UFC Fighter and Cable Guy. Oh, and crowdfund your medicals and plane ticket

[ShogunOfBuyMore]

UFC Fighter and Cable Guy. Oh, and crowdfund your medicals and plane ticket.

Cage Potato: Dana White Defends UFC Fighter Pay (Again), While Struggling New Fighters Are Forced to Crowdfund

http://www.cagepotato.com/dana-white-defends-ufc-fighter-pay-again-while-struggling-new-fighters-are-forced-to-crowdfund/

Excerpts:

(Roman Salazar is a cable guy, but in his spare time he

 

[Ollie_Williams]

In b4 Michael Jackson eating popcorn.

Also, I thought UFC covered a handful from each corner. Could be wrong, and if they only cover one or two that would be kinda shitty too, since a coach ticket is basically the cost of a rounding error to the UFC. I also thought they covered medical now?

Obviously when you're new to UFC and not Eddie Alvarez, your worth to the company is yet to be determined. They are a for-profit company, and want to spend as little as possible on your new investments. Only thing weird is to say you're bigger than major sports, but the athlete salaries doesn't reflect anything close to any major sport. Who are you trying to convince you're bigger than soccer? Us, or yourself?

 

[lifelessheap]

lol @ comparing the NFL to Zuffa. There are individual teams in the NFL that are worth more than the entire UFC organization. The NFL brand is worth a 1000 UFCs.

 

[iThrillhouse]

all things considered though, you and 1 cornerman are being flown to Brazil for your debut,

Fort Lauderdale to Uberlandia roundtrip is like $2000 per person

so on top of the 10k/10k they've covered $5000 in flights/accommodation for you and your coach...

they're not going to pay upwards of 7k just for a debutante to have 2 coaches present....I mean she signed the contract to fight in middle of nowhere Brazil and its not like she's openly expressing that she's unhappy....yet

Just look to Matt Wiman who asked Chuck Liddell to be in his corner when he fought in Bedlam because he had only 1 coach with him

“I only had one [cornerman] flown out there for me,” Wiman explained. “So I asked [Liddell] backstage, ‘Hey, if you want to walk out with us, that would be cool.’ And he was like, ‘Dude, I’d love to.’ I said ‘And hey, if you want to stay in my corner, that would be cool as well, but I know you’re a busy guy. You got things going on.’ And he said ‘I’d love to.’ For that, I couldn’t think more of Chuck as a person.

I'm sure she has options out there for her hahaha


but yeah fighters resorting to crowdfunding is insane....really says something about the state of pay in the premiere organization.

 

[wlu29]

Bigger than soccer
Bigger than Yankees
Bigger than Cowboys

 

[HuntersCreed]

Crying about fighter pay obviously fixes the problem. I suggest you stick to other organizations that pay so much better if you don't like it.

 

[HIMBOB]

"And how do we know that? Well, she’s taken to Go Fund Me to attempt to raise $5,000 to pay for her medicals, as well as get a plane ticket for her cornerman for the Brazil based event."

The UFC doesn't pay for the medicals??

That is some cheap shit right there.



A flight basically anywhere in the world is like 2k return, so that leave 3k for medicals (unless she is missing something).
I have heard fighters talk about paying for medicals but I had no idea it was in that range, I would have thought a couple of hundred.

 

[markg171]

If you've never fought in the UFC before, how is it the UFC's fault that you can't afford to fly out your own cornermen or pay your medicals? Shouldn't the fighter be blaming themselves for not saving up enough money themselves, or blaming the other organizations that they've fought for for not paying them enough?

Seems like people are bitching because it's the popular thing to do. The UFC has nothing to do with how much money you have before you work for them.

 

[jonjbay]

lol @ comparing the NFL to Zuffa. There are individual teams in the NFL that are worth more than the entire UFC organization. The NFL brand is worth a 1000 UFCs.

Problem is the UFC has always compared itself to these sports leagues.
The UFC has even molded their business model after the more popular sports leagues.
Problem is MMA is not a geographically diverse team sport and its impossible to build a league with an individual based athletic sport like MMA or Boxing.
This is why these issues come up in the UFC and not Boxing.

If you've never fought in the UFC before, how is it the UFC's fault that you can't afford to fly out your own cornermen or pay your medicals? Shouldn't the fighter be blaming themselves for not saving up enough money themselves, or blaming the other organizations that they've fought for for not paying them enough?

Seems like people are bitching because it's the popular thing to do. The UFC has nothing to do with how much money you have before you work for them.

..but heres the thing, because the UFC trys to run their business like a team sports league, they tax the fighters in many different ways. From controlling who the fighters can do business with, controlling their potential sponsors, controlling the brand of glove they can wear, forcing fighters to sign over their image rights and locking them into long term contracts with championship clauses. If the UFC is going to do all those things then they are definitely responsible for ultimately how much money all their athletes are making.

 

[wartor]

Baseline should pay for the fighter and 4 supporting plus food and lodging, I remember this was one of Mark Hunt's beefs before his new contract, it took a surge of nasty grams to get white to foot the bill for his full corner.

UFC needs to re-evaluate or their fighters will unionize and they will be up the creek then.

 

[wartor]

Problem is the UFC has always compared itself to these sports leagues.
The UFC has even molded their business model after the more popular sports leagues.
Problem is MMA is not a geographically diverse team sport and its impossible to build a league with an individual based athletic sport like MMA or Boxing.
This is why these issues come up in the UFC and not Boxing.

Not impossible, boxing has had some very, very strong leagues in the past. It is still run by a small group of monopolies. I think it can work for the UFC in time.

 

[Dunwich]

If your looking to get rich pick another sport. If you're really a professional or at least want to be one you should know the financial realities of the sport you choose to pursue. Do I think they should be paid more.. hell, why not. But don't complain about fairness when its been obvious for years that MMA just doesn't pay unless your the champ or have the biggest mouth. Take some of that prize money and invest in a degree and a more stable lucrative career. MMA is not the silver lining pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 

[straight6]

UFC/MMA pay sucks...its sad. one of the worse risk to return/reward profession..and peanuts compare to mainstream pro sports. Of course MMA would never be mainstream with crap pay like this...good luck attracting top athletic talents.

At the same time...the "promoter" is gambling away 7 figures at casino and tips 6 figures to dealers at one sitting. With wealth over 200 mil (coming from nothing, all made from this "young sport", owns fleet of super cars and making it snow on vegas driveway during Christmas LOL. Only in UFC, LMAO

Took Arum, King ,literally DECADES of fighter exploitations and fight promotions in boxing to get the kind of wealth that DW accumulated from this infancy sport.

 

[Ceez]

What can you do. These fighters agree to terms. Although it sucks bad and the fighters make the organization, not Dana and the Fertitas, until they (fighters) do something about it this is the way it's gonna be. This is why I like unions..

 

[markg171]

Problem is the UFC has always compared itself to these sports leagues.
The UFC has even molded their business model after the more popular sports leagues.
Problem is MMA is not a geographically diverse team sport and its impossible to build a league with an individual based athletic sport like MMA or Boxing.
This is why these issues come up in the UFC and not Boxing.



..but heres the thing, because the UFC trys to run their business like a team sports league, they tax the fighters in many different ways. From controlling who the fighters can do business with, controlling their potential sponsors, controlling the brand of glove they can wear, forcing fighters to sign over their image rights and locking them into long term contracts with championship clauses. If the UFC is going to do all those things then they are definitely responsible for ultimately how much money all their athletes are making.

Yes, the UFC is responsible for how much their athletes are MAKING. Not have MADE.

The UFC has nothing to do with the fact that you can't afford to fly out your cornerman and pay your medicals, when you have never fought for them. That's entirely the athletes fault for not having MADE or SAVED enough money BEFORE they fought for the UFC.

 

[Kumason]

People are seriiously crying about fighter pay when the examples are people that haven't even fought in the UFC yet?What?

 

[jonjbay]

Not impossible, boxing has had some very, very strong leagues in the past. It is still run by a small group of monopolies. I think it can work for the UFC in time.

Well i should say its not impossible, its just not possible to make it work beyond a realitvely short amount of time.
What boxing leagues were popular? Boxing tried to do the exact same thing UFC is doing in the 1970s and it work great for a short amount of time, then what happend?
It fell apart as fighters became disgruntled, contracts were borderline illegal and corruption became an issue. The 'monoplies' you mention in boxing dont run the shows though and thats the difference between boxing and UFC. Boxing has different interests working in conjuction to produce the product, the UFC is attempting to do all those things by themselves which is bordeline illegal as it creates all kinds of conflicts of interest.

 

[SnowBlynd]

The ufc is clearly not in a decline.

 

[Ceez]

If you've never fought in the UFC before, how is it the UFC's fault that you can't afford to fly out your own cornermen or pay your medicals? Shouldn't the fighter be blaming themselves for not saving up enough money themselves, or blaming the other organizations that they've fought for for not paying them enough?

Seems like people are bitching because it's the popular thing to do. The UFC has nothing to do with how much money you have before you work for them.

Thing is you should be able to make a profit on your fight, not go in the hole..

UFC knows what it costs these fighters to have medicals done and fly their cornerman in. They should pay accordingly. If it costs 5k for medicals and 6k for 2 cornermen and the fighter the UFC should be at least willing to pay out 20k total for a fighter win or lose. Do the math even at 20k after the fighter pays medicals, flights, training costs and everything else what have they walked away with 3-4k in their pocket for a 3 month period? McDonalds pays better.

Again fighters sign the deals and know what they are getting themselves into so I can't really side too much with them as far as that goes but there's no need to be as greedy as the UFC is if the reports are correct. This is supposed to be the big leagues of MMA, everything else is treated as such but fighter pay.

The fighters are what we are interested in, not Dana, not Joe Rogan, not the Fertita's. They are the heart and soul of the UFC, just pay them enough to make their bills and a couple grand at the very least for their first fights until the prove their worth. Some of these fighters are losing money and that's a shame.

 

[Ceez]

If your looking to get rich pick another sport. If you're really a professional or at least want to be one you should know the financial realities of the sport you choose to pursue. Do I think they should be paid more.. hell, why not. But don't complain about fairness when its been obvious for years that MMA just doesn't pay unless your the champ or have the biggest mouth. Take some of that prize money and invest in a degree and a more stable lucrative career. MMA is not the silver lining pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

While I totally agree with you here's some food for thought. If the UFC continues to pay on the same scale as it does now, A-level athletes will never be interested in pursuing a fight career when the money is so much better playing "ball" somewhere. The talent pool is honestly much larger then what is on the roster now but again we won't see that because most entry level guys can't get paid a reasonable amount of money.