Should Contracts include bonus pay based on difficulty and ranking of opponents?

[Garnet_StrongerThanYou]

It might prevent all the ducking to be honest.

Bigger purses for top 5 and top 10 opponents.

They already offer more pay for title fights.

That might stop fighters from ducking dangerous bogeymen who are hovering around the top 5-10

 

[arabian_matrix]

no

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Sure, why not

 

[DarthChen731]

No, they should just pay everyone more to begin with.

 

[MrCoffee]

No, the tougher opponents should get the money. This sport isn't for sissies.

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

Sure, and knowing how the UFC works, the bonus for beating a top 5 opponents would be a spa voucher at the new UFC hotel and some leftover Reebok gears like this

Spoiler

 

[Post 2 Decision]

Good idea in theory

It's too bad the rankings are bullshit and manipulated by the UFC

 

[Croton]

No it shouldn't be an "official" thing.
However they really should offer a bonus to incentive fighters to accept a certain fight.
Like damn I don't even like the guy but Islam needs a top 10 fight for fucks sake

 

[King in the North]

I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, although I can see some issues including the ones other posters have pointed out.


It would be nice in situations like this one with Poirier and Ferguson. Better pay for a high level and highly ranked opponent. We probably would see less cancellations and less Dana saying guys priced themselves out of a fight.

But the UFC doesn’t give a fuck about fighters and they’ll just find someone who will show for 20/20.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

It might prevent all the ducking to be honest.

Bigger purses for top 5 and top 10 opponents.

They already offer more pay for title fights.

That might stop fighters from ducking dangerous bogeymen who are hovering around the top 5-10

Here's thing. They already do. UFC fighters salaries are largely dependent on their ranking.

EXAMPLE.... Once you become a top five or top ten guy they often renegotiate because the expectation is that once you have the ranking you will only fighting the most dangerous guys of similar rank.

Big John and Josh Thompson have talked about it a lot on their podcast.

 

[khabib time]

It might prevent all the ducking to be honest.

Bigger purses for top 5 and top 10 opponents.

They already offer more pay for title fights.

That might stop fighters from ducking dangerous bogeymen who are hovering around the top 5-10

Yeah but wasn't Cerrone ranked #4 when Conor fought him. So on paper it might look like a tough fight but in reality he fought the most marketable can at the time. The UFC makes the rankings. The business side messes up the competitive side. In theory I love the idea but the UFC gonna UFC.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

Yeah but wasn't Cerrone ranked #4 when Conor fought him. So on paper it might look like a tough fight but in reality he fought the most marketable can at the time. The UFC makes the rankings. The business side messes up the competitive side. In theory I love the idea but the UFC gonna UFC.

This post is nothing but revisionist history and hindsight bias

Cowboy EARNED his Top 5 spot by beating Al Iaquinta who was number 4 at the time

And both Cowboy and Conor were coming off of losses when they were paired up

 

[BigTruck]

No, they should just pay everyone more to begin with.

They should but honestly a "main event" spots should come with a premium. Like $500k

 

[Ronin13]

No. Isn’t the goal of a fighter to fight higher ranked opponents so they can prove themselves and move up in rankings. Why need an incentive to do what you need for your career.

 

[khabib time]

This post is nothing but revisionist history and hindsight bias

Cowboy EARNED his Top 5 spot by beating Al Iaquinta who was number 4 at the time

And both Cowboy and Conor were coming off of losses when they were paired up

Cowboy was coming off of back to back TKO losses. He's 4-8 in his last 12 fights. He was 4-6 in his last 10 when he fought Conor with 4 TKO losses. Against Till, Masvidal and Gaethje he wasn't competitive. Against Tony at least he was competitive before he got brutalized. He wasn't fighting like a top 5 fighter. You are the one with revisionist history syndrome.

 

[DestinedAussie]

I actually think this whole pay mess if the UFC's fault for caving and paying fighters more. When you sign a contract and then don't like it you just won't fight until you get a better deal? Just look at the NBA heaps of players are earning less/more money than they are worth due to both sides being committed to keeping the contract.

In the UFC is seems contracts are worthless. Agents can easily neg. in pay bumps if they meet certain objectives.

Paying fighters based on the rank they fight isn't a good idea since UFC make the ratings and could be seen to manipulate the rankings to their advantage.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Maybe.

but they can’t even update a website without a typo so that’s asking a lot

 

[khabib time]

I actually think this whole pay mess if the UFC's fault for caving and paying fighters more. When you sign a contract and then don't like it you just won't fight until you get a better deal? Just look at the NBA heaps of players are earning less/more money than they are worth due to both sides being committed to keeping the contract.

In the UFC is seems contracts are worthless. Agents can easily neg. in pay bumps if they meet certain objectives.

Paying fighters based on the rank they fight isn't a good idea since UFC make the ratings and could be seen to manipulate the rankings to their advantage.

It's hard to compare NBA to UFC. When an NBA player is 'making less' he might be getting 15 million a year instead of 20. A UFC fighter might be sleeping in his car so it's a different thing.

 

[DestinedAussie]

It's hard to compare NBA to UFC. When an NBA player is 'making less' he might be getting 15 million a year instead of 20. A UFC fighter might be sleeping in his car so it's a different thing.

The ones "sleeping in their car" aren't the ones involved his this money standoffs. They are some of the highest paid MMA fighters in the world. The more they end up being paid the less they will pay those on the undercard.

I think it is pretty relevant since people like Jon Jones who has some of the biggest pays in UFC history is one of the ones holding out(after they stood by him while if he was in NBA he would have been banned for life). For example luca doncic only got paid 7.6 million while 5 people on his own team are paid more, in fact a lot more than him. For example Porzingis is paid 27 million, Tim Hardaway is paid 20 million. You know which player is more valuable to mavs.

I guess I am a believer in a contract is a contract. There is plenty of competition in the MMA scene with loads of promotions so you can try to get more elsewhere when your contract is up (which some have done), but for the majority the benefits of being in the UFC make it the place to be.