Dispelling the ignorance revolving around fighter salary.

GriffinLHWChamp said:
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
th


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.
Click to expand...

Lets not kid ourselves, some fighters make good money and bring in PPV numbers but we arent talking about the CEO's on wall-street, we are talking about the blue collar start ups and small timers.

Fighting 3-4 times a year does not make you that kind of money, it does for those who can make it to the top. The issue about fighter pay is not about the top fighters as it is about the smaller time fighters. This was the issue in boxing, a select few made all the millions while others could barely pay their rent and training bills.

The problem is the UFC is a monopoly and its contracts dont allow you to seek out other sources of employment or advertisements. You are locked into a very iron clad agreement and the UFC has bought up Pride and Strike-force, so they are the only big game in town.

Lockeroom bonuses are fine and I doubt the majority of the fighters in the UFC are making 100k per fight, like someone said in this thread, its bullshit. If the UFC was a reputable business, all locker room bonuses and other bonuses would be on the books so everyone can see them.

The UFC has its issues, its not the worst game in town because you can get rich but you have to deal with King Dana, the UFC contracts and being committed to just fighting in one Org and having sponsorship issues if you want to make a little money on the side for those who dont hit that threshold.
 
Last edited:
Snakesolidsnake said:
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.
Click to expand...

cable/satellite companies take 50% off the top
 
GriffinLHWChamp said:
10-15% =/.. thats a shit ton.
Click to expand...

It is magnitudes lower than any other professional sports in the US and Europe which have negotiated a 50-60% revenue share for the athletes. If Dana and Lorenzo do not believe they have reached the level of success of those sports then they should stop using them as a basis for comparison during press interviews.
 
You are not factoring in that the cable companies get 40% of the PPV buyrate. So that 60 million you speak of is really 30 million that the UFC is getting.
 
DaGenius said:
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.
Click to expand...

Extending Phatrons argument through your illustration UFC fighters as product make way too much... My tuna sub on brown got nothing for its trouble and I flushed it a couple hours later...
 
Snakesolidsnake said:
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.
Click to expand...

I know for a fact Comcast (I work for them) takes 50% of the PPV cut. So even on fights that gross over 1 million buys, we are still making 25-30 dollars (depending on HD or not) per PPV.
 
anderson silva, not even gsp make fifty million dollars per year, don`t be ridiculous
 
you are only a champion if you defend your belt
 
The problem with all these arguements is that no one knows any facts.

Things you would need to know
- UFC costs to put on show (every deduction including cable provider cut, radio,tv,billboard adverts)
- UFC revenue at show

Then you could make an arguement.
 
GriffinLHWChamp said:
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.
Click to expand...

Are you suggesting it should be different? btw this is nothing like boxing.
 
I don't understand why so many people are so concerned with fighter pay.

Question to everyone that is concerned with it and believes fighters should make more: do you know what % you take home compared to the owner of the company you work for?

Wouldnt your time be better well spent concentrating on earning yourself more money than some fighter you will never know on a personal level?
 
Rashad's 3 million dollar home huh? Did you just pull that number out of thin air? Get your facts straight.

Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans delivered a knockout in the real estate market in late 2011 when he purchased this 3,469 square-foot house in the Crystal Pointe community of Boca Raton, FL for $625,000.
Click to expand...

http://www.celebritydetective.com/Celebrity_Homes_Rashad-Evans-house-profile-Boca-Raton-FL.html

You can buy that house by only making 100 grand a year.
 
JayElectra said:
Where did you get that UFC 101 had 1.1 million buys? Dispelling ignorance by getting easily accessible statistics wrong.
Click to expand...

Because I was at UFC 101 in Philadelphia and I remember reading the numbers right on sherdog.com that indications look like it broke past 1 million PPV buys. Including multiple other reports aproximately a week after the event.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/forum/threads/ufc-101-buyrate-likely-to-exceed-1-million.16983/

http://www.fightlockdown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4756

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm?go=news.detail&gid=181588

I just remembered reading these articles and being suprised by how well 101 did (which incidently has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, as UFC 101 was used simply as a example piece on the money you could potentially earn if you headlined a card)
 
You make money if you're a champ or top 3? You don't say..
 
RenoBJJr said:
You make money if you're a champ or top 3? You don't say..
Click to expand...

Yeah right? Well apparently the majority of your sherdogers still seem to think that the reported salaries are what the fighters acctually are taking home end of day. There is a thread on the main page complaining that Benson Henderson only made 78k for a title defense. Did anyone correct it? No.

I made this thread to hopefully dispell some of the obvious ignorance out there revolving around how much a fighter in the UFC specifically the headliners make. I think the majority of MMA fans have no idea.
 
Too bad more than 90 percent of fighters never reach that level while still being a major asset to the UFC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Davidjacksonjones
Has any fighter in history in any combat sports got their a** kicked in front of more people than Conor Mcgregor?
2 3
Replies
52
Views
2K
LostMyBlackBelt
LostMyBlackBelt

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,979
Messages
55,458,770
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top