GSP said Fedor is the goat.

[bigconan]

Its not the same. There is only one champion in combat sports, that guy gets paid. There are more position in the NFL, NBA, etc. which means more opportunities. Not only that, there is a culture of Football and Basketball in the US, and its starts when these kids are very young all the way to High School and beyond to college. High school athletes in the US who plays sports can guarantee themselves a college education with a sports scholarship. They get popularity representing their Highschool in their respective sport. For young Boxers or Mixed Martial Artists, you go to a gym, blood sweat and tears everyday, and more likely nobody in your school will know. You don't represent the school in combat sports, you represent yourself. So in general, young athletes tend to gravitate towards these sports that offer them opportunities.

Bob Arum explained it best.

I still think a great successful mma fighter or boxer will make more than any football player...and remember, a football player is playing many games...playoff games, etc...while a fighter might only fight 1x in a year and make 10 million. You really think every single player on a football team is making millions? They aren't.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I dunno. Not much to read though, mainly 2 paragraphs. The bottom portion is just an outdated listing of NFL players with wrestling backgrounds. Then there is the video of Arum's opinion of the great HWs of Boxing of this generation being in other sports. I found it interesting anyways, thought I'd share.

Just breaking your balls dude ;-)

 

[Takamine86]

I still think a great successful mma fighter or boxer will make more than any football player...and remember, a football player is playing many games...playoff games, etc...while a fighter might only fight 1x in a year and make 10 million. You really think every single player on a football team is making millions? They aren't.

A few things. There are a few fighters making millions in Boxing. As for MMA, there are very few making that kind of money. Conor's biggest payday was in Boxing. His net worth doesn't represent the standard pay for fighters in MMA when the majority of his wealth came from another sport. The same goes for Mayweather, he is the highest paid fighter of all time, he is an exception not the rule. In combat sports, being the best doesn't guarantee pay since your value is not only dependent upon your being the best fighter, but it also depends on your drawing power. So there are no guarantees in combat sports the way there is in Team sports like the NFL/NBA etc. In sports like these, if you put up the best numbers at your position, your value is the highest, and you will get paid the highest. This guarantee doesn't exist in combat sports because drawing power being part of a fighters overall value.

Also, the 1 fight a year for millions something only maybe few guys in MMA can do, guys like Conor and GSP. But that isn't a standard for the sport, only the biggest stars in the sport can do it and you count that number on one had after chopping off 2 fingers. Most guys are like Cowboy, fighting multiple times a year trying to make bank. We all know how much Cowboy fights, he is praised for it. & he is an above average star in the sport. But in Cowboy's entire career of fighting including fight bonuses and non UFC fights, Donald Cowboy Cerrone has only made $4,454,800. That's after 45 professional fights
Source: https://thesportsdaily.com/2018/02/19/donald-cowboy-cerrone-career-earnings-fox11/


The average salary for almost every single position in the NFL is above 1 million. The only single position in the NFL that isn't above that average is a long snapper, the average for them is a bit over 800k. Source for those stats:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/

But we are talking about starters just like we are talking about main card fighters. So starters in the NFL, they are pretty much all making over a million dollars. Because not only do they have an NFL salary which is averaged over a million dollars, they have signing bonuses before they even play a game. Meaning they get paid millions before even playing a single game and getting paid their salary, that is the standard these days.

 

[Sirwastealot]

Fedor is not the best we have seen, wtf. He was good when every one was one dimensional. His era would easily get trash now and mma is still a baby as of now. Like the other poster had said, we have not seen the real goat yet, until the Ufc start paying big money.

Babe Ruth would straight up be trash today even if he had todays nutrition and training regimens. He play against a bunch of part timer and the talent pool back then was straight garbage. Baseball was still a baby back then just like how MMA is now.

You're saying babe ruth was trash? Because ask any real baseball fan (I'm not one) and he is absolutely one of the best of all time. This is the problem with thinking the last thing you saw is the best, you have to put things in context.

Yes it was a different time back then, that's the time they were in. You look at their performance for that time, compared to everyone else around them. What were they able to do with the limited knowledge of the game, facilities and opportunities they did have.

 

[sapporo ichiban]

Was he a friend of yours.

No. You were bragging about smashing his mom. Technically that makes you a mother f@$#er. Just calling it like it is dude.