Thought I would make a thread about it to see what others think about the discrepancy and affect on MMA's talent pool. I think boxing is the only relevant argument actually. Low level boxers are equivalent to mma fighters fighting mostly outside of ufc, which is not the point. For a dedicated and highly talented fighter, he would be mid or top tier and thats where all the prospective earning opportunities would matter for some one passionate about a career.
Compare mid tier boxers to mid tier mma fighters. By mid tier, I mean they bring in viewers, maybe around 50K-600K viewers and upper mid tier would be on the lower end of ppv scale, bringing in less than 500K buys. Also ufc fighters have hardly any opportunities for sponsorship deals, while boxers earn quite a bit from sponsorship deals etc, not only their guaranteed purses. Lets compare:
Mid Tier:
UFC: Dustin Poirier - Last fight $300,000
Boxing: Terence Crawford - Last fight guaranteed purse $3,000,000
UFC: Max Holloway - Last fight $250,000
Boxing: Danny Garcia - Last fight guaranteed purse $2,000,000
Upper Mid Tier:
UFC: Jon Jones - Last fight $500,000
Boxing: Amir Khan - Last fight $8,000,000
Top Tier:
UFC: Conor Mcgregor - Last fight $3,000,000
Boxing: Tyson Fury - Last fight $28,000,000
Its not even worth comparing, the pay in the ufc is a joke. Keep in mind the numbers shown for upper tier and top tier fighters don't even take sponsorships into account, as well as the fact that boxers getting a much larger percentage of ppv buys afterwards as well. For some one pursuing a fighting career, mma is sadly a horrible choice money wise. Compared to boxing, where there are way more opportunities to make a considerably large amount of income.
I think facts like these is why mma doesn't get taken as seriously when it comes to sports, seems like a moneygrab business for promotion rather than sport to most. The fact that the ufc continually screws over fighters is just sad, and its getting worse now with seasoned veterans like Jussier Formiga getting cut in favor of no name amateur DWCS fighters who will accept $12K/$12K purses.