What should ufc base pay be?

[Degen Gambler]

It should be whatever the fighters can negotiate it to be. They have no leverage if they don't band together so if they negotiate individually then this is the type of shit that happens.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Double the minimum wage per year in your state/country per fight .

 

[Lorenzo F.]

I'm getting pretty fed up of retards who bash the UFC and business without knowing absolutely anything.

This was Watersons 2nd fight in the UFC and she had no prior evidence of her being a draw, the base pay in the UFC is higher than anybody else in the industry. It has increased 400% in the last 10 years, WME just invested 4.2 billion, do you really think they're going to be look to raise pay? They're cutting costs not increasing them.

 

[dontlaugh]

In my opinion, fighters base pay should be based on how well they did in the fight.

Even if they were popular, fought like an amateur ? less money. That simple.

That way we wouldn't have to deal with hypejobs that get their ass kicked constantly but still make more money than the fighters that whoop their ass.

 

[[insert_name_here]]

Money...

 

[Kenny Powerth]

I am confused regarding insurance for fighters - So are UFC fighters covered under insurance or not? Al Aliquinta said he had to get a second MRI per the doctors request but the UFC wont pay for it so now he is holding out bc he doesnt have any money. Any insight? Thanks.

 

[Goatenstein]

$5.80 per hour.

 

[originalbadguy]

Fighter pay isn't bad when you add in all that reebok money.

I LMAO!!!!

 

[originalbadguy]

Tough question as we don't have any idea what UFC profits are at the end of the year! They have way more costs than just fighter pay! They employ hundreds of individual employees and contractors for event promotion, advertising, insurance, legal, admin, accounting, sales, marketing, production, travel, management, they have income and expenses and employees, in many different arenas! events, products like clothing, posters, magazines, ect! Way above any of our level to make any suggestion that would hold any water.

That being said in a fantasy world some ideas
1. Eliminate fight nite bonuses to one 50K for fight of the nite and 25K for every fighter that gets a finish!
2. Entry level contracts are just that 15/15 no more no less!
3. Reebok money - If the UFC intends to keep it in place fine pay what they have set up, but allow fighters to add there own sponsors on the opposite side of the Reebok logo on the legs and below the Reebok logos on the back
4. Main Event and co Main Event fighters get a bump to Double there win and show money for non PPV cards!
5. PPV money should be dispersed on a % basis up and down the main card Main Event getting the bigger cut! Big name fighters/main and Co main event would negotiate there own amount. should be 30-40 % of the PPV after 350K in Buys. But the first three opening fights should get a % also! for example 3% of PPV revenue! IE: 1 Million in PPV buys x 55.00 per buy 55 Million UFC splits with cable Cos 27.5 Million is the UFC take x 3%= 825K for the 3 opening bouts! Divided by 6 fighters $137500 extra per fighter!
6. Negotiate what there contracts are for show and win just as they do now. We all know there win and show is not there only income from the UFC most after there entry level contract get signing bonuses!
7. UFC should implement regional championships for up and coming fighters to help promote cards and build fighter name values in bigger fights. This also gives them title fighters for the main and co main events on these cards that sometimes suffer with international interest and hype around them. These title fights the fighters win and show would double. European champion, South American, North American and maybe Asia Pacific Champion! These fighters name values for future PPVs would rise much faster!
8. Fighters also need to be held accountable for getting injured 2 weeks out from an event! Obviously these guys are training too hard this close to an event. A lot of people say the UFC should pay a monthly income for fighters to live on train ect. So they have a steady stream coming in like other pro sports. But the difference is baseball, Football ect, these athletes train and get treated under the banner of there team and the team has full control how hard and long they train and how they are treated for nagging injuries ect! It is pretty hard to give a monthly income when you have zero control over fighters over training, careless training two weeks out.



Those are some ideas that would help out and increase a fighters pay.

Also I think the UFC needs to move fighters out of the organization much quicker! A guy who is 2-3, with two fights left and isn't particularly exciting should be gone, a fighter who is exciting sure keep them around, but the UFC needs to be signing you and up and coming talent more often. They tend to keep too many fighters on the roster that have zero business being there.

 

[pudgelarson36]

The UFC has 2X the value of an NBA team and about 40-50 times as many athletes. The NBA average salary is about $5M. Applying those numbers to the UFC, the average salary would be $200,000 - $250,000 a year. That's average, not minimum. Applying those numbers with the NBA minimum of $875,000, the UFC minimum would be about $45,000 a year.

At least now you all have some numbers to compare to a real sports league.

 

[tithas]

There should not be a minimum. The market dictates what a fighter is worth. if they sign a contract for 500 then they are worth 500. if they sign one for 15,000 they are worth that. Make yourself marketable because the UFC is loosing money on every unknown fighter who does not sell enough tickets to cover their salary.

 

[originalbadguy]

The UFC has 2X the value of an NBA team and about 40-50 times as many athletes. The NBA average salary is about $5M. Applying those numbers to the UFC, the average salary would be $200,000 - $250,000 a year. That's average, not minimum. Applying those numbers with the NBA minimum of $875,000, the UFC minimum would be about $45,000 a year.

At least now you all have some numbers to compare to a real sports league.

Who's applying NBA numbers to any example?

 

[originalbadguy]

There should not be a minimum. The market dictates what a fighter is worth. if they sign a contract for 500 then they are worth 500. if they sign one for 15,000 they are worth that. Make yourself marketable because the UFC is loosing money on every unknown fighter who does not sell enough tickets to cover their salary.

I am definitely not arguing that the UFC needs to pay more to fighters it is just a hot topic and these are ways to help.

But a fighter is not only valued at just ticket sales.
a fighter on the FS1 prelim card is valued by the number of viewers and what that relates to the TV contracts. Fight Pass fighters have value based on how many people are watching on fight pass.
People in the stadium which is a lot smaller than the main card are there mainly for the main card but if they show up early and now purchased a beer and hot dog, they are adding to revenues.
Sure they may still have purchased a beer if they came late but did they now drink 5 beers instead of 3 bears because they came for every fight.
Way more to it then just tickets, but yes that is part of it.

 

[tithas]

I am definitely not arguing that the UFC needs to pay more to fighters it is just a hot topic and these are ways to help.
But a fighter is not only valued at just ticket sales.
a fighter on the FS1 prelim card is valued by the number of viewers and what that relates to the TV contracts. Fight Pass fighters have value based on how many people are watching on fight pass.
People in the stadium which is a lot smaller than the main card are there mainly for the main card but if they show up early and now purchased a beer and hot dog, they are adding to revenues.
Sure they may still have purchased a beer if they came late but did they now drink 5 beers instead of 3 bears because they came for every fight.
Way more to it then just tickets, but yes that is part of it.

Ticket sales is a generic term for drawing power. When I say ticket sales I mean everything. 90% of fighters do not sell enough ads/tickets/views/concessions etc to cover their salary and rely upon the actual draws to fund their purses.

 

[tithas]

The UFC has 2X the value of an NBA team and about 40-50 times as many athletes. The NBA average salary is about $5M. Applying those numbers to the UFC, the average salary would be $200,000 - $250,000 a year. That's average, not minimum. Applying those numbers with the NBA minimum of $875,000, the UFC minimum would be about $45,000 a year.

At least now you all have some numbers to compare to a real sports league.

To bad the UFC is not a sports league. its a private company and the closet comparison is WWE. For the record WWE pays its athletes less revenue than the UFC. You cannot compare the UFC and sports leagues because the do not operate anything alike. I can list at least 10 things that make them vastly different business models.

 

[dudefacemcghee]

Its pretty obvious that pay has been an issue forever with the UFC, and the most recent card is no exception. Karate Hottie (who had 5 million watch her fight got paid 15k/15k, probably took home half of that).

So its pretty obvious mma fighting is an absolute trainwreck of a career path (even if you make it to the ufc: shit base pay, no job security, no 401k, had insurance, etc.)

Personally i think if mma is ever to attract high level athletes it needs drastically increase pay to something like 20k/20k with a 5k increase each fight you win (this would be the cheapest and most basic pay scale). Also I'd like to see the rosters trimmed to exclude many of the lower level non ufc caliber fighters. (no reason to have guys that clearly aren't going to be top 25)

They should at least be making 100000 a year if they fight 2-3 times. Like a respectably job

 

[Sidecontrol87]

If they raise the base pay, the UFC will just have less fights. New fighters won't get an opportunity.

8/8k is pretty bad though. 12/12 would be better. So if you go 2-2 in a year that is 72k plus sponsorships. That's live able at least.

 

[Davemeddlehed]

Its pretty obvious that pay has been an issue forever with the UFC, and the most recent card is no exception. Karate Hottie (who had 5 million watch her fight got paid 15k/15k, probably took home half of that).

So its pretty obvious mma fighting is an absolute trainwreck of a career path (even if you make it to the ufc: shit base pay, no job security, no 401k, had insurance, etc.)

Personally i think if mma is ever to attract high level athletes it needs drastically increase pay to something like 20k/20k with a 5k increase each fight you win (this would be the cheapest and most basic pay scale). Also I'd like to see the rosters trimmed to exclude many of the lower level non ufc caliber fighters. (no reason to have guys that clearly aren't going to be top 25)

the UFC does provide health insurance.

 

[knock_you_out]

Every fighter should get 50k minimum. Health insurance and long and short term disability insurance would be nice, so that they can still eat when they take a year off due to ACL surgery, which many fighters, seem to do.

 

[BForrester]

If these guys aren't making $40k to show on a main card, they're getting the short end. I'd say at least $15k to show on the prelims.