Do you think UFC pay is stopping top athletes to become MMA fighters?

AdamWarlock

AdamWarlock

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That's why so many talented fighters turn to boxing.
And the best athletes in the world do not bother with MMA

If being in the Ufc only get you 100k a year and you have to pay your coaches and gym and taxes etc you get 50k in pocket then this isnt better than any office job in America, why would you risk brain damage for a job where you barely make ends meet.

Just seem like if your dream is to become a UFC fighter even if your dream came true it's not that good. I can't even imagine the fighters not making it in Ufc they probably need other side job just to survive

That's if you make it to the Ufc, and once you are out of Ufc what are you going to do? Are you going to be a trainer for younger fighter?

Seem like it's such a thankless sport.
 
Slows it down, sure.

OTOH, if UFC went out of business like Affliction, then top athletes will make even less at MMA.

It's how you balance those two facts - and about 4 dozen other facts - that makes one come to a conclusion (or not) around the fighter pay issue.
 
Let's be real it isn't just UFC pay, they just get the bulk of the blame as the leading org.

Nobody in MMA is paying what boxing and the Associations/Leagues pay their athletes. They don't have the TV and the licensing agreements backing them near as much to be able to.

Modern sports, esp in the US, are almost geared to not push people into MMA. Other options all start in childhood, where wrestling is one of the few kids start in that might feed MMA later, but it's usually not their goal upon starting to wrestle as a kid.
 
Yes.

MMA pays awfully,

on the high end (ufc in particular) because of how restrictive their sponsorship opportunities are due to contract conditions.

For the vast bulk of fighters it's even worse with limited sponsorship opportunities combined with shitty pay.

Nobody dreams of making ufc money.
 
Let's approach this backwards. Are there any top athletes that we believed to be on a path to the UFC that opted to do something more lucrative

For example Gabel Stevenson medaled at the Olympics and opted to sign with the WWE. I believe he was later released without performing and it remains to be seen if he will try his hand at MMA. I don't know that to be a financial decision, but I do think WWE stardom pays better in most cases.

If compensation is the problem there should be a bunch of these.

Conor left to box, got paid, then came right back. Big Frank left to box and is expected to get a big payday, but that hasn't panned out yet. It's worth noting they both did in fact become MMA fighters so it wasn't "stopping them from becoming MMA fighters".

We've also seen plenty of athletes leave other sports and later pursue MMA. Morton, Mitrione, Hardy, Schuab, Marcus Jones. So the pay can't be that bad.
 
Of course.

Fighting is a tough sport and getting CTE for peanuts (which is what happens to the overwhelming majority of fighters in the UFC) is not a draw.

Most sports pay 50% of revenue, and the UFC pays a fraction of that. Therefore, the UFC is paying badly even for a lesser sport without the kind of overall revenue of other sports.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, I thought the sport would evolve into something huge with a massive talent pool, but it never did. I didn't calculate that it would be run by grubbers that pay a small percentage of revenue. I absolutely think the talent pool would be bigger if they paid better.

Some athletes surely start training and give up- they realize early on once they start competing elsewhere, that even if they make the big show (the UFC) it will be unlikely they will ever make serious money. They have less to aspire to in that way.
 
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If you're at the level where you're only making $100k/year in the UFC, then the equivalent level for boxing is probably like $30k. Yeah, the same applies with any sport if you try but come up short and don't make it to the top.
 
jx820 said:
Let's approach this backwards. Are there any top athletes that we believed to be on a path to the UFC that opted to do something more lucrative

For example Gabel Stevenson medaled at the Olympics and opted to sign with the WWE. I believe he was later released without performing and it remains to be seen if he will try his hand at MMA. I don't know that to be a financial decision, but I do think WWE stardom pays better in most cases.

If compensation is the problem there should be a bunch of these.

Conor left to box, got paid, then came right back. Big Frank left to box and is expected to get a big payday, but that hasn't panned out yet. It's worth noting they both did in fact become MMA fighters so it wasn't "stopping them from becoming MMA fighters".

We've also seen plenty of athletes leave other sports and later pursue MMA. Morton, Mitrione, Hardy, Schuab, Marcus Jones. So the pay can't be that bad.
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The Gable example is a good one, but worth noting that the belief is he'll be back in WWE. Also he did perform, just not on the big shows.

There was news a few weeks back that he'd been released but then he did some house shows the next weekend. The release news spawned from his removal from internal rosters, but it seems he's maybe still with them.
 
nostradumbass said:
If you're at the level where you're only making $100k/year in the UFC, then the equivalent level for boxing is probably like $30k. Yeah, the same applies with any sport if you try but come up short and don't make it to the top.
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No, a bunch players in NBA, premier League or NFL make millions for their contract even if they don't play a single first team game
 
jx820 said:
We've also seen plenty of athletes leave other sports and later pursue MMA. Morton, Mitrione, Hardy, Schuab, Marcus Jones. So the pay can't be that bad.
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Those are far and few between, and those who were actually good in their previous sport are even fewer. Choosing MMA over other sports is different than failing in other sports and going to fighting. You don't build a talent pool by taking rejects and failures from other sports (or athletes that are older and often damaged coming from other sports).
 
AdamWarlock said:
No, a bunch players in NBA, premier League or NFL make millions for their contract even if they don't play a single first team game
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Right, they get drafted onto a team for a full time job, and if they come up short and don't get drafted onto a team, they play in some minor league for not much money for a few years then have to give up and be a gym teacher.
 
It 100% is. Why would any kid aspire to be a UFC fighter? Get massive cte and paid peanuts, while having the president talk shit about you and your fans? UFC doesn't want the top athletes or frankly the top fighters. They want the illusion of having the best, while paying them peanuts.
 
nostradumbass said:
Right, they get drafted onto a team for a full time job, and if they come up short and don't get drafted onto a team, they play in some minor league for not much money for a few years then have to give up and be a gym teacher.
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right, but even if you get "drafted" into ufc and not some minor fighting organization, you can still only make ends meet, that's the difference

if you watch tuf you see 20 fighters all with good fighting records and only 2 or 3 make it to the ufc
 
Obviously, especially if your athleticism provides you with other options. Why do something so difficult for so little
 
Factor in USADA and it’s pretty much why the LHW/HW division have basically 0 talent in them these days. There aren’t a lot of big athletic dudes in the world, a lot of them choose to do other things because getting peanuts for brain damage and broken limbs isn’t really worth it.
 
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