Dispelling the ignorance revolving around fighter salary.

Its the year 2012 nearly 2013 and I still see all over the forums things such as: "Benson Henderson only got 78k for his title defense?!"

Ladies and gentleman how incredibly naive you are. Those are commission reported pay outs.

Maineventers/Champions get something called "PPV Percentage". This means that they are taking home a percentage of the PPV buys that were sold. (The payouts reported to the commissions have nothing to do with this and are set up in advance of the fights/ppv buys).

What this means is if Anderson Silva is fighting at UFC 101 in Philly vs Forrest Griffin (which I was at BTW). The buyrate being 1.1 million PPV buys at the time at 55 dollars a buy that comes out to $$$60.5 million dollars$$$ total money brought in by UFC.

NOW we don't know what percentage of the PPV buys the fighters are getting. It stands to reason each fighter gets different amounts of the pie depending on their popularity and contract negoitiations however lets say Silva is getting a measly 2%.

2% of 60.5 million dollars is 1.2 million. (Judging by Anderson Silva's malibu mansion I would venture to guess its much more than 2%)

Then there is the issue of that whole sponsorship money thing. Lets say your name is Jon Jones and your sponsored by Nike? Can you say CHA-CHING?!


Here is Rashad Evans 3 million dollar mansion in Boca Raton Florida

Not to shabby for a man who only brought in 125k in his last fight (YEEEEAH RIGHT).

Brock Lesnar for UFC 100? Not including sponsor money? 6 million reportedly. Thats not even counting sponsor money.

Just trying to help you out people! Wake up! Your MMA fighters are making a shit load of mullah and are doing quite well for themselves stop caring about the bullshit comission reported salaries. Thats only the tip of the iceberg in how these men get paid.

So your name is Jon Jones and you fight between 3-4 times a year? MONEY MONEY MONEY MOOOOONEY!! MONEY!!! Can you say cash money? Because dude is backing up a brinks truck on his front lawn just to let you all know.

 

So, let me get this straight...you are going to rid Sherdog of ignorance? HAHA!

Good luck with that. Many have tried, all have failed

 

Still doesn't change the fact that UFC superstars are only getting like 10-15% of PPV revenues, which is ridiculous since they usually end up carrying a whole card with their name alone. This doesn't include the revenues from advertisements that UFC makes. UFC makes a chunk of money for every sponsors that the fighters have, as well as their own sponsors like Harly Davison, Corn nuts, Bud Light, ect.

Considering all this, fighters are being shafted hard. It doesn't have to be like boxing, but it should at least be a 70-30 split with the 30 going to the total purse of the fighters.

 

Now everyone I just want you to remember with the above post. NOT EVERYONE is getting paid. There are plenty of undercards making very close to what they are reportedly bringing in.

These guys get 0% PPV buyrate money and only are bringing in sponsorship cash which is considerably less than what guys make on maincards/mainevents.

What is this like? Boxing. What do you think undercards make on big cards? Not a whole hell of a lot. What does the main event make? Bank.

Our MMA champions/Mainevent contenders and names are getting real money coming in. Our gatekeepers/undercarders? Not so much.

 

10-15% =/.. thats a shit ton. Whats 15% of 60.5 million dollars? 9.3 million dollars. Thats A.Silva's cut at UFC 101.

Thats one fight. Fight 4 times a year like that (chael sonnen fights ect..?) Were talking 36 million and that doesnt even count those beautiful sponsor dollars.

Our guys? Our MMA stars? They are rich as hell. They are paid like any big time athletes out there.

A champion fights 3 times a year he could easily make 50 million dollars a year in earnings. Not too damn shabby. How many pro athletes you know get paid like that? Only the best right? Well.. MMA is a legit sport now we pay like that.

 

I know.. I know.. Im just trying to help them out just a little.. I get bored.. I hear that Benson Henderson is underpaid because he only makes 78k in a title defense and I want to stick a pencil in my eye.. but this time I just couldn't turn away without saying something. I know its a lot cause.

 

Just type in Josh Koscheck cribs in youtube. Dude has a ferrari and a huge house.

 

How much of that $55 PPV fee does the UFC see? The cable/satellite companies have to take there cut, which I imagine is more than $5. That significantly drops the PPV cash the UFC brings in, and thus the fighters cut.

 

You forgot to add that Rashad does have a 3 million dollar crib, but he bought that after his divorce. He probably could have got something way nicer had he stayed married.

 

Where did you get that UFC 101 had 1.1 million buys? Dispelling ignorance by getting easily accessible statistics wrong.

 

The fighters % of PPV is not a fixed percentage.

Its a sliding scale.

If you google Randy Cotoures contract you can read it. It was made public record in his trial vs Zuffa.

Its setup something like this

0-100k buys = $0.50 per buy

100-500k buys = $1 per buy

500-1million buys = $2 per buy

1 mill+ = $4 per buy

These arent exactly what it said, just an example. The increasing rate per buy is what encourages the fighters to "elaborate" beefs and sell the PPV.

 

Ok I promised myself that I would stop posting on these threads because I know I'm in the minority on this but I'll bite..since this is going to be intelligent discussion

The "problem" with ufc fighter pay is that we (and they) have zero idea of how much they make relative to what the ufc makes on an event or annually. They are just numbers. Considering the fighters take such considerable physical risks, it would be nice to see them take home half of the revenue generated off their labor. We have no idea if they are making 10 or 49 percent.

 

He will be coaching wrestling and wishing he hadn't bought that stupid stuff he couldn't really afford in a few years. He would have earned a bit but his earning ends pretty much the day his career does.

 

you think the UFC gets to keep all the money from their PPV's? i've heard the cable provider gets as much as half. no way to prove your numbers, really.

 

People on here are stupid, its simple as that.

The one UFC fighter I know says that every fighter on the roster makes over 100k a year, and if they dont its their own fault. He mentioned BJJ demos, autograph sessions, appearance fees at local mma cards, and sponsors.

If the pay in the UFC was so terrible people in every other org wouldnt be saying that their dream is to fight in the UFC and when people get cut they say they wanna make it back to the big leagues.

 

Well, almost every business on the planet is setup where the people taking the MONETARY risk are the ones making the money and the people taking the physical risk or doing teh manual labor make considerably less.

Name one business thats different?

I dont understand why people get so up in arms about this shit.

Do you care that the owner of subway makes a million times more than jared in the commercials? or that jared makes makes a million times more than the people making the sandwiches?

 

i love how people complain about the undercard people not making that much. The main event fighters literally fought there way to that position, except for james toney and brock lesnar ha ha, so they deserve it. its just like getting a promotion in any "normal" job.

 

Phatron

I won't quote cause I'm on my phone. The fertitas are taking finacial risk and yes they do deserve to be compensated for that. The fighters are not just labor. They are actually both talent and the product. As for an example of a more fair share NFL players recieve a little more than half of what is called total footbal revenue. Ownership gets the other piece

I don't disagree that management takes advantage of "labor" in other industries. I just never understand why people want ufc owners to make more and fighters to make less.

 

Easily the dumbest thing I've ever read on Sherdog

 

I think the best way you could dispell ignorance on Sherdog is just to stop posting.