Schaub, Jon Anik and Florian go at it regarding fighter pay on podcast

Malthian said:
Just a couple points.

Most fighters fight 2x per year because they CHOOSE to fight only 2x per year. The UFC standard contract (confirmed by Alvarez's contract and interviews from agents/managers that have had fighters go to the UFC) is that the UFC is required to offer 3 matches per year. It is up to each fighter to take or not take those matches. The UFC is only required to OFFER the fights, they don't have to actually MAKE 3 fights per year.

If the UFC offers 3 fights and the fighter turns them all down, then tough luck. They held up their end of the bargain.

Many fighters choose to NOT take more than 2 a year because they are waiting for a better fight. Some are forced to not take 2 per year due to injury of course, but that's not the majority. Some choose to take more.

Cerrone fought 5x in 2011, 2x in 2012, 4x in 2013, 4x in 2014, and has already fought 3x in 2015. In other words, the opportunity to fight more is often there.

Additionally, fighting 2x per year means you're dedicating 20 weeks a year between camps and the actual fight. There's nothing stopping those fighters from taking additional employment such as teaching MA, general side jobs, etc.

Now before people start saying that the UFC is the NFL/MLB/NHL of MMA and should be providing similar compensation, the UFC as an organization is the major leagues, but the entire roster is NOT the major leagues.

The UFC essentially has two tiers of fighters, main card (pros) and prelim fighters (semi-pro). Think of main card fighters as the NFL/NHL/MLB in that they're televised to a wide audience and the athletes, have some level of name recognition and are recognized as the "best".

The rest of the fighters are more like the D-league in the NBA ($30k/year), AAA hockey ($25k-$30K/year) or the CFL ($50K/year minimum). And the UFC is several orders of magnitude less in revenue, viewership than any of the other major sports.

And you are right, the UFC does not own the fighters. Thompson walked as did Koscheck. The reason why more fighters still choose to come to the UFC is that unless you're an already established name then you're simply going to get paid more fighting for the UFC than organizations like ONE FC, Bellator or WSOF.

Now all that doesn't mean that the Reebok deal doesn't suck for the fighters. It does suck for the fighters. However it is within the rights of the UFC to impose uniforms during UFC events. While it's not "fair" to the fighters within the context of them having an outside income stream being taken away, it's not unfair in the sense that the platform provided by the UFC does belong to the UFC.

The main thing now is what's done is done.

The fighters aren't going to get that advertising space back no matter how much they complain. The rights were already signed away in the Reebok deal. The fighters need to worry about what to do next, which is either to negotiate for higher base pay individually or collectively, or to see if they can seek better compensation with another organization, or to seek income streams from other sources outside of their fighting (other jobs, other sponsorships, independent businesses, etc).
Click to expand...
you're putting way too much effort into this you ***
 
Schaub: We've got to have a conversation about this stuff!
Anik: Ok, let's converse.
Schaub: Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!
 
Mesos said:
Honestly the guys that always whine about pay are usually the ones at the bottom of the division or mid level guys that win some lose some. The top guys never have anything bad to say because they are payed much better for you know, actually being at the top of their division and winning fights. Another complaint that you sometimes here is from guys like aldo who are good fighters but cant sell a ppv to save their life.
Click to expand...

crazy enough i believe they probably deserve more (more than 30% anyway). its why reebok and the ufc bent over backwards to do separate deals with all the big name stars that were proven ppv draws. they could not afford to piss them off with the shitty base sponsorship deal.

no way a Ronda or McGregor take that deal lying down with how much sponsorship money they can demand.
 
Contract pay is up to the individual fighters. If they can make better money somewhere else then they should go do it. We've seen fighters with no win bonuses, just show money, so there's some flexibility in how you can structure your compensation.

Discretionary bonuses may not be a stable source of income but that's the nature of the business. If they don't want to deal with that then contract for more per fight money and accept that there will be fewer bonuses.

I recall reading somewhere that part of the reason, fighters don't necessarily want more show money is because of how the commissions treat that income vs. non-fight income (bonuses). Something about how things are calculated against the stated purse. So, if any money is paid via bonuses, they're not under the commission's jurisdiction. But I can't find the source right now.

Last, if it's true that Rory was cut a $500k check for that fight then it's hard to complain just because his disclosed purse was small.
 
man anik is really a company man - but he does make the points well i thought - def better than the ufc shills here
 
wowspare said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but to my understanding, the big sports leagues such as the NBA or the NFL pay their athletes about 40~45% of the revenue. I'd be surprised if the UFC were paying their athletes anything more than 20%.
Click to expand...

FYI...The NFL gives players about 55% of television money, and the last television deal the NFL signed was for $27 BILLION which expires in 2022...So yearly, it's worth on average $3 BILLION.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/12/14/the-nfl-signs-tv-deals-worth-26-billion/

I see both sides of the arguement, but you CANNOT compare UFC to any other major professional sports like NFL, NBA, MLB or even NHL (which is the least profitable out of the 4 bay far)

NHL signed a 12 year, $4.9 BILLION deal in Canada.
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...al-winners-losers-12-pact-212452256--nhl.html

Also, here's an interesting article on revenue sharing in North America for the Major Sports Leagues. http://basketball.about.com/od/nba-...d-North-Americas-Major-Pro-Sports-Leagues.htm
 
DarthChen731 said:
Schaub: We've got to have a conversation about this stuff!
Anik: Ok, let's converse.
Schaub: Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!
Click to expand...

Is that really what you got from this?
 
BM.gif


meh, discretionary bonuses cut both ways. there is more than one reason to want to keep the amounts hidden.
 
It looks like the shills are out in full force.

'But but but they get locker room bonuses.'
 
i think undisclosed locker room bonuses are required, at least by some Brazilians cause if criminals found out how much they were making we might have multiple Belfort sister cases going around.
 
A man who no longer relies on the UFC for a paycheck is a dangerous man.
 
Great share man! I hate that we have to dig through the forums to find any criticism about the UFC. How can Anik say that 10,000 is a good entry pay for a organization like the ufc? How about this DONT SIGHN THEM!! People are quitting their jobs to train full time because they got contracts. For most of them its financial suicide. Then your going to take away their sponsors money? Get fu%^ed! Trim the roster and pay your fighters! You look bad. The sad part is you dont care you look bad!
 
LouisBolanos said:
That's the logic you are not following. If companies are no longer willing to sponsor fighters because they have to wear Reebok during 6 out of 365 days a year, then that means the companies do not see actual value in the fighters, but rather in their exposure on the UFC platform. They are basically putting the sponsorship logos on the UFC, not the fighters as an individuals. As such, the UFC is 100% within their rights to control the sponsor revenue however they see fit.



In other words, Brendan Schaub doesn't get paid enough because he's not good enough, and isn't marketable enough. Which part of that is the UFC and Reebok's fault? It's very typical of the weak and the feeble to blame others for their own failures.

You look at where Rousey is now but what you don't see is how much of a worse spot she was in compared to Schaub she started MMA. She was a completely nobody dating some drug addict, didn't have any Kimborized TUF exposure, WMMA wasn't even in the UFC. But you didn't see her sitting on her ass going "waaah waaah waaah! Dana White said no women in the UFC I can't make money this is so unfair I feel so undervalued waaaaaaah!" But this is exactly what Schaub and Tim Kennedy are doing. Kennedy is supposed to be a badass special forces dude yet he's even weaker mentally than Ronda Rousey. Ronda Rousey - the chick that if you called her fat she'll be crying for 2 weeks before making a "I'm not fat I'm festively plum F the haters" T-shirt to make herself feel better. Think about how pathetic that makes Tim Kennedy for a second.
Click to expand...

I understand what your saying and I agree 100% about the fighters and their ability to market themselves in and outside the Octagon. It's up to the fighters to find a way to recoup that loss income.

Ronda created her own shirt and is using her stardom and success to market it. Tim Kennedy has military connections and maybe should do something with the military (don't know if he is or not). Brendan, no matter what you say about him, has done well marketing himself with 'The Fighter & The Kid' and has basically stopped fighting because of it. There are avenues for fighters but they have to search them out.

Obviously, the UFC is going to look out for their best interest and the fighters have to look out for their best interests. The fighters have to understand that they may happen with or without the UFC. I'm all with the fighters, but you gotta stop talking about stuff and put some action into changing the status quo.
 
As I was reading this, I was thinking, hurry up and give me my promotional raise and stop trying to low ball me here at work. But good for them talking it out. It makes me think twice if I ever wanted to get my head bash into and get pay for it. lol.
 
Schaub is living up to his reputation, shutting people down one by one.
 
Like most things in life, the truth is in the middle.

Dana White imports snow to his Las Vegas home and has a fleet of Ferraris. He owns 9% of the UFC. Read that last sentence again.

There has been plenty of money pulled out of Zuffa. From their crediting rating, its been reported they pull out the maximum amount of cash in the form of disbursements allowed by the terms of their loans.

Suffice to say Zuffa has pulled tens of tens of millions out in cash to pay the partnership. If they wanted to drop a few million a year back into fighter pay, they easily could.

The market hasn't forced them to, and there is no fighters association, so they have not. Thats business and I do not dispute their right.

Let's call it for what it is though. You can't say its the cost of expansion and doing business if the partners are pulling out millions and millions to pay themselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,043
Messages
55,463,504
Members
174,786
Latest member
JoyceOuthw

Share this page

Back
Top