Provide an argument for increasing fighter pay

How many performances for WWE get from that 250K athlete? I assume a lot more than UFC fighters which means they have a smaller roster and can pay more because the pie is being cut up between less people and still maintain a shitload of profit.
Its not about performances its about revenue. WWE currently has 240 wrestlers (actor athletes) they also pay referees (actors) not sure how many but the WWE pays them and the UFC does not as the commissions pay the staff. UFC has approx 578 fighters under contract.

Last I checked it was about 2:1 for the number of WWE people vs UFC. UFC had $1.1B revenue and the approx % paid to fighters is 15% which = $165,000,000. WWE % of revenue paid to wrestlers isn't readily available and I am not going to dig too deep. I know that some of their info is public as a publicly traded company but I have never heard of anyone coming up with a figure of a % of revenue paid to athletes since they aren't a sport where the UFC is still considered a sport.

In 2021 the WWE reported $1.095B revenue with $608m expenses. part of that is labour but not all of it of course.

It will be interesting moving forward with WME being a public company to see how fighter pay rises.
 
Its not about performances its about revenue. WWE currently has 240 wrestlers (actor athletes) they also pay referees (actors) not sure how many but the WWE pays them and the UFC does not as the commissions pay the staff. UFC has approx 578 fighters under contract.

Last I checked it was about 2:1 for the number of WWE people vs UFC. UFC had $1.1B revenue and the approx % paid to fighters is 15% which = $165,000,000. WWE % of revenue paid to wrestlers isn't readily available and I am not going to dig too deep. I know that some of their info is public as a publicly traded company but I have never heard of anyone coming up with a figure of a % of revenue paid to athletes since they aren't a sport where the UFC is still considered a sport.

In 2021 the WWE reported $1.095B revenue with $608m expenses. part of that is labour but not all of it of course.

It will be interesting moving forward with WME being a public company to see how fighter pay rises.

Wouldn't surprise me if it was similar percentage in the end because the top wrestlers get paid less than top UFC fighters.

UFC might not pay the refs directly, but they pay the commission for providing them.

The thing both UFC and WWE have in common is they do their own production which isn't normal for sports. Like for example the NBA doesn't do production for any of the games, even draft night they just run the event they don't produce.
 
Who cares about fighters' pay. I just want to seem them beating the shit out of each other.
 
I think sinnce UFC is the #1 MMA org on planet earth, there definitely needs to be a minimum base pay. Like maybe $30k/$30k. That way even the curtain jerkers know that they've made it. But the big money should only go to the guys who actually sell.
 
You call me stupid but you present a bunch of unsupported opinions.

I mean it’s just your opinions that broken bones should mean more pay.

I don’t understand how breaking your bone generates money or entitles you to

Please explain.
Look up exploitation in the dictionary if your view on the situation is that simplistic. Jeebus. Obviously feeding the troll here.
 
25/25 ain't what it was when the Sam Stouts of the world were fighting.
 
The principals/business strategies the UFC follow(s) are everything that's wrong with modern capitalism
You aren't going to work your way to the top without proper connections and unfair advantages.
Why is douchebag Dana worth close to a billion when DJ, who has the the most title defenses in ufc history, probably barely scratched a million in his whole UFC career?
You could argue, okay, DJ didn't sell enough.
Why the fuck is Dana killing it then and DJ scrapping by when he's doing his job, but Dana isn't? Dana literally just bashes his own product instead of selling it, yet he is on the top. The only time I've ever seen Dana full on promote anyone is McGregor vs Mayweather.
Is the promotor really worth that much more than the athlete?
All combat sports are fucked.
Everything today in sports also is all about making as much noise and drama and to look as dumb as possible to "sell" a shitty fight.
The guys with Instagram followers get paid, whether they're the best or not
It's all a popularity contest inside of an entertainment structure
Tldr
Yeah, fighters are getting fooked
 
I have no real issues with steadily increasing fighter pay. I just assume fighters are not going to fight as much and it will be harder to get big fights.
 
Wouldn't surprise me if it was similar percentage in the end because the top wrestlers get paid less than top UFC fighters.
I agree with what you said except this part. Maybe Conor gets paid higher but Lesnar gets $12M and he gets 50% of PPV when he is on them. 50% is fucking huge and Conor doesn't get that. The other top WWE people getting $4-5 million also have smaller PPV % that put them in line with or ahead of a Jon Jones or ??? not sure who else the UFC has that is a big earner.
 
I agree with what you said except this part. Maybe Conor gets paid higher but Lesnar gets $12M and he gets 50% of PPV when he is on them. 50% is fucking huge and Conor doesn't get that. The other top WWE people getting $4-5 million also have smaller PPV % that put them in line with or ahead of a Jon Jones or ??? not sure who else the UFC has that is a big earner.

Yeah there are one or two in WWE paid a lot but it seems to fall off quickly https://sportsbrief.com/wwe/15286-revelead-the-top-12-highest-paid-wwe-wrestlers/ while I think there are more at the top bracket for UFC.

I assume Conor is paid more than Lesnar but it is a guess based on what Francis was offered and Conor is 10 times more valuable to UFC than Francis (not saying he got paid 10x more but they aren't even close in value they bring).

PPV's are waaaay cheaper for WWE so while a larger cut I am not sure it is worth that much and the PPV's are free on lots of networks as part of subscribing for the network. For example if you subscribe to binge for 9.99(AU dollars) a month (of which WWE is a minor part) you get PPV's of WWE for free, so I don't know how much value PPVs are too wrestlers in WWE.

Either way I would be surprised if the WWE were spending a larger percentage to fighters than UFC because they clearly have significantly higher production costs to the UFC. They put loads of effort making their shows visually amazing while the UFC production is fairly minimal and cookie cutter.
 
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I appreciate the response and time it took to write..


However Khabib and Izzy are hardly the examples to use.. how about Moreno? Or DJ ...Amanda Nunes? ...Volk? ...what about stipe? ...jamahal hill? glover?..Jiri?

My comment wasnt that champions dont make millions...my comment was ALL champions should be making 1mill a fight Minimum...

Its a better look for the sport and it encourages others to want to be champions thus athlete cross over is higher ...

Also some of us who care about fighter pay are martial artist ourselves or know people who are ...and understand first hand what it takes to make it there or what goes into fight prep...and for those who dont buy streams or merch...the current Revenue spilt is like 18% if that ...so what exactly are they giving to the fighters exactly? ...how much of that 18% is trickling down to guys on the undercard vs paying Izzy's check?...
I have a few friends who fought in the regionals and Bellator. They realized early on that MMA is not for them & a career. You put these fighters too on a high pedestal, half of these guys are not very good in the first place and will never make the money like the top fighters to live comfortable. It's better they put their time and energy into something else. If you have friends or know people who are fighting for peanuts and isn't getting anywhere due to their lack of skills then you better have a talk with them, because MMA pay isn't getting better at a fast rate. Sometimes the truth hurts and it's better they hear it early on while they still have their facilities in check. By the way, purchasing a PPV something is atleast going to the fighters which is better than nothing, but since others care so much about fighter pay and hate for the UFC they chose to find whichever way to not support these fighters other than creating threads online about said fighter pay which always ends up becoming a circle jerk of Dana haters & UFC haters.

I'm sure all the champions are getting paid good, Hill, Glover & Jiri just won the titles, As we have seen, champions make money once they defend & keep winning. I'm sure they got bonuses for wining the championship anyway. Most of the time, fighters who complain about fighter pay are not good to begin with.
 
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New fighter: "what can I do for them?"
Same New fighter but now with exciting performances and wins: "what can they do for me?"
This is capitalism. The fighter is responsible for establishing their worth. The better the fighter, the more they get paid.
 
Each PPV main event card fighter should be paid 1Milllion+ as base.

It's more than feasible at this point.
Elite Professionals on international TV via PPV.

Businesswise, UFC has multiple avenues to compensate these fighters 1Million+, outside of their company, however their model suppresses those methods.

Madness.
 
Should be much higher for the actual sellers - those who get PPV points. It was $1-3 per buy or so the last we heard, which is ridiculous considering the shit costs $80.

Everyone else is paid pretty fairly. They just need to fight more. Doubling the number of fights they take would be an easy way to double their pay. No name fighters who only fight twice a year shouldn't be getting rich.

I wouldn't mind an 'activity bonus' being added. An extra check to everyone that fights 4 times in a 12 month period. With more active fighters, there wouldn't need to be so many and the bloated roster could be trimmed.
 
Can we have a genuine discussion on fighter pay that doesn’t end up with the same generic “bootlicker” versus “idiot who doesn’t understand business/economics” arguments.


I believe fighter pay is fair because:

1) Based on reviewing the numbers, the top 4-6 fighters on a card simply bring in all of the revenue and viewership. Rani Yahya or Sodiq Yusuff on the prelims just do not bring in enough money to justify paying more than 15/15 or 25/25.

2) Comparing percentages to other sports is a big argument. One that doesn’t make sense to me. Firstly, they are team sports. Secondly, they are far better athletes usually with more competition. Thirdly, NBA players a like are OVERPAID. They should be paid less, we shouldn’t require the UFC to give their money away to people who no one knows. Plus, ufc fighters only provide like 40 min max of fight content a year - some only 10 minutes. They simply don’t produce the output to get paid well.


Bellator and PFL have different percentages as their scale of business is so much smaller that salaries naturally take up a higher share.

3) The ufc is the only reason these guys are known. The UFC markets them and promotes them. Francis Ngannou is only known because of the UFC and its brand for instance. I think that needs to be understood when people argue what “fighters deserve” - it’s the ufc who made them famous.

4. arguments of deserve are weird. I can think of 50 jobs where people are paid less than mma fighters and whom are more important to society.


I do feel like guys who are half stars but not fully stars yet - like Ortega, Yair, Gamrot etc are probably the category of fighters that might be underpaid. The ngannou’s and Conor’s get enough and so do the prelim nobodies.


Anyway I’m interested in genuinely hearing arguments for why people want to boost fighter pay. To me it just seems like underdog mentality and a bit of “fuck Dana” and fuck the man go the little guy arguments which aren’t logical.
Listen Dana, don’t come to shitdog to drum up support for your cause.

PAY THE FIGHTERS, BITCH!
 
Rani Yahya has been with the company for like 15 years. He deserves some seniority
 
I have a few friends who fought in the regionals and Bellator. They realized early on that MMA is not for them & a career. You put these fighters too on a high pedestal, half of these guys are not very good in the first place and will never make the money like the top fighters to live comfortable. It's better they put their time and energy into something else. If you have friends or know people who are fighting for peanuts and isn't getting anywhere due to their lack of skills then you better have a talk with them, because MMA pay isn't getting better at a fast rate. Sometimes the truth hurts and it's better they hear it early on while they still have their facilities in check. By the way, purchasing a PPV something is atleast going to the fighters which is better than nothing, but since others care so much about fighter pay and hate for the UFC they chose to find whichever way to not support these fighters other than creating threads online about said fighter pay which always ends up becoming a circle jerk of Dana haters & UFC haters.

I'm sure all the champions are getting paid good, Hill, Glover & Jiri just won the titles, As we have seen, champions make money once they defend & keep winning. I'm sure they got bonuses for wining the championship anyway. Most of the time, fighters who complain about fighter pay are not good to begin with.

This is a horrible take..

Like i mean...garbage take and far from my point

Should prelim fighters or guys on regional or close to it level wise make a million.. no...that was never my point

But if your champion in the UFC the premier league...ur minimum should be 1 million a fight ..regardless of weight class or gender..to be champion proves your dedication and commitment to the sport and how good you are...that should be rewarded...

Perhaps i put them on pedestal or maybe u just dont respect them enough ..
 
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This is a horrible take..

Like i mean...garbage take and far from my point

Should prelim fighters or guys on regional or close to it level make a million.. no...that was never my point

But if your champion in the UFC the premier league...ur minimum should be 1 million a fight ..regardless of weight class or gender..to be champion proves your dedication and commitment to the sport and how good you are...that should be rewarded...

Perhaps i put them on pedestal or maybe u just dont respect them enough ..

Again, non of us really know what these champions make. But from what information gathered from former champions like DC, Khabib, Rqmpage, GSP, Bisping etc and former title contenders like Chael, Diaz. These fighters are making good money. Now for the people who recently just signed in the UFC, Dana is right when he called it a opportunity. Just like any other sport or any job you have to prove your worth.

I've been watching MMA for a long time now, these conversations for fighters pay is getting very tiresome, when I first started watching no one complain about pay, they just fought. It's only been a recent thing where fighters complain about it, and they are usually fighters who are not very good in the first place.

I respect what they do, but in the end they signed the contract & I don't put them on a pedestal just because they "fight." People on here constantly bitch about fighters getting cut like it's the end of the world for them where they can't make any money because all they know is how to fight.

In the end, champions in the UFC make good money, it's only the idiots like Tyron Woodley who spends all his money on jewelry, cars & mansions who go broke then complain about fighter pay.

I'm probably going on a tangent and lost the plot, im just tired of these same old threads about pay. If fans really cared they would be doing something other than crying about it online.
 
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