are for North America only and not worldwide?
 
Goodridge is a terrible example because like half of his KO losses are in Kickboxing and IIRC he also did some toughman Boxing, and also fought in the gloveless era of MMA.
Yeah not to mention he fought in dark ages of mma
 
Wow, 1 out of 7.6 making UFC is actually very good chances. Compare that to the number of basketball players being drafted for NBA for example.
All of these MMA fighters from non-privileged backgrounds have other jobs to support their career.

It's especially not a bad idea for those with extensive amateur backgrounds living in countries where the $ is far superior to their local currency. They didn't earn a ton of money when they were in the amateurs i.e Yoel Romero.

By the time your career is over, you will be in your 30's which isn't ancient. You would've had a proven career as a hard working individual and your characteristics will be appreciated by many employers.

Thats all real cute but its also 85% wrong. You said of all pro MMA fighters only 13% make it to the UFC. Thats pretty damn good odds if you ask me especially if you know your highly naturally gifted and should stick to it.

All this has to do with honestly judging yourself and your abilities. If you are supremely talented you should definitely do it.

As for the money saying that the average UFC fighter gets paid like 42,000 dollars. Again you are totally ignorant. This is only disclosed salary. Fighters get paid from endorsements and make a good amount of change doing that. They can also make money training people. There is oppertunity there.

Bottom line this is no different than boxing but at least in MMA its more possible to make it. There are way more boxers out there and it takes way more fights to make the big time. (And its more dangerous to your brain due to the trauma). As with both sports the money is at the top.

You look at the top guys in the UFC and think the disclosed salary is wgat they make. No no no no no son. They make PPV %. Brock Lesnar made 6 million dollars not including endorsements at UFC 100 and thats back then. Conor Mcgregor took home at least 10 million for his fight against Nate Diaz again not counting endorsement dollars.

Those guys are rich. Anderson Silva lives in a mansiom in Beverly Hills for god sakes. Listen, its like anything. If you have the ability to do it? Do it. I'm in sales. Not everyone is talented in sales. It may not be for them. My step mother? She makes over a million dollars a year commision in sales working for Oracle.

If you suck at fighting or suck at anything for that matter thats taking a lot of your time its probably a bad investment as we know time is our most valuable asset. But if you are truly exceptionally naturally talented should you go for it? Hell fucking yeah.

People try and do things all the time that wont get them far. My father got 2 masters degrees and all he did was teach elementary school and scratch out a living. No offense to him but he certainly didnt get rich.

Plenty of people are dead broke out there in America right now and sont have any talent or skill to sell. They have nothing. People are graduating college with no ability to even get a job. And some douche like you stands on a soap box ajd acts like no one should try and be an MMA fighter? What should they do instead become a bus driver? I think MMA fighters are living the life and following the dream. Even if you dont get rich if you love what you do in some way you really are. (And by the way many get rich)
 
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I skimmed through your book a couple weeks ago it looked good forrest. I was around mma fighters, the thing that really made me not want to even deal with it was not the injuries or the fighting but the politics, I didn't like the big egos and from what i've seen of dana, it seems he is just like every other asshole i had to deal with in that world. I felt they wanted you to kiss ass and I couldn't do it. Also, if you don't have people with connections plus them willing to work and use those connections it doesn't really pay. I knew a lot of talented guys who just didn't want to deal with the bs. Whenever I see Dana running off at the mouth and lying or whatever it is he calls himself doing, the more I realized I made the right decision for myself. There are a lot more guys who burned out waiting for the pieces to fall into ;place, at least where i was. Now, you're situation, i can't speak on because it obviously worked for you but that is not every guys story. In fact, it seemed that people didn't want to see anyone succeed from my experience, that's hard to deal with when the people who are suppossed to help you fuck everything up. It's happened to a lot of guys.
 
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Arent there advertisements and other ways of income when you are actively fighting? For post career choice there is plenty too. Look at Klichko for example. Many other sports people go to politics too. Can be local politics too. Security, coaching, media and etc.
 
Arent there advertisements and other ways of income when you are actively fighting? For post career choice there is plenty too. Look at Klichko for example. Many other sports people go to politics too. Can be local politics too. Security, coaching, media and etc.
i'm sure there are for many of them,most of the fighters I know are teaching now, and one has a gym, one guy who was a trainer who never fought just opened a gym here. but my opinion was, they made fighting too goddamned complicated, way too complicated, it wasn't about money, belts or anything, i just wanted to be good. Some of the other guys? I don't know, they had their reasons, you'd have to ask them, I think many of them just had a sick need for attention because they damn sure didn't make money. I always saw teaching as a con and never wanted anything to do with it myself so that held no interest. Also, i've always noticed that fighters don't make great trainers, too competitive, don't want to see anyone else shine and also, they often are bitter and don't want to see anyone get anywhere. Endorsements, teaching, opening a school are ways fighters make ends meet but it's obvious that the work of teaching and running a business isn't where there hearts are.
 
"5000 active professional MMA fighters" = just a guess that those stats are for North America only and not worldwide?


Has to be. The 13% UFC figure is way too high as well. I can imagine Russia, Japan and Central-Asia alone having that many fighters.

If you're in the US, UK or Canada, I'd say getting into MMA is a good deal, just as a part-time gig though. Being a part-timer or professional can or journeyman in boxing is much tougher and with far less to show for it.
 
Same with all pro sports. Its why you dont see many Jewish or Chinese American athletes. Theyre too smart to make that life choice.
 
To be fair, Goodridge's brain damage probably had more to do with his K1 run than his MMA fights.
 
"5000 active professional MMA fighters" = just a guess that those stats are for North America only and not worldwide?
Boxing has like 17,000 active fighters at any given point last I checked (years ago)

I guess it makes sense since we all agree that Boxing has a much deeper talent pool
 
I skimmed through your book a couple weeks ago it looked good forrest. I was around mma fighters, the thing that really made me not want to even deal with it was not the injuries or the fighting but the politics, I didn't like the big egos and from what i've seen of dana, it seems he is just like every other asshole i had to deal with in that world. I felt they wanted you to kiss ass and I couldn't do it. Also, if you don't have people with connections plus them willing to work and use those connections it doesn't really pay. I knew a lot of talented guys who just didn't want to deal with the bs. Whenever I see Dana running off at the mouth and lying or whatever it is he calls himself doing, the more I realized I made the right decision for myself. There are a lot more guys who burned out waiting for the pieces to fall into ;place, at least where i was. Now, you're situation, i can't speak on because it obviously worked for you but that is not every guys story. In fact, it seemed that people didn't want to see anyone succeed from my experience, that's hard to deal with when the people who are suppossed to help you fuck everything up. It's happened to a lot of guys.

Is that the real Forrest Griffin?
 
Is that the real Forrest Griffin?
probably not but the guy sounds like he knows the business. it just rings true. the part he is right about is that if you want to do it, can make money doing it, willing to take the risks, well go ahead and do it. Take Muhammad Ali for example, what could he have been without boxing in his era? There were a lot of roadblocks for many other arenas for a black man at that time so even though he paid a heavy price, was there any other alternative that would have been better? I don't know. You could always say a quite life would have been better and I'd go with that though.
 
Same with all pro sports. Its why you dont see many Jewish or Chinese American athletes. Theyre too smart to make that life choice.
I was reading up on barney ross, his dad didn't like him being a fighter and told him jews are supposed to be scholars. In that era though, great jewish fighters existed, any time a community has dealt with severe poverty in this country, they've had great fighters, which is why I think we do not have great fighters today. we have poverty but the nature of poverty isn't quite the same, even poor people in America today are rich by many countries standards and they aren't hungry.
 
Back in the early 2000's, the sport really was still in the dark ages, but you know, as the saying goes, "hope springs eternal" I used to try to tell a younger pro to think about what he was doing and that there isn't any money in the sport. At that time, there really wasn't much. Anyway, I won't name the fighter but I'm sure he has damage, one of my old trainers there said everyone had damage. Makes sense, at least he wasn't in denial about it. Gary Goodridge is just the first of many, and also, shortly before Kevin Randleman died, i'm talking about a week I thought to myself "anytime now, some of these guys are going to start having heart problems and dying". Like I told that young fighter, make sure you're being compensated and make sure you know why you're fighting and don't get exploited. didn't make me any friends amongst the owners of the gym but I could care less. guys the age I'm at are needing hip replacements and can't pay for them like Mark Coleman, all kinds of issues.
 
Only by cash numbers. Free time numbers, doing what you love numbers. Those are important numbers too. Remember Lucy knowns...

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