Do gyms pay top tear fighters to train there or the other way around?

[Jedi Judah]

*tier

*tere

 

[NAKMUAY18]

I worked in a gym with ufc fighters for four years and saw the marketing first hand. Also, one of my good friends I met there managed att in coconut creek and they have a ton of ufc fighters.

Fighters I’ve seen generally don’t pay the gym, they pay a trainer/training partners part of their purse or direct pay for the help. The gym paying fighters is very rare. That’s what the blackzillion model did (sponsored by Jaco I believe) and they tanked.

One common misconception in my experience is that ufc fighters attract memberships. It would blow your fucking mind how much that is not the case. The gym I worked at sold 2500 memberships while I was there and I interacted with every single one. There were two people that came as a result of fighters. As in, get, I came to meet/train under this guy. Literally two. Maybe two dozen knew who the fighters even were beforehand.

Most people who came to train mma were not die hard ufc fans, but became so after they started training. We joke about that with my friend all the time. People think that the average ufc groupie online would be your target market and it’s not the case at all.

It was fucking rare for someone to be a hardcore fan and to show up and want to train at either of those two gyms.

This is it 100% big gyms, they pay coaches percentage or fees to train them.
Smaller gyms, that have one or two high end fighters, might have a head coach/gym owner that takes a cut and employs coaches as required. The fighter usually pays for sparring partners if required I believe

 

[VAfan]

some of the misspellings on this site are epic.

 

[Tchernobog]

 

[MayhemMonkey]

That Denver squad with TJ he was payed to be there.
Rampage got a car + all camp expenses payed from such a gym at some point..

same gym for both Rampage and TJ, Musclepharm

 

[fractal]

*teer

*tere

 

[Hidden_Hand]

I used to train at a gym with a few UFC fighters, no one top 10 but John Maguire was there, Dan Hardy would sometimes train there and Luke Barnatt and there was a bunch of pros there.

I noticed the pros would all come late after the last session for intermediate/advanced class but I never got the impression you couldn't train with them just was never offered if that makes sense?

I know when guys had a fight coming then they would hold private training for only the most advanced, never saw any normal guys in there.

As far as I know no one came because they were there, I doubt many knew who they were. Couldn't comment on what they were paying though.

 

[kimocomplex]

Welcome to Top Tear Gym, home of the best

 

[Toco]

comparing ronda to Conor? CONOR went on to avenge the loss and become 2 weight champ and face floyd, ronda is a cry baby wannabe

2 little bitches

 

[RyuHayabusa]

*tree

 

[Jedi Judah]

*tere

*tare

 

[Mondo Freaks]

Most of them are paid as trainers for the gym.

 

[Straightcross]

I wonder how SBG dealt with all the crazy as fuck Conor fanboys

 

[Foppa21]

They usually train there for free and often teach some classes for compensation.

Sometimes. There are some guys that are just accepted to be horrible teachers. If it does happen, it's usually separated into two transactions:

• "You will pay me $x to train you"
• "I will pay you $y to teach classes"

 

[Fishmonger]

They are given 12% discount to used Reebok gear, pending background check.

 

[Foppa21]

Big gyms run by name trainers usually take a percentage from their top fighters. GSP give Zarhabi say 10%. A fighter who teaches might get additional pay.

Scrubs without champ potential have to pay.

Some dudes with huge potential like Hendricks even get sponsored at the beginning of their career but then they have to pay like 50% from what they earn which leads to real heat and lawsuits.

Hendricks was under the "Team Takedown" model. Where the fighters were paid a salary. My understanding was pretty much like any old 9-5 but instead of sitting at a desk, he happened to be training. The managers negotiated his contracts and I assume took a lion's share of the income and probably a couple of bucks at the end of the year as a "performance bonus". Like a KPI for any other corporate out there.

I remember hearing someone saying something along the lines of "If you think you're gonna flame out and be a bit of a journeyman, it's awesome. You know you get say $70k pa whereas you might get $5 and $5. But if you think you're going to be a champion and fight for half a mil, it's terrible". I think it might've been Tyron Woodley actually. Basically in his mind you were betting against yourself.

 

[Foppa21]

I worked in a gym with ufc fighters for four years and saw the marketing first hand. Also, one of my good friends I met there managed att in coconut creek and they have a ton of ufc fighters.

Fighters I’ve seen generally don’t pay the gym, they pay a trainer/training partners part of their purse or direct pay for the help. The gym paying fighters is very rare. That’s what the blackzillion model did (sponsored by Jaco I believe) and they tanked.

One common misconception in my experience is that ufc fighters attract memberships. It would blow your fucking mind how much that is not the case. The gym I worked at sold 2500 memberships while I was there and I interacted with every single one. There were two people that came as a result of fighters. As in, get, I came to meet/train under this guy. Literally two. Maybe two dozen knew who the fighters even were beforehand.

Most people who came to train mma were not die hard ufc fans, but became so after they started training. We joke about that with my friend all the time. People think that the average ufc groupie online would be your target market and it’s not the case at all.

It was fucking rare for someone to be a hardcore fan and to show up and want to train at either of those two gyms.

I second this notion. Someone that ran a successful gym for years said that it's the worst idea to try to make money that way. The fanboys don't tend to last and at most you get maybe a year out of them and they cancel, unless they get bit by the bug really hard.

The fanboys just sort of stalk the gym entrance for a few days and ask for photos.

 

[Foppa21]

My understanding is, it's like any other business transaction.

Most will pay a general membership (of some kind or have it waived as part of a wider deal).

If you're a average Joe that wants to take a ammy fight, you probably pay your general class membership and then the odd private class (per class).

Move your way up a bit more and you might end up paying for a whole bunch of private classes or pads for your camp.

Make your way up the totem pole a bit more, and you end up negotiating a flat fee for the camp. This is similar to above, but better for the fighter because they'll likely very much be needing time daily and really won't want to be paying $100 an hour for their trainer's time. Most will probably even specify the number of trainings etc a week. I think it's fairly rare for the coaches to take a % given the risk that a fight gets cancelled late. I guess if the fighter gets injured they'll think of something to compensate for the time.

In the BJJ world, I think Gianni Grippo before he left Renzo's was pretty much doing 1:1s on a almost daily basis with John Daneher. I have no idea how he could afford that since there's still almost no money in BJJ right now.

As a side note, in some places, the pros will put throw in a couple of bucks a month as a stipend to keep their group training gear stocked up. Stuff like vaseline for sparring etc.

Some gyms have different rules with regards to who trains with who. It depends on the size of the gym and whether they can accommodate. From my observation, most will have a pro class that's invite only.

At my gym it's open slather even for the pro class, but no one is going to baby you along through the technique or the sparring. If you get your @$$ beat, it's on you to improve. The pros with fights are also not going to stop their drilling to help you out if you fall behind. We do get the odd guy that gets told to go to the other classes first because it's simply too disruptive.