So what's the deal with "locker room" bonuses???

They sign the contracts, if they don't like it they can/could of sign with Bellator or any other the other orgs out there instead of trying to get their name associated with the biggest company in the sport.
 
tigerstripes said:
If I gave you $10K in casino chips, then you walk into the casino and get cash for it, would you report it to the IRS so they could take half of it?

And no one is dumb enough to deposit 10K+ in cash at a bank.
Click to expand...

I'm not no. But it's impossible to keep things like that secret. Thought that would be obvious.

And another thing. Fighters tend not to be the smartest of people, so yes, I believe many would go and deposit it.
 
straight6 said:
In all seriousness, locker room bonus is just a proof of how badly these MMA fighters/professional athletes are paid by UFC, but because the contract figure is so small, they have to compensate them behind the scenes on a discretionary basis (meaning, not guaranteed, toally up to Zuffa, which gives fighter less security, but all the power to the organization).

If the fighters were compensated better/more fair relative to UFC revenue and how much Dana/Zuff makes, there wont be any need for "under the table pay" or locker room bonus.

Who can live on 8k/8k these days? Rarely any fighter fight 3x a yr anymore due to injuries, event scheduling, etc. 8k to show pre tax wont even cover cost of training and personal/family expenses for the past 3 months preparing for the fight. Even 24k or 38k pretax is rediculously given fighitng 2-3x a yr max, and minus all the cost of training/trainers, manager, etc. ...Thats why "locker room" bonus is needed since 90% of the fighters wont be able to continue with the contract figure.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Dana White flaunts the "backstage bonus" as though it is some altruistic act that should be heralded and celebrated. The reality is that it's just a shifty power tactic that allows the UFC to pay most of their fighters chump change, while saying "You have no F'n idea how well we take care of these guys behind the scenes." All the while maintaining complete discretion on whom to pay and how much.
 
If you do a good job Dana awards you this awesome locker room bonus.
macaroni-necklace-300x215.jpg
 
tigerstripes said:
If I gave you $10K in casino chips, then you walk into the casino and get cash for it, would you report it to the IRS so they could take half of it?

And no one is dumb enough to deposit 10K+ in cash at a bank.
Click to expand...

Any winnings over $2500 (I believe this is the number) and the casino brings you the IRS forms.
 
I obviously have no idea of the mechanics of the locker room bonuses outside of what I have read (which are generally 2nd or 3rd hand reports).

what I will say is that most of us would be pretty puzzled if this sort of compensation model was applied elsewhere. For example, I think we would find it very strange if the Patriots quoted a super low salary for Tom Brady but then assured us that they "totally took care of him on the side". Same if your employer told you your wage was minimal but he would pay you a bonus if he felt that you had done well.

I don't think many industries would think that was a good deal. Even bonus laden professions like Private Equity and Investment Banking have a bunch of rules around what $ goes into the bonus pool and how it is distributed.
 
laleggenda27 said:
Bingo. Dana White flaunts the "backstage bonus" as though it is some altruistic act that should be heralded and celebrated. The reality is that it's just a shifty power tactic that allows the UFC to pay most of their fighters chump change, while saying "You have no F'n idea how well we take care of these guys behind the scenes." All the while maintaining complete discretion on whom to pay and how much.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Black box operations. All the leverage and benefits for UFC, fighters at their mercy. Only in UFC, such type of sport organization exisits where the pro athletes (vast majority of the fighters in this case) is constantly at the mercy of the promotion/promoter.
 
straight6 said:
In all seriousness, locker room bonus is just a proof of how badly these MMA fighters/professional athletes are paid by UFC, but because the contract figure is so small, they have to compensate them behind the scenes on a discretionary basis (meaning, not guaranteed, toally up to Zuffa, which gives fighter less security, but all the power to the organization).

If the fighters were compensated better/more fair relative to UFC revenue and how much Dana/Zuff makes, there wont be any need for "under the table pay" or locker room bonus.

Who can live on 8k/8k these days? Rarely any fighter fight 3x a yr anymore due to injuries, event scheduling, etc. 8k to show pre tax wont even cover cost of training and personal/family expenses for the past 3 months preparing for the fight. Even 24k or 38k pretax is rediculously given fighitng 2-3x a yr max, and minus all the cost of training/trainers, manager, etc. ...Thats why "locker room" bonus is needed since 90% of the fighters wont be able to continue with the contract figure.
Click to expand...

95% of fighters have full time jobs..... name one fighter that "trains" 40 hours per week..... they all have side jobs bro, unless you are a big name, but then again even Carwin has a full time job on the 'side"
 
eddymotto said:
I obviously have no idea of the mechanics of the locker room bonuses outside of what I have read (which are generally 2nd or 3rd hand reports).

what I will say is that most of us would be pretty puzzled if this sort of compensation model was applied elsewhere. For example, I think we would find it very strange if the Patriots quoted a super low salary for Tom Brady but then assured us that they "totally took care of him on the side". Same if your employer told you your wage was minimal but he would pay you a bonus if he felt that you had done well.

I don't think many industries would think that was a good deal. Even bonus laden professions like Private Equity and Investment Banking have a bunch of rules around what $ goes into the bonus pool and how it is distributed.
Click to expand...

Agreed. As a fan of the sport (fan of the fighters), do wish the structure would change for the long-term benefit of the sport.
 
tigerstripes said:
It's good to see fighters are getting more but it's still peanuts compared to boxing and boxing is basically dead.
Click to expand...

Boxing's not dead and compared to a similar fighter in boxing im sure its not bad, I mean what would a McCorkle type fighter get paid in Boxing? and consider they both lost and got a good amount of money. Shows they do get taken care of tho.
 
Should always be kept private. Thank god the media and fans would just ruin it if they knew.
 
shaggylq said:
95% of fighters have full time jobs..... name one fighter that "trains" 40 hours per week..... they all have side jobs bro, unless you are a big name, but then again even Carwin has a full time job on the 'side"
Click to expand...

95% of fighters have full time jobs? Source pls, ur kidding right? Also, why should they do full time jobs if they're a professonal fighter for the biggest MMA organization/promotion in the world? If 95% of UFC fighters do have (or need) other full time jobs, then I guess the landscape of MMA in terms of fighter compensation is even more sad than I thought.

Carwin always had a full time job as an engineering because MMA pay and job stability both sucks. And who the heck metioned trains 40 hr/week?
 
Last edited:
notice that very few fighters talk s**t about the UFC or Dana and that almost no one has disclosed much detail about this 'extra' compensation.

it is at least partially a method for UFC to maintain more control, and I doubt it has much (if anything) to do with anyone evading the IRS. think of the scrutiny UFC is probably under, by virtue of the nature of the sport and where it operates (like Vegas).

until someone with direct knowledge of the matter speaks up, we're talking out of our butts to really say much more, no?
 
shaggylq said:
95% of fighters have full time jobs..... name one fighter that "trains" 40 hours per week..... they all have side jobs bro, unless you are a big name, but then again even Carwin has a full time job on the 'side"
Click to expand...

Nonsense.

Unless you can prove otherwise?

Carwin does engineering because he wants too, he gets 40k/40k + any bonuses/sponsors.
 
straight6 said:
95% of fighters have full time jobs? Source pls, ur kidding right? Also, why should they do full time jobs if they're a professonal fighter for the biggest MMA organization/promotion in the world? If 95% of UFC fighters do have (or need) other full time jobs, then I guess the landscape of MMA in terms of fighter compensation is even more sad than I thought.

Carwin always had a full time job as an engineering because MMA pay and job stability both sucks. And who the heck metioned trains 40 hr/week?
Click to expand...

I don't think he mentions UFC fighters in particular. Among all fighters that get paid in MMA top to bottom I don't think that's too far off, although it's a little off base in this topic of locker bonuses in UFC. I know dozens of people that have been paid to fight and they all got jobs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,696
Messages
55,435,529
Members
174,774
Latest member
kilgorevontrouty

Share this page

Back
Top