Is UFC fighter pay that bad really?

finalboss

finalboss

Brown Belt
@Brown
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
3,665
Reaction score
215
So I ran into a yahoo column showing Bellator 238's salaries which are as follows:
  • Cris Cyborg: $250,000 (no win bonus) def. Julia Budd: $350,000
  • Darrion Caldwell: $25,000 (no win bonus) def. Adam Borics: $28,000
  • Juan Archuleta: $50,000 (no win bonus) def. Henry Corrales: $38,000
  • Sergio Pettis: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def. Alfred Khashakyan: $10,000
  • Raymond Daniels: $20,000 (no win bonus) def. Jason King: $3,000
  • Emilee King: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus) def. Ava Knight: $5,000
  • Tony Bartovich: $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus) def. Jarrett Connor: $1,200
  • Ricardo Seixas: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus) def. Dominic Clark: $2,000
  • Joshua Jones: $4,500 (includes $2,250 win bonus) def. Brandon Bender: $2,000
  • Aaron Pico: $45,000 (includes $22,500 win bonus) def. Daniel Carey: $10,000
  • AJ Agazarm: $40,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Adel Altamimi: $14,000
  • Jay Jay Wilson: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Mario Navarro: $2,000
  • Curtis Millender: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Moses Murietta: $4,000
  • Anthony Taylor: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus) def. Chris Avila: $3,000
  • Miguel Jacob: $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus) def. David Pacheco: $1,500
So a guy made as little as $1500 for one fight??? So I checked average UFC fight pay. In 2018, the average fighter made $138,250 a year! Now, I know not everyone is making $1500 and fighting once a year, but even fighting 3 times a year at $50,000 still puts you under the average.

My question is, as far as pay goes, is the UFC that much of an evil empire as far as MMA pay goes?
 
this is one reason why so much lack in talent, because the athletes are going to other sports, football, american football, basketball etc
 
Julia Budd: $350,000
Raymond Daniels: $20,000

{<doc}
 
It's not fighter pay across the board - it's the way it's distributed.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trentr...payouts-two-fighters-earn-salaries-of-500000/

Jeremy Stephens, a veteran of 46 pro fights, got paid $67,000.

If you're at the top end, a consistent draw or a champ, the pay is decent. But there are a great deal of experienced and talented fighters in that midrange who would be way better off in Bellator and that's why a lot of people have moved over.
 
finalboss said:
So I ran into a yahoo column showing Bellator 238's salaries which are as follows:
  • Cris Cyborg: $250,000 (no win bonus) def. Julia Budd: $350,000
  • Darrion Caldwell: $25,000 (no win bonus) def. Adam Borics: $28,000
  • Juan Archuleta: $50,000 (no win bonus) def. Henry Corrales: $38,000
  • Sergio Pettis: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def. Alfred Khashakyan: $10,000
  • Raymond Daniels: $20,000 (no win bonus) def. Jason King: $3,000
  • Emilee King: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus) def. Ava Knight: $5,000
  • Tony Bartovich: $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus) def. Jarrett Connor: $1,200
  • Ricardo Seixas: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus) def. Dominic Clark: $2,000
  • Joshua Jones: $4,500 (includes $2,250 win bonus) def. Brandon Bender: $2,000
  • Aaron Pico: $45,000 (includes $22,500 win bonus) def. Daniel Carey: $10,000
  • AJ Agazarm: $40,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Adel Altamimi: $14,000
  • Jay Jay Wilson: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Mario Navarro: $2,000
  • Curtis Millender: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Moses Murietta: $4,000
  • Anthony Taylor: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus) def. Chris Avila: $3,000
  • Miguel Jacob: $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus) def. David Pacheco: $1,500
So a guy made as little as $1500 for one fight??? So I checked average UFC fight pay. In 2018, the average fighter made $138,250 a year! Now, I know not everyone is making $1500 and fighting once a year, but even fighting 3 times a year at $50,000 still puts you under the average.

My question is, as far as pay goes, is the UFC that much of an evil empire as far as MMA pay goes?
Click to expand...

The big difference between the UFC and Bellator is in the sponsorship possibilities.
 
Comparing the lowest fighter pay per event vs average yearly pay, fail.
Not long ago ufc was paying 2k for a fight too.
Nate was getting payed 20/20 before he beat Conor.
They all pay cheap though.
 
Also the average ufc fighter pay is like $41,000 a year.... too lazy to bring up the source though lol. It isn’t $100,000 like stated above.
 
Yes, it's bad.
You have to pay taxes and camps.
Cheapest camp is 20 000 $ = coaches, gym, sparring partners, medical, supplements, food.
If you want good camp, you should pay more.
Champs camps can be up to 100 000 $ and more.

That leaves little cash, considering fighters will not get pension after retirement.
 
The UFC acts as the premier organization but at the same time uses its undercard as talent discovery. Since the ufc or mma doesnt have an ncaa fighter talent pool, they also have to recruit, therefor the guys being paid LOW LOW wages are just like college football/basketball players. It doesnt look good but its a must.

They should really do a UFC Regional circuit. Or a UFC D-league like the nba does. Make those fights amateur fights. But be able to use it to recruit potential talent. That way they dont have to put those 8k/8k guys on the same card as Conor Mcgregor lol. Miles Jury and Usman recently broke down fighter pay, and i downright feel sorry for the low level guys. And god forbid if they lose. Paying trainers, agent, nutrition, travel and other costs. And they are making NOTHING. Probably in the negative. U gotta mel like 20k/20k to even put food on the table. A guy going .500 in the ufc has 0 job security
 
Doesn't every ufc fighter make millions?
 
If you want a sport that has REALLY bad pay - try rugby. Bigger sport than MMA, has a much bigger talent pool, better athletes, 80 minute long games, physicality not all that far off MMA and most players are playing 20-30 games per year...but theres maybe 5 guys in the entire sport making 7 figures from it, average salary is low six figures. You've got multiple guys in the UFC making more from a single 15 minute fight.
 
They should be happy to get paid at all and fight for a living. Bunch of divas.
 
What really REALLY hurts UFC lower level guys is sponosrship.... Even the elite guys are effected by it.

Regional new guys might be able to wear their local butchers logo or maybe someone who assisted them providing training services or something for free. The UFC doesn't have that in any way. They're basically employed exclusively by the UFC but are contracted as low level freelancers. Same kind of shit you'd hire a fruit picker with.
 
Not if you removed the taxes and training camp fees..
 
Reebok deal is fucking the newer/lower level fighters over MASSIVELY. Dudes used to be able to EAT off sponsors. They can't anymore.
 
First you need to look at total pay versus total earnings and make relevant comparisons with other sports.
Major established sports pay roughly 50% of earnings to their athletes. UFC is something like 18%. Bellator ?

After that you can look at distribution of who gets what.

You have started at point 2 without going through point 1 first.

Shills for UFC say there are special circumstances why UFC is so far below the standard but they are not able to explain what they are.

Niche sport with no union(or professional association) = profit gouging by owners.

All of the major established sports went through this profit gouging stage and all of them got to where they are now by the athletes unionising.

Whats more, when these sports started to pay fairly, they started to benefit from the athletes and owners working together grow the market and make both athletes and owners richer. This is Counter intuitive to War Room types but it is what happened.

The government could kick start this by making The Ali Act apply to MMA and all combat sports. UFC spend a lot of money on lobbyists to try to stop this happening.
 
Holy shit imagine an 8 week training camp to only make 1500$
 
Seems bad for fighters in general. On average you end up being poor and brain damaged which means awful and early death.
 
MEAN357 said:
Holy shit imagine an 8 week training camp to only make 1500$
Click to expand...

Not only 8 weeks, but you need at least 5 years of prior mma practice and then you get your face smashed in by another poor bastard like you. thats mma for ya
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,064
Messages
55,464,670
Members
174,785
Latest member
JoyceOuthw

Share this page

Back
Top