Pay comparison between of yesterday’s UFC main event winner and boxing’s B side winner.

[chiefwiggum]

Sherdog. “Just wait 200 more years then mma guys will be paid properly. It’s in its infancy. Ignore how much the company makes.
Boxing has been around for hundreds of years”

 

[Shaddows]

"But you see how Conor changed the mindset of many fighters. Now they negotiate better and get more money out of the UFC.
Granted. Most that do that are the ones with bargaining power, but at the same time, lesser fighters are wisening up as well." There's absolutely no evidence this is true. The UFC's earnings have only increased, something you probably wouldn't see if fighters were suddenly negotiating for better splits.

This is not an automatic process, nor can be done from a day to the next.
Each fighter have their own contract with varying number of fights until they can negotiate new contracts.
That is why I mentioned it will take time. But it is happening.
But you can see even young promising fighters (i.e. Sugar) negotiating better contracts for himself and publicly speaking about it. something that was unheard of prior.

Fighters are becoming businessmen as well, and this mindset change takes some time. But IMHO it is inevitable.

 

[listrahtes]

Crazy to think about Usyk who is a relative unknown to casuals made over 4 million to beat on AJ while Volk went through a war and won’t even come close to numbers like that.

You cant compare that. Its boxing heavyweight and a multiple title defending fight between two olympic gold medallists, one of the alltime best CW moving up and right now the nr.1 HW in boxing.

Usyk maybe unknown to you but he is very well known among boxing fans for years. Definitely much more than a Volkanowski especially after his Gassiev and Briedis wins.

This can more be compared to a Lesnar vs. Overeem fight in terms of marketabillity.

 

[Oceanmachine]

Why are MMA fans or male fans of sports in general such simps for rich men? Why do you care and want them to make even more $ while you are probably not getting a pay raise?

 

[NoSmilez]

They aren't the same. UFC doesn't really have an unfair B side. They provide some sort of standardization even though they do have their favorites. The UFC doesn't have a winner's vs loser's corner in the cage. The more popular fighter can't choose the size of the gloves, type of gloves, the venue, date, size of the ring and even weight class. The B side in boxing comes in to knowing they will make a decent amount of money but the odds are a bit stacked against them. Sometimes the B side are willing to make the concessions in order to make the money or the chance to win. It's not like the B side has alternative. He makes shit fighting another unpopular fighter that might be riskier to fight.

Boxing is a sport where you have a loss. Your worth drops exponentially especially when you aren't a popular person or have a following. Guys like Brian Ortega will probably stop making reasonable money if this was boxing. UFC also invests in building newer characters up with their primetime type shows. I am not shilling for the UFC but these are not the same sport. UFC does pay higher than any other org even those lead by boxing promoters.

 

[jx820]

It cost $13 million. That's pocket change for the UFC in the grand scheme.

From the door your goal post moving. You said they're not spending tens of millions, when the discussion comes to a single building being a 13 million dollar investment barring all of their other international investments which absolutely come to greater than 7 million dollars making it "tens". Now it's pocket change.

If you are going to have an intellectually dishonest conversation I'm out.

 

[SKITZADACTYL]

WTF I HATE THE UFC NOW


good lord stop with this shit, boxing will always pay more for stars, its been around for over a hundred years.

 

[wwkirk]

boxing will always pay more for stars, its been around for over a hundred years.

A lot of people say this, but I'm not sure of the logic. Is the idea that boxing is significantly more popular? Otherwise, I don't see why being an older sport means higher pay for participants.

I also have heard many times that MMA has overtaken boxing in popularity. Still looking for concrete evidence for that claim.

 

[DC23]

How did the rest of the Usyk / AJ card do in terms of pay? Anyone?

 

[lagofala]

It depends on the fighter. Conor was a FW and got paid. Roman Gonzales got paid 500K for the estrada rematch.

 

[jjresq]

Champions should be getting at least 1 million in show at this point. But comparing HW boxing to FW MMA is ridiculous.

Gervonta Davis made 5 million in his last fight and the guy he fought made 1.5 million.

 

[Local Plata]

Usyk is known in boxing...just because casual MMA fans don't know who he is doesn't mean he's a "relative unknown".

 

[RogerB08]

How much did the undercard guys get paid. Boxing loves to tour how great they pay the guys in the big fights, but never mention the under guys who are getting 2k to take damage as the warm up act.

 

[SirRealKiller]

I'm pretty sure Boxing is still more popular worldwide than MMA so this shouldn't be a surprise.

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

Crazy to think about Usyk who is a relative unknown to casuals made over 4 million to beat on AJ while Volk went through a war and won’t even come close to numbers like that.

Now put volk vs Ortega on Bellator and how many eyeballs does it get? So are they the draw or did UFC make them the draw? What kinda attention is Phil Davis getting from casuals right now?

 

[JRD054]

Yeah surprise surprise

 

[Breakitdown]

Champions should be getting at least 1 million in show at this point. But comparing HW boxing to FW MMA is ridiculous.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

Hold on a second so I can work up some tears for a guy making 500k +ppv per fight..

 

[kflo]

A lot of people say this, but I'm not sure of the logic. Is the idea that boxing is significantly more popular? Otherwise, I don't see why being an older sport means higher pay for participants.

I also have heard many times that MMA has overtaken boxing in popularity. Still looking for concrete evidence for that claim.

this is why... the top draws in boxing make more than the top draws in mma because the top draws in boxing can go to many different promoters and draw about the same. that gives them the power.

in mma, no fighter can draw similar numbers under a different banner than they can in the ufc. that gives the fighter less power in terms of % of revenue.

the flip side is that the baseline revenue and fan base is going to be inherently higher with the ufc because they have a built in fan base that has allegiance to the org.

 

[GUY]

Same question as above, what does this have to do with wage share? What start up costs are the UFC paying out that boxing doesn't in the 21st century?

Boxing probably gets better tv deals and better sponsors. Specially better sponsors, as MMA fans are seen as trashy and no respectful brand wants to be associated with the sport (unfortunately) while boxing is seen as a classy sport and all the brands like to associate with it.