Help me Understand MMA Fighter Financials..

GigEm

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How the hell do these guys make ends meet?

Let's say the average fighter makes $60-80K annually.

How much goes to training, nutrition, etc.?

Average career is 10 years?

Then what?? How do they do it?
 
Until you are at the elite level it is just another hobby that may pay.
 
They generally make ends meet by training noons like me when not in a fight camp if they don't have additional outside income.
Plus you aren't considering the sponsorship $ they still receive, Reebok only gets the hooks in them for fights and weigh in apparel.
 
It sucks but unless you are a top fighter, you're not making the $.

Look at Aljo, young, talented, charismatic and top 5 in his division. Guy can't even get a $40/$40 contract
 
It's like many sports where you hope to hit the bigtime. Unfortunately in other sports your dreams are usually exhausted sooner. A solid gatekeeper can do alright, but in many cases not all that great. On the other hand, we don't even truly know all the financials, only what is reported. I think you'd have to seriously love it and really believe in your potential to keep grinding it out for many years. Name recognition can help in other business ventures as well if they choose to smartly opt into those during or after their career.
 
I don't know how MMA fighters do it, life must be incredibly hard for them.

Its like the average policeman in USA only makes around 45k a year. Surely we can forgive them shooting the odd black kid for his dope money!! Everyone should be paid 120k per year no matter the job!

Also, screw those commys in wall street and vote trump!
 
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You don't need to train, you don't need proper nutrition.

You could just watch "how to" on youtube all day and eat Ramen.

But maybe if you got a proper trainer and ate some meat, you might be a bit more successful.

Just like any business, you don't need to advertise your store, but maybe a tv ad will bring in business.
 
It sucks but unless you are a top fighter, you're not making the $.

Look at Aljo, young, talented, charismatic and top 5 in his division. Guy can't even get a $40/$40 contract

Shame is top fighter or not you're not making shit unless you're a big draw. Gotta get on twitter and phone it in till you have a meme or two then you can be important.
 
They make enough money to execute covered call options on Wall Street.
 
About 20 years ago I went to Thailand to become a Thai boxer. I figured I was making more as a teacher, around 25K/year, so I decided to not make the transition after all.

The point is, yes, the money is crap, but if it is your dream, you have to make the hard decisions.

The money is probably the same now unless you can make it big.
 
It is quite sad that you're going to make a better living (well, more stable? ) in WWE than you will in MMA.
 
in a perfect world all fighters would make enough money to be able to make mma a full time job but this ain't a perfect world and the truth is only the top guys in their respective division and ufc veterans make the big dollars to be able to do this full time, for the rest of guys who have to crawl and scratch their way up this is simply a part time job to make some extra cash on the side but with big benefits depending on how well you do

besides these guys fight what 3 times a year MAX? most 2 times a year that's a lot of extra time on your hands you can spend doing something else

as for training not all of these guys would go to the most expensive gyms available or higher the most expensive nutrionist you simply go with what you can afford until you can afford better not everyone starts out owning a Benz
 
Not sure how well the average MMA fighter is doing today, but he's doing a hell of a lot better than the guys 15 years ago.
 
It is quite sad that you're going to make a better living (well, more stable? ) in WWE than you will in MMA.
I make more money on a construction site day in/day out than most of these guys get to be amongst the best in the world at something. It's pretty terrible really, I did a 4 year apprenticeship, and take next to no risks. These guys invest their entire lives and take big risks.
When you look at it, it's hard to justify the risk vs reward. I used to know a really skilled guy when I was training that would of done OK, but he told me its just not worth turning pro if you've got options and went to university instead
 

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