Deadspin: Whatever Happened To The UFC?

The average MLS player is making 150,000 a year. I doubt it is worse. We don't have numbers, but I would bet that the MLS players get a greater share of revenue, than UFC fighters do.

The MLS salaries are right on the MLS website, they aren't making $150K a year, many are making $40K and below a year. We also don't know what other compensation UFC fighters get besides their disclosed fight pay, its widely known they make more than what is disclosed. Add that to the fact players are limited to sponsors, baseball players can have 1 that pay them and provide them with bats, gloves and cleats, football players where league mandated gear and basketball they can use their own sneakers as sponsorship, the UFC allows fighters to plaster names, websites and pictures on their shorts, shirts, hats and banners as well as shout out sponsors after they win fights.
 
UFC fighters make only getting paid ~15%

Just add up the numbers out of pretty much any UFC event:

UFC 171 = $1.2million in payouts with bonuses included.

$2.6million gate and $9million (50% of 300k ppv at $60 each) in PPV revenue.

1.2/11.6 = 10%

If you want to include PPV pts for Hendricks at $2 a piece, it's still $1.7m in payouts, which is 14%..

Also that $11.6m does not even include advertisements, international revenue, etc..

Also a good comparison is Saul Alvarez making $8million for selling $350k PPVs, and Rousey probably making $1.2mill at best for selling the same # of PPV..

Rousey disclosed pay was $110k and maybe $3 a ppv which comes out to around $1million

Same PPV numbers, $7mill difference
 
UFC fighters make only getting paid ~15%

Just add up the numbers out of pretty much any UFC event:

UFC 171 = $1.2million in payouts with bonuses included.

$2.6million gate and $9million (50% of 300k ppv at $60 each) in PPV revenue.

1.2/11.6 = 10%

If you want to include PPV pts for Hendricks at $2 a piece, it's still $1.7m in payouts, which is 14%..

Also that $11.6m does not even include advertisements, international revenue, etc..

Also a good comparison is Saul Alvarez making $8million for selling $350k PPVs, and Rousey probably making $1.2mill at best for selling the same # of PPV..

Rousey disclosed pay was $110k and maybe $3 a ppv which comes out to around $1million

Same PPV numbers, $7mill difference


They get 15% of total gross. Did you account of Federal and State tax? Did you account for production? Arena rental and worker cost? Any of the other expenses a company has?

Boxing the prize money is there because the fighters aren't. Who do people pay to watch anymore? Hell for the last 30 years. At any given point there are 2-3 fighters people pay to see, the others make the money because they are fighting them. The reason Saul Made 7X more than Ronda are sponsorships. Budweiser pays huge huge amounts to sponsor boxing, those numbers aren't there for the UFC.

As I said before, adding up numbers and attempting to use PPV buys and gate to figure out salary misses the point by miles.
 
Football fans dont complain about watching a division 2 game. NHL fans don't complain about watching a OHL game...

I'm a football fan, I want to see Michigan play Stanford or Alabama vs Georgia. I don't want to see a division 2 football game. I want to see the best, I spent three hours watching the ncaa wrestling finals but I wouldn't walk to my local area high school to see a wrestling match. All this stuff about, "oh man I am just such a fight fan that I'll watch anyone fight" is so ridiculous to me. I love the UFC and I love seeing who the BEST guy is, I wanna watch title fights or top contender fights, and no I don't care to watch these type of cards, doesn't mean I'm not a fan.
 
They get 15% of total gross. Did you account of Federal and State tax? Did you account for production? Arena rental and worker cost? Any of the other expenses a company has?

Boxing the prize money is there because the fighters aren't. Who do people pay to watch anymore? Hell for the last 30 years. At any given point there are 2-3 fighters people pay to see, the others make the money because they are fighting them. The reason Saul Made 7X more than Ronda are sponsorships. Budweiser pays huge huge amounts to sponsor boxing, those numbers aren't there for the UFC.

As I said before, adding up numbers and attempting to use PPV buys and gate to figure out salary misses the point by miles.


Yawn

Boxing has the same expenses as the UFC. They get about the same revenue and "budweiser" does not make a $6-7million difference. Probably UFC makes more from advertisement since they run a ton compared to boxing.

The difference is that UFC fighters get a 15-85% split and boxers get a 85-15% split and the numbers corroborate that.
 
I'm a football fan, I want to see Michigan play Stanford or Alabama vs Georgia. I don't want to see a division 2 football game. I want to see the best, I spent three hours watching the ncaa wrestling finals but I wouldn't walk to my local area high school to see a wrestling match. All this stuff about, "oh man I am just such a fight fan that I'll watch anyone fight" is so ridiculous to me. I love the UFC and I love seeing who the BEST guy is, I wanna watch title fights or top contender fights, and no I don't care to watch these type of cards, doesn't mean I'm not a fan.

Its not to say you're not a fan, but you're not an MMA fan. You're a fan of your team, like someone who watches baseball but only watches their home team. Do you turn off a baseball game when Joe Shlub comes up to bat? Or if Tony Nobody is pitching? If not than why do you turn off MMA when undercard fighters are fighting? They may put on a great show just like that nobody may pitch a brilliant game or go 5-5 with two homers. I find many lower card MMA fighters, especially outside of the UFC, put on shows that are better than most big name guys, they need to make their name and many put it out there to do so, as oppose to a Machida who runs for 25 minutes or Jake Shields laying on a guy the whole fight. Its OK to watch only the stars, it makes you a casual observer or fan, a UFC fan if you will, but MMA and fight fans are watching undercards, TV events, Bellator, Glory, WSOF and AXS fights every week, because Jones, Machida, Anderson and every other star fought there first and without those places we'd have no great fighters, we'd have Tank Abbott throwing sloppy punches at a guy who just downed three burgers at steak and shake.
 
The MLS salaries are right on the MLS website, they aren't making $150K a year, many are making $40K and below a year. We also don't know what other compensation UFC fighters get besides their disclosed fight pay, its widely known they make more than what is disclosed. Add that to the fact players are limited to sponsors, baseball players can have 1 that pay them and provide them with bats, gloves and cleats, football players where league mandated gear and basketball they can use their own sneakers as sponsorship, the UFC allows fighters to plaster names, websites and pictures on their shorts, shirts, hats and banners as well as shout out sponsors after they win fights.

UFC is actually instituting uniforms, and have a strict sponsor policy, and take a large percentage. Many fighters have said sponsors don't pay shit. And they are garbage sponsors. Like Joe's Tacos or something.

Many UFC fighters are making under 40K a year. 150k is still the average salary in MLS.

The average player will make $141,903.13 this year.


http://www.sounderatheart.com/2013/5/6/4306550/mls-player-salaries-analysis-charts-and-tables

They actually disclose shit.
 
Its not to say you're not a fan, but you're not an MMA fan. You're a fan of your team, like someone who watches baseball but only watches their home team. Do you turn off a baseball game when Joe Shlub comes up to bat? Or if Tony Nobody is pitching? If not than why do you turn off MMA when undercard fighters are fighting? They may put on a great show just like that nobody may pitch a brilliant game or go 5-5 with two homers. I find many lower card MMA fighters, especially outside of the UFC, put on shows that are better than most big name guys, they need to make their name and many put it out there to do so, as oppose to a Machida who runs for 25 minutes or Jake Shields laying on a guy the whole fight. Its OK to watch only the stars, it makes you a casual observer or fan, a UFC fan if you will, but MMA and fight fans are watching undercards, TV events, Bellator, Glory, WSOF and AXS fights every week, because Jones, Machida, Anderson and every other star fought there first and without those places we'd have no great fighters, we'd have Tank Abbott throwing sloppy punches at a guy who just downed three burgers at steak and shake.

You are right. Now that I think about it, it's true that I am not a pure MMA in general fan. I went to a bellator card once and really wasn't that into it. The reason I got into the UFC was cause of the initial tournaments. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that they had an 8 man tourney to determine who was the best in the world and that's what I wanted to see, who was the best. I know some great guys come out of the smaller shows and I remember seeing all the current stars fight in shows like this, but for me, I just want to see the best. I think the toughest thing for the UFC now is that most people are like me, they are casuals who a buy shows that are featuring stars or champs.
 
Yawn

Boxing has the same expenses as the UFC. They get about the same revenue and "budweiser" does not make a $6-7million difference. Probably UFC makes more from advertisement since they run a ton compared to boxing.

The difference is that UFC fighters get a 15-85% split and boxers get a 85-15% split and the numbers corroborate that.

So a PPV in 1995 was $30, Holyfield Tyson had 1.99 Mil buys, round to 2 mil, thats $60 Mil income from the PPV. Holyfield made $33 Mil and Tyson $30, they made 105% of the PPV, so where did that extra money from? Where did the taxes and employee taxes come from? Where did the money to hype the event, for all the prevents, production, workers on and on come from? I guess the promoters lost money on the event.

If you think boxing money comes from PPV numbers you're a lost cause.
 
UFC is actually instituting uniforms, and have a strict sponsor policy, and take a large percentage. Many fighters have said sponsors don't pay shit. And they are garbage sponsors. Like Joe's Tacos or something.

Many UFC fighters are making under 40K a year. 150k is still the average salary in MLS.




http://www.sounderatheart.com/2013/5/6/4306550/mls-player-salaries-analysis-charts-and-tables

They actually disclose shit.

The average, but i showed the numbers up there. On the Red Bull Henry makes 3.75 Mil and Cahill makes $3.5 that raises the average. It's worse on other teams where Tim Bradley makes $6 and a majority of the team make under $60K Just like the UFC, GSP was bringing in $2 Mil plus a fight, that raises the average for the event. An average doesn't mean crap when its at 1 end.

Also the MLS and soccer teams have they're non-roster players making $500 a week with mandatory, as with the Pros, 6 hour practices or more a day, all a UFC fighter has is a few mandatory press events and the fight once every few months, not a event every week.
 
You are right. Now that I think about it, it's true that I am not a pure MMA in general fan. I went to a bellator card once and really wasn't that into it. The reason I got into the UFC was cause of the initial tournaments. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that they had an 8 man tourney to determine who was the best in the world and that's what I wanted to see, who was the best. I know some great guys come out of the smaller shows and I remember seeing all the current stars fight in shows like this, but for me, I just want to see the best. I think the toughest thing for the UFC now is that most people are like me, they are casuals who a buy shows that are featuring stars or champs.

And thats cool, as most all around MMA fans need guys who just watch the UFC too, as it allows the UFC to put on great shows once and a while. It allows them to bring in good fighters in for those big matches.

Most PPVs have a championship fight, a title implicator co-main and three good main card fights. When they don't it tend to be due to injuries. But it's not solely the UFC's fault. Many of the stars only want to fight 2 times a year, so they know those guys must be saved for PPVs, so the televised fights get the lower tier fighters, or lower weight class many times, and better guys are kept for the PPVs and for the FOX events.

I would doubt a champ would want to fight on one of these cards anyway, they lose their PPV cut which could equal another $100K +
 
So a PPV in 1995 was $30, Holyfield Tyson had 1.99 Mil buys, round to 2 mil, thats $60 Mil income from the PPV. Holyfield made $33 Mil and Tyson $30, they made 105% of the PPV, so where did that extra money from? Where did the taxes and employee taxes come from? Where did the money to hype the event, for all the prevents, production, workers on and on come from? I guess the promoters lost money on the event.

If you think boxing money comes from PPV numbers you're a lost cause.

Yes the majority of boxing money comes from PPV's, that's why they have it. That Tyson-Holyfiled must have had a massive gate and international revenue so that's why the fighters got paid. Had the UFC been in charge they probably would have paid both guys $200k base salary and $1 a ppv and kept the rest. :icon_lol:


Now you explain to me how Alvarez event got $6million dollars more than Rousey. How much more money did his even generate and why? And why would sponsors pay more for his event even though Rousey probably had better numbers in the Key male demo.
 
Bastid has already explained it several times. You're just not grasping it.

And lol at the guy quoting salary averages. I bet all the players in the nba wanna be on lebrons team so their salary average is higher than their actually salary lol.

I don't understand how people can make the argument that fighters should make more at the same time their saying the events are watered down. Which is it? You want them to make more, but you don't want to see them fight. That simply makes no sense.
 
Bastid has already explained it several times. You're just not grasping it.

And lol at the guy quoting salary averages. I bet all the players in the nba wanna be on lebrons team so their salary average is higher than their actually salary lol.

I don't understand how people can make the argument that fighters should make more at the same time their saying the events are watered down. Which is it? You want them to make more, but you don't want to see them fight. That simply makes no sense.

No, they want the good fighters payed more for each time they fight and want the extra fat on the roster trimmed.
 
So what is "good"? Top10? 25? 50?

Good personality? Star quality? Everyone's definition of such a vague descriptor will be different.
 
So what is "good"? Top10? 25? 50?

Good personality? Star quality? Everyone's definition of such a vague descriptor will be different.

Says the guy who takes two points, ties them together and makes a strawman to attribute them to.

How about reducing the number of events to what is was at about 4 years ago and trim the excess fighters you have left over, starting from the worst and working up. This isn't mutually exclusive from thinking the roster deserves more pay per fight.
 
I didn't tie them together....it's been the whole discussion in this thread....watered down cards and pay.
I don't understand why anyone gives a crap what they make.
 
I didn't tie them together....it's been the whole discussion in this thread....watered down cards and pay.
I don't understand why anyone gives a crap what they make.

It obviously makes for good discussion, as people seem to wanna debate it over and over. But the poster you were quoting is right, trimming the bottom of the roster isn't directly related to fighter pay at all
 
So a PPV in 1995 was $30, Holyfield Tyson had 1.99 Mil buys, round to 2 mil, thats $60 Mil income from the PPV. Holyfield made $33 Mil and Tyson $30, they made 105% of the PPV, so where did that extra money from? Where did the taxes and employee taxes come from? Where did the money to hype the event, for all the prevents, production, workers on and on come from? I guess the promoters lost money on the event.

If you think boxing money comes from PPV numbers you're a lost cause.

Boxing promoters and others involved are willing to lose money or gamble on making money on boxing because it's a big event watched worldwide. google some boxing money/ promoters/ ppv stuff and you'll see why the payout can be higher than the revenue generated

HBO gets shit from boxing ppv's -
 
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