Do ex UFC fighters make good money as coaches?

[DivineMind]

Wondering what these guys like Stipe and Woodley could do, former champs out of the limelight.

For sure it seems like they could open their own gyms, everyone would want to train with a former champ?

I could imagine them making gobs of money and I could be a bit naive here, but I think they could be pulling in a million bucks of revenue a year (600 members, $150 per month, 12 months - 600 members might be a lot but that's how many members your average local Crunch or LA fitness gym has I believe).

I imagine some don't want to because it's a lot of work. But this is serious cash. The money is there for the taking. Thoughts?

 

[Reign009]

It's sad that a dude can't just make a living showing his ass.

 

[Slatersan]

Just being a coach would make them good money if they are really high level coaches.
Schools can make money if they open up franchises like Renzos but that is bjj specific.
If they could do it smart and open up a place like aka then for sure. You could even doing the mma gym in paradise like phuket top team or tiger muay thai. Aka even has one in phuket.

 

[DaleBoca]

600 members for a MMA gym?

 

[campbecc]

I would assume they would if they are willing to train rich people.

 

[Reign009]

Anyway, being an ex UFC fighter is only the start.

It takes a lot more than that and some guys just don't want to or don't know how to run a business.

 

[aerius]

Ask Mike Thomas Brown.

 

[Dreyga_King of Sherbums]

I follow some coaches on Instagram. Most seem to live very comfortable lifestyles— definitely upper middle class. I don’t think they are millionaire but they seem to be doing well.

 

[DivineMind]

600 members for a MMA gym?

Well like most dojos you have the hardcores and the casuals.

The casuals train jazzercise and cardio kickboxing and the hardcores train in the brutal arts.

At my old dojo they had yoga classes right across from our shototen karaze seminar. I remember launching several guys straight into their class with my skip kicks, and going in to apologize and collect some telephone numbers.

Good times.

 

[Morax]

It's sad that a dude can't just make a living showing his ass.

Speak for yourself, my glutes provide for my family in this household.

 

[TerrorTimmy]

It's sad that a dude can't just make a living showing his ass.

If you wanna go ahead and pay some dude for showing his ass, you go on ahead and do that

 

[Reign009]

Speak for yourself, my glutes provide for my family in this household.

You're one of the few lucky ones.

 

[Reign009]

If you wanna go ahead and pay some dude for showing his ass, you go on ahead and do that

Sorry about your dyslexia.

 

[HHJ]

600 members for a MMA gym?

Where is this stadium sized gym? I wanna know

 

[DivineMind]

Where is this stadium sized gym? I wanna know

At my first shototen dojo, we had 200 kids per class in a big gymnasium doing our keeyahs.

 

[TerrorTimmy]

Wondering what these guys like Stipe and Woodley could do, former champs out of the limelight.

For sure it seems like they could open their own gyms, everyone would want to train with a former champ?

I could imagine them making gobs of money and I could be a bit naive here, but I think they could be pulling in a million bucks of revenue a year (600 members, $150 per month, 12 months - 600 members might be a lot but that's how many members your average local Crunch or LA fitness gym has I believe).

I imagine some don't want to because it's a lot of work. But this is serious cash. The money is there for the taking. Thoughts?

It REALLY depends on the fighter.

If someone like GSP wanted to go start his own gym, he would likely need to have it be invite-only because too many people would want to go there.

But if a guy like, say, Leonard Garcia wanted to start a gym, he might have a lot of trouble getting it off the ground.

In your example, yeah sure $1 million sounds like a lot, but a real, top-level MMA gym would need a big space, a ton of equipment, insurance, trainers and other coaching staff, administrative staff...

It wouldn't be a lot of profit.

A much better way to go would be to train higher-level fighters primarily and maybe have certain hours or areas which are open to gym members. A gym like Jackson Wink does well because they make a portion of their fighters' purses, whatever that might be. If Jon Jones makes $5 million for a fight, he pays probably about 10% to the gym and coaches, which is $500,000 - just for one fighter for one fight. That's where the money really is.

MMA isn't comparable to LA Fitness because you need more than weight machines and treadmills. You need cages, dedicated spaces for different skill sets (wrestling, BJJ, boxing, etc), and specialized coaches to teach each of those areas. LA Fitness has a bunch of steroid junkies posing as "personal trainers" who mostly make commission from whoever they train on weight machines etc. They're not BJJ black belts or credentialed wrestlers.

 

[HHJ]

At my first shototen dojo, we had 200 kids per class in a big gymnasium doing our keeyahs.

200 and 600 is a big difference mr.

 

[DivineMind]

200 and 600 is a big difference mr.

Per class, you can have several classes a day, 7 days a week. That's a lot of kids. And to think I clawed my way up to rank 1 BB in the 1000 member kids division, under Inimoto no less.

 

[Ogata]

Matt Hughes started a gym when he lost his belt to GSP. He was still pretty famous and yet he had to sell his gym because he was a terrible trainer and business man.

Meanwhile, a local Hapkido dude in my town runs different locations around town and he is known as the: Supreme Grandmaster despite being overweight and no athletic ability.

McDojo money>>>>>>>>>>> MMA gym run by Former UFC champs

All hail the supreme grandmaster.

 

[DivineMind]

It REALLY depends on the fighter.

If someone like GSP wanted to go start his own gym, he would likely need to have it be invite-only because too many people would want to go there.

But if a guy like, say, Leonard Garcia wanted to start a gym, he might have a lot of trouble getting it off the ground.

In your example, yeah sure $1 million sounds like a lot, but a real, top-level MMA gym would need a big space, a ton of equipment, insurance, trainers and other coaching staff, administrative staff...

It wouldn't be a lot of profit.

A much better way to go would be to train higher-level fighters primarily and maybe have certain hours or areas which are open to gym members. A gym like Jackson Wink does well because they make a portion of their fighters' purses, whatever that might be. If Jon Jones makes $5 million for a fight, he pays probably about 10% to the gym and coaches, which is $500,000 - just for one fighter for one fight. That's where the money really is.

MMA isn't comparable to LA Fitness because you need more than weight machines and treadmills. You need cages, dedicated spaces for different skill sets (wrestling, BJJ, boxing, etc), and specialized coaches to teach each of those areas. LA Fitness has a bunch of steroid junkies posing as "personal trainers" who mostly make commission from whoever they train on weight machines etc. They're not BJJ black belts or credentialed wrestlers.

Good points, yea I can see how covering costs with the membership fees and then kicking up the profits to the next level with purse cuts can be decent money.

However, if you do a half-half mma gym and casual gym, you might be able to make it a bit more profitable.