Should we be looking at the fairness of fighter compensation from a different angle?

Major American pro sports share revenues somewhere around 50/50 between players and owners. To determine whether the UFC fairly compensates their fighters, we need to know the revenue split between fighters and the UFC. What is that split?

 

Google that shit. Is it even a shared figure? I'm guessing like 20% at best, but hey what do I know.

 

After an event Lorenzo empties his pockets onto the locker room floor, chewing gum, spare change, cufflinks, two for one coupons for Dominos. Meanwhile Dana's at the presser talking about undisclosed bonuses like it's an obscene river of money, people start believing the locker room looks like Scrooge McDuck's vault.

 

Fairness in labor negotiations is a bullshit concept. Sustainability is what matters.

If they pay too much, the UFC will go broke and the fighters will be scattered amongst competing organizations and the best will no longer fight the best.

If they pay too little, the talent pool will shrink. Fighters will suffer through training camps, working day jobs. Many will retire, or never even pursue the sport because the risk and the struggle outweighs the reward. Fans will also be turned off by the sport, perhaps that's where the perception of fairness comes into play.

 

We should look at from the standpoint of the quality of the product delivered. As in, do we really want the fucking wasteland that is boxing? Seriously, Mayweather is great but he deosn't deserve %70 of the revenue generated in the world of boxing while the rest struggle to pay their gym membership while acquiring Dementia Pugilistica

Fighters are WELL compensated (not in comparison to corrupt sports) but compared to my 9 to 5 job, and we all get the fights we want week after week after week.

 

Mayweather isn't the only boxer being paid. Most top boxers get paid quite more than a similarly ranked MMA fighter across the board.

Boxing is far from a wasteland. It's having a pretty good year and there are still a lot of big cards.

 

I just think the post fight performance bonuses should be FAT STACKS.

Fat enough to inspire fighters to go for broke.
KO of the Night, Sub of the Night, Performance of the Night... each one should pay out like 200 grand.
Then the up and comer making 8k/8k and on his way to a boring decision loss has incentive to go all out and possibly make a massive pay day, and if not, the fans will love it and therefore that fighters stock will rise.

Way too much playing it safe on the past cards, even when guys were obviously cruising to a loss from the judges.

 

Not a bad idea at all!

 

The average fan of boxing can't name more than 5 r 6 guys. And there are only about half a dozen boxers that make anything approaching a million or more er fight, the average undercard guy can't even pay for the gear he's wearing with his winnings...

 

Quality post

 

You bring up a great point, however it is definitely not an either/or scenario. I would contend sustainability is in serious question with the UFC replacing their cash cows who generated 1M ppv buys with circus acts who generate 340K ppv buys. Maybe I am wrong though, if you look past the ppv buys crown fro their peak and the fox event ratings trending down, what are the indicators that suggest sustainability?

 

Well they don't have any 'cash cows' right now. GSP is semi-retired, Silva wasn't reliable, Brock isn't coming back, Tito is long gone, Chuck can't fight...

The multiple PPV model is only temporary, and it draws about the same per-year revenue as the larger stacked PPVs were. They are looking to move back to the few stacked PPV model in the next couple of years if Fight Pass continues to be successful. They also have the Fox deal which generates revenue, alongside strong Gates, international TV deals, merchandise etc.

The factors that represent 'sustainabilty', since we have no access to financials can only be speculated upon. But the reach internationally is certainly one.

And circus acts? Those circus acts do the same thing as the large draws did. An MMA fighter is and MMA fighter; the biggest draws can have the most boring fights. If excitement and pleasing the crowd was all it took Diego Sanchez would be a bigger draw than GSP.

 

None of what you said is really true except about the undercard guys and that is because undercard guys on some boxing cards are even lower ranked than a undercard guy in the UFC.

The list of boxers bringing in millions is probably four times as big as the number of mma fighters brining in that much.

 

Thats an extra 30 million dollars a year, pretty substantial for a company the size of the UFC.

 

Why do the fighters get on in on this revenue sharing but not the sound and video guys, logistics staff, finance staff, and all the other gears that are just as essential to this machine?

 

Hilarious and true, or maybe, because it's true.

 

Will people please stop comparing athletes who fight In the worlds largest mixed martial arts org, to there 9 to 5 job when we talk about compensation, compared to other sports like ts said the split between the owners and athletes is 50 50 I can almost gurantee you that it's not even close to that in the ufc so yes these fighters aren't getting fairly compensated when the reason why the ufc is here is because of the fighters.

 

Athlete worship and the idea that NFL and Floyd Mayweather get a fair days pay for a fair days work.

 

What do you do for a living?

Are you fairly compensated for the role you play in your company making money?

Why is it different? It's a business.

 

It's impossible to know.

If I had to guess I'd say 80/20

Rampage said he only made 17 million through his entire ufc career. Also GSP got paid about 5-8 million per fight.

The UFC uses the pay per view model. Boxing is absolutely demolishing these salaries. It doesn't add up how smaller companies are able to pay guys more. Of course boxing cards have less fighters but it still doesn't make sense.

This sport is only going to attract idiots if the pay stays as it is. These mid tier guys, as long as theyre not particularly draws, are not going to make enough to retire on.