News Matt Brown argues ‘if anybody is to blame for fighter pay, it’s the fighters"

skylolow said:
It isn't that Americans fear unions, it is the original concept of the why the union was started in many fields that has ran its course and is more or less out lived its own good in some fields today. They then become cancers to the business itself. They strong arm manufacturing/production line companies to the point that in hinders growth of companies and in some cases literally is a major reason of why they went out of business. Auto labor unions for example as technology and robots came on board many auto manufactures had 100's of employees sitting at home getting paid for decades because of the labor deal with the unions they couldn't just let people go. Right or wrong, job field is always changing and in most walks of life no one is ever 100% safe in their job. The unions have there place, no doubt about it, but flipside is there are many cases where the union has done its deed and are now just hanging around squeezing the life out some companies. As an example, there is jobs literally as simple as pushing a button every 10 mins. moving a roll of paper on a dolly ten feet for someone else to come move it to another warehouse. That person pressing that button make likes $50 to $60 an hour. Yet, a nurse might make $35 an hour saving lives. One has a union and other may not.
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ok thanks for your info. i have never heard of these examples, but they seem like the other extreme. labor unions and employers/employer organisations should negotiate with each other for an outcome that benefits both survivability/growth for the company as income security for the employers. these negotiated deals should only last a couple of years (because of economic tidings etc) to me now it seems that it is more of a power struggle and 1 has to come up on top?? to the point that alot of americans dont like unions.

I only heard and read about corrupt unions or unions run by the mob, but not like what youy said. it puts it more into perspective. still a shame though. I do hope that mma fighters form a union that actually functions
 
It's funny how American's supposedly dislike unions but the most American of sports NFL football has a union that's worked pretty damn well for its players

 
payton said:
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“It’s hard to expect the UFC to just be completely fair about it,”

“They’re running a business, and they run it very f*cking well. They’ve done an amazing job building their business. I think 99 percent of people in their shoes would be doing very similar to what they’re doing."

“Does that make it right? That’s up to each person to decide on their own. I think it’s just way more complex than people give it credit for.”

“If anybody is to blame for fighter pay, it’s the fighters and I’m one of them, at least formerly,”

“I never fought against the UFC about my pay"

“I’ve never heard of a business in my life where the employees — if you want to call us employees or even subcontractors — where they’re going to say, ‘I shouldn’t be paid more, they’re paying me a perfect amount of money.’ That is so unbelievable to me.”

www.mmafighting.com

Matt Brown argues ‘if anybody is to blame for fighter pay, it’s the fighters — and I’m one of them’

Matt Brown argues that the fighters have to take at least part of the blame when it comes to pay disparity in MMA compared to other major sports.
www.mmafighting.com www.mmafighting.com

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Matt is a fav of mine but he’s an absolute idiot on this topic.
 

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Whining about fighter pay subforum please Admin

Most needed thing on sherdog

Get this constant bleating out of the heavies
 
Söze Aldo said:
It's funny how American's supposedly dislike unions but the most American of sports NFL football has a union that's worked pretty damn well for its players

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Sports unions/associations are great and done properly in most cases. Mainly because revenue of these leagues continue to rise. If the market shifted downward one side might not quite feel like they are getting a very good deal and are now locked in for 10 years or whatever.

It's other career lines that you can question the continue need or the extreme measures they go to. Once again, this isn't all unions and not all Americans are for or against unions. I would say for the most part Americans to a point are pro union but can easily see where some unions just seem to be out of line at times.
 
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Hassan Mouzine said:
ok thanks for your info. i have never heard of these examples, but they seem like the other extreme. labor unions and employers/employer organisations should negotiate with each other for an outcome that benefits both survivability/growth for the company as income security for the employers. these negotiated deals should only last a couple of years (because of economic tidings etc) to me now it seems that it is more of a power struggle and 1 has to come up on top?? to the point that alot of americans dont like unions.

I only heard and read about corrupt unions or unions run by the mob, but not like what youy said. it puts it more into perspective. still a shame though. I do hope that mma fighters form a union that actually functions
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You're 100% right. The issue is business and markets can change drastically over the course of just a few years. A deal you signed 4 years ago was fair for all sides. Covid hits and shit hits the fan, that deal is now awful for one side and they have little options to resolve it.

You're the worker you like the union in most cases. Owners of the these businesses it is a necessary evil to deal with. Trust me when I say there is many union jobs that the average person would be shocked at the hourly pay for what the job is and would generally agree that is too much. Right or wrong, that for each to decide.
 
skylolow said:
Sports unions/associations are great and done properly in most cases. Mainly because revenue of these leagues continue to rise. If the market shifted downward one side might not quite feel like they are getting a very good deal and are now locked in for 10 years or whatever.

It's other career lines that you can question the continue need or the extreme measures they go to. Once again, this isn't all unions and not all Americans are for or against unions. I would say for the most part Americans to a point are pro union but can easily see where some unions just seem to be out of line at times.
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I agree for the most part, sports players unions especially today are great for its players as profits for popular major league sports continue to grow in value and UFC fighters specifically are missing out on the continued growth in value of the UFC. The problem is people (possibly spurred by the UFC) seem to plant in fans and fighters minds that unions suck when in a sports league context they are incredible.

In the streaming age live sports are going to be one of the few forms of entertainment to grow in value and you'll still have UFC fighters begging for 50k performance bonuses live on Netflix.
 
He doesn't undertand that the fighters aren't typical employees. They're business themselves, with their own employees and so on. However, I think I get his point. The UFC model works well as an entertainment business because it treats its fighters as plebeians, a kind of modern gladiators. If they treat them too well or as business partners, the fighters may become complacent and lose their hunger for violence and glory (and more money).
 
DirtyBadger said:

WHAT THE IMMORTAL BRAND IS ALL ABOUT​

Coffee with a conscious that empowers those who want to BE IMMORTAL. Our mission is to source the world’s highest quality coffees sustainably sourced via fair and direct trade. We take pride in knowing that the workers who took part in the life cycle of the coffee you drink were not taken advantage of and were paid a fair and decent wage. We want to provide the world with socially conscious and health conscious coffee.

Immortal Coffee - Our Story
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Oh Matt... <lol>
 
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I partly agree and partly disagree. Yes, the UFC has to run a business, and they have to think bigger than the needs and desires of one particular fighter. At the same time they've been too stingy and directed too much of the profits towards investors/owners rather than fighters. You are literally selling men and women taking body and brain damage for the publics entertainment but you spend less than a quarter of your profits on fighter pay and other benefits. I used to defend the UFC on this when I thought they were inches from the financial cliffside and the sport wasn't developed enough to sustain a big sport pay structure. But now that owners have been getting millions and billions in actual payouts it's past time to shift more towards the people who fans are actually paying to see.

Now on the fighter side of "fault" I think that fighters need to start seeing how they can use the UFC as a platform for their personal brand and get business deals that will pay them more than the UFC ever will. There are a handful of fighters that understand this and have used it to do very well for themselves. Conor and Jorge Masvidal are notable examples. Fighters need to stop treating this like a hobby and treating the fans like they are just random people that showed up. Its your business. You are going to be famous anyway so you might as put a little energy and time into cultivating an audience that will pay to see you fight or buy your merch or liquor brand. Get a business manager that doesn't just negotiate your UFC contract but helps you with your social media marketing and negotiates outside business deals for you.
 
He's right in the sense that they need to play hardball with the UFC and be prepared to go elsewhere or walk away entirely if their conditions aren't met. The problem is that for most fighters the UFC sees them as replaceable (and the continued Apex events prove them right) and the ones that aren't are much better compensated. Maybe not fully compared to the likes of boxing, but enough to not be worth playing hardball and bouncing around other orgs that either can't match what UFC offers or risk going belly up.
 
This guy has always been very limited when he decides to talk about... pretty much anything outside of MMA.
 
If the UFC was on this list I'm assuming the average UFC fighter would be well behind MLS players despite the UFC raking in way more money than that league

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Söze Aldo said:
If the UFC was on this list I'm assuming the average UFC fighter would be well behind MLS players despite the UFC raking in way more money than that league

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UFC doesn't rake in more money. MLS is around 2 billion a year in revenue and is expanding next year.

Salary wise MLS is lower than most sports, usually only around 24-26% of revenue going towards players so that alone should tell you that their total revenue has to be higher than the UFCs in order to pay that average salary.

Even the NHL (which isn't one of the big 3 leagues) has almost 5x the revenue as the UFC
 
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