UFC fighters make more than boxers

[Sweater of AV]

These recent stats may surprise a lot of people who thinks boxers are paid more than UFC fighters.

The average UFC fighter made $160,022 in 2021, up from average earnings of $146,673 in 2020. 256 fighters (42%) earned six-figures in 2021, up from 219 fighters (38%) in 2020. 116 fighters (19%) made less than the average U.S. income ($25,000). The highest-paid UFC fighter was Conor McGregor, with $10,022,000 (without PPV bonuses).

The median salary for a professional boxer is $51,370, which may surprise many of you looking to become a professional boxer. This means that half of the professional boxers competing today earned less than this amount. Only the top 1% of all professional boxers earn more than a million dollars per year, the lowest 10% of all professional boxers earn less than $19,220 per year.

You just compared the average with the median.



edit: looks like others have taken care of it. Carry on.

 

[Bad Karate]

Age of the sport does not affect compensation after a certain point. Boxing had its first non inflation adjusted purse in the 1920s. There are a few inflation adjusted 7 figure purses even earlier than that. UFC fighter pay isn't so low because of a lack of revenue it's because the UFC takes 80 percent of revenue.

I do agree the UFC probably takes way more then their fair share of the money however I, without claiming to be any kind of expert on the business of combat sports would guess that boxing still generates significantly more revenue then MMA just based on some of the paydays these boxers are making.

I am all for fighters getting paid but at the end of the day I just want to see the best fight the best even if they are broke.

 

[Ogata]

Do boxers have to hire jujitsu, kickboxing, judo, sambo and wrestling coaches as well?

 

[Frank Kain]

People who criticize the UFC pay scale aren’t often just using boxing. The argument usually involves the fighters at the highest levels of each sport, Conor vs Floyd for instance, boxers have more leverage.

But, the comparison is rarely made that fighters at the bottom of the UFC roster, are worse off than the boxers at the bottom of a Showtime card. Neither is well off, but what makes the UFC look greedy is the reality it’s lowest paid fighters earn fast food worker wages, compared to UFC corporate earnings.
Obviously, fast food workers earn a pittance compared to their corporate profits too, BUT, they also aren’t working in a job where they potentially absorb life changing damage, with a typical job career that lasts what, 5 years or less? Often less

 

[avenue94]

do agree the UFC probably takes way more then their fair share of the money however I, without claiming to be any kind of expert on the business of combat sports would guess that boxing still generates significantly more revenue then MMA just based on some of the paydays these boxers are making.

Not really. For example, the UFC's U.S. deals are about the equivalent of what the 3 big promoters in boxing get (PBC, Top Rank, Matchroom) and the UFC pulls in more revenue than all combined. The UFC does have expenses that boxing promoters don't have, but the biggest difference is straight up fighter pay. Here's an example of how big the difference is, comparing Goldenboy and the UFC's biggest events of 2016.

Canelo-Khan
-Total revenue: $27.7 million
-Canelo: $13.3 million
-Khan: $6 million
-GB Profit: $3.3 million

UFC 200
-Total Revenue: $55.3 million
-Fighter Expenses: $19.9 million
-Event Expenses: $12.8 million
UFC Profit: $22.6 million

UFC pulled a 40 percent profit out of UFC 200, which to this day is likely it's most expensive event. It also underperformed. In comparison, Goldenboy pulled 12% profit. Both sports usually work off an 80/20 split, with the difference being those are reversed for fighter and promoter.

 

[avenue94]

Neither is well off, but what makes the UFC look greedy is the reality it’s lowest paid fighters earn fast food worker wages, compared to UFC corporate earnings.
Obviously, fast food workers earn a pittance compared to their corporate profits too, BUT, they also aren’t working in a job where they take potentially absorb life changing damage, with a typical job career that lasts what, 5 years or less? Often less

If you want to know something hilarious, I can point you to an econ paper that unironically says the UFC is competing with fast food companies for their fighter labor.

 

[Nada.]

Yet they make less than FEMALE golfers and some top badminton and ping pong players

Oh the horror.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

You wanna control for ranking or drawing power or you just like making useless comparisons?

Also lol at comparing median salary to average salary when you have Conor skewing the average so much.

Wait, 1 UFC fighter is skewing the average but the top 1% in boxing aren’t?? What kind of bullshit is that?

 

[avenue94]

Wait, 1 UFC fighter is skewing the average but the top 1% in boxing aren’t?? What kind of bullshit is that?

Do you understand the difference between a median and average, which is what the TS is comparing? It sounds like you don't base off this post.

 

[IDGETKTFO]

Now compare the sport of MMA and sport of boxing.

Better yet, compare a UFC ppv and a boxing ppv.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

Yay, this conversation again.

 

[Frank Kain]

If you want to know something hilarious, I can point you to an econ paper that unironically says the UFC is competing with fast food companies for their fighter labor.

It would not surprise me. Since boxing has been around longer, a typical boxer, started in a family gym, or working in a food service business. Or minimum wage service industry.

 

[avenue94]

It would not surprise me. Since boxing has been around longer, a typical boxer, started in a family gym, or working in a food service business. Or minimum wage service industry.

No, I mean as in the paper is defending UFC pay and market share by arguing that while the UFC has huge market share, it still faces competition from minimum wage service jobs for fighters starting out.

 

[Frank Kain]

No, I mean as in the paper is defending UFC pay and market share by arguing that while the UFC has huge market share, it still faces competition from minimum wage service jobs for fighters starting out.

Oh I see, yep, makes sense. Dana wants his fighters hungry!

 

[TempleoftheDog]

Do you understand the difference between a median and average, which is what the TS is comparing? It sounds like you don't base off this post.

I actually didn’t notice that. But perhaps you can write another thesis on fighter pay and let me know what the real numbers are for both median, and average. Then we’ll get a better picture.

Because would $10M over 700 fighters in one year really make that much difference?

 

[MEAN357]

Less brain damage too

I don't buy that narrative tbh, I just think the MMA time line isn't long enough when looking at CTE/TBI and we'll start seeing how on par the neurological damage is with longer standing sports like boxing.

You can count the OG mma fighters who can still chew solid food and remember their kids names on one hand lol

 

[avenue94]

But perhaps you can write another thesis on fighter pay and let me know what the real numbers are for both median, and average.

Oh nah, that is way too much work and also not possible.

Then we’ll get a better picture.

I would just give you the picture of all the public purses annually for the last year available and you could interpret it yourself, it's pretty straightforward.

Because would $10M over 700 fighters in one year really make that much difference?

Also way too lazy to check how many fighters fight in a year since clearly the entire roster doesn't fight every year. Would it help? Sure, every bit counts, but bumping pay by 6% (literal 6%, not 6 percentage points) would hardly make a dent in the problem. Also not sure why you just picked out $10 million but hey, your number, maybe I missed an earlier post.

 

[avenue94]

I don't buy that narrative tbh, I just think the MMA time line isn't long enough when looking at CTE/TBI and we'll start seeing how on par the neurological damage is with longer standing sports like boxing.

You can count the OG mma fighters who can still chew solid food and remember their kids names on one hand lol

Yeah I'd actually be curious on what it looks like down the road, weighing more blows to the head versus meathead training culture and corners trying to kill their fighters. At the end of hte day though, would it really make a difference if CTE cases are like 80 percent versus 70 though?

 

[goOb]

Yet they make less than FEMALE golfers and some top badminton and ping pong players

IDK man this is the craziest stuff I’ve seen, this is some Conor McGregor type shit:

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Average vs median. Median eliminates all the top boxers making ridiculous amount of money that MMA fighters can only dream of.

The real question is , will there be a day when boxers start wanting to go to MMA for money, and when do you think that will be?

This, it'd be helpful to have the average annual income of boxers to compare apples to apples.