While the UFC gets a lot of crap for low fighter pay, nobody mentions...

I’m surprised so many fans complain about fighter pay. Top performers make millions, and fungible performers make enough to pay for the basics. Similar to any other profession. The profits that Zuffa made were the payoff for taking a gamble on a totally undeveloped industry, eating losses, and turning the thing into a “real” sport. I don’t begrudge fighters doing what they feel they have to do to pursue their interests (including organizing), but there are no good guys and bad guys here, it’s business.
It’s because people, invariably, want to compare the UFC (a league) to other professional sports that have unions. Fighters need to get their shit together and unite but it’ll never ever happen.
 
People complain about shit fighter pay but what are these individuals going to do in their life that pays better? UFC is a business and you don’t go all out on labor expenses if you don’t have to. Many of these guys do it because they don’t have a better option, while others just love the fight game. If a fighter doesn’t fit either of those then they prob got priorities screwed up somewhere.

Remember even guys like Connor were fixing toilets for a living before they got a chance to make a name for themselves in the fight game. If you want to make money here then get good or get entertaining, not everyone is cut out to be at the top in any line of work.

Kinda sick of people whining about fighter pay, it’s like people wanting more money to flip burgers for a living. Don’t like the offer you got? Make yourself more valuable or get a different fucking job, end of story.
 
Also they should add a system like twitch where the fans can donate cash in real time to the fighter in the cage.

CamSoda Legends setting trends since April 2018

 
That's a really interesting idea.

It's counter-intuitive, but something to think about.
If you look at it from a probability standpoint, it's easy to understand the rationale.

You can either try to double your show money with a 50% chance of success, or try to get $50,000 with a 7.69% chance of success.

There are other variables beyond this one example that make fighters more tentative though: losing puts them at risk of getting cut, losing impedes their climb to the top where there's higher pay, and losing while at the top can put your high pay at risk (and that $50,000 bonus can no longer compensate).
 
If you look at it from a probability standpoint, it's easy to understand the rationale.

You can either try to double your show money with a 50% chance of success, or try to get $50,000 with a 7.69% chance of success.

There are other variables beyond this one example that make fighters more tentative though: losing puts them at risk of getting cut, losing impedes their climb to the top where there's higher pay, and losing while at the top can put your high pay at risk (and that $50,000 bonus can no longer compensate).

It's even more complicated if you consider those percentages aren't fixed.

Maybe you're over-matched and don't have a 50% chance of winning. Or you're a heavy favorite and have a much greater chance.

Or maybe you don't shoot for that stunning submission if Joe Lauzon is on your card and has been fed another can to slaughter, reducing your odds from 7.69% to 0%.
 
If you look at it from a probability standpoint, it's easy to understand the rationale.

You can either try to double your show money with a 50% chance of success, or try to get $50,000 with a 7.69% chance of success.

There are other variables beyond this one example that make fighters more tentative though: losing puts them at risk of getting cut, losing impedes their climb to the top where there's higher pay, and losing while at the top can put your high pay at risk (and that $50,000 bonus can no longer compensate).

That’s probably how a lot of fighters look at it but I don’t think it’s the correct approach.

Very few guys have carved out a lucrative UFC career purely by being a winner. GSP. Jones. Handful of other guys, maybe. Not that those guys are boring, but a decent portion of their appeal comes from their dominance. Not the case with most fighters.

There’s definitely a certain bar you want to remain above in terms of winning and losing. You don’t want to be losing 5 fights in a row.

But once you’ve established yourself as a competitive UFC fighter, being exciting beats winning. The recipe for financial success in he long run is to fight well and fight a lot. The Donald Cerrone model. The Nate Diaz model if he’d, you know, kept fighting. Nik Lentz summed it up really well in his interview after the Gray Maynard fight.

I’m sure Jon Fitch has done fine for himself, but he’s the perfect illustration of the limits that “just winning” puts on a career. He was a top contender and yet the UFC couldn’t care less when he threatened to move on.

Look, if it’s the 3rd round of a fight that’s been a real slog in the mud, then yes, get a takedown, grind out the W, take your win bonus. But in the big picture you want to be the guy who the UFC can count on for entertaining fights. You want to be the one they call and throws money at to fill in on short notice.
 
How much are you getting paid to shill for the UFC?

If the UFC paid enough fighters wouldn't have to fight for bonuses which are just crumbs compared to what athletes in other sports get.
Other sports make way more than mma/ufc. Wtf lmao
 
The fighter pay argument is retarded. If fighters could make more money under a different promoter they would. That promotion would buy up all the talent and crush the UFC. It hasnt happened yet so the UFC is the best there is. Show me any other fighter in mma who did not fight for the UFC and made Anderson Silva money or Conor Money? Nate Diaz is a journeyman who made millions bc he’s in the ufc. If nate bever fought in the UFC he’d never have been a millionare, bottom line.
 
Well, let's clear it up then..... Even WITH the bonuses, UFC fighters get paid far too little. There. Happy?
 
It's the win money that makes fighters hesitant to take risks, because that's 50% of their purse. Eliminate show/win money and just give fighters a guaranteed amount, and I'd bet that finishes would go up.

But it also eliminates a fighters incentive in other situations, like if they can continue after a foul.
 
The genius of the UFC's model is they keep their cheapest fighters overpaid and their most expensive one's mostly underpaid. Then when the overpaid dude becomes underpaid they've built up a rapport and are more likely to see the UFC as a fair partner and the cycle continues.

Still more fair than standard capitalism actually like this to an extent but it flies in the face of meritocracy while claiming to support it. The bonuses are just another way of making the lower ranked guys super happy. One of those a year is an upper middle class salary, to the lower ranked guys that's incredible to the upper ranked guys not so much. Same with Reebok if you have no sponsors you'll see a few thousand bucks as a godsend, if you were making 100k and you have to give that up, you're going to view it very different.
 
The biggest thing people don't realize is how it has actually increased quite a bit from back when the UFC was running at a loss in the pre tuf days
Back in those days you had guys in mullets giving each other brain damage for half off coupons at the sizzler
 
Well if you aren't getting paid to make stupid threads like this, you are a moron because people do get paid to make shit up for the UFC.
Just to recap, you're either a shill or an idiot.
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Are you calling TS dumb by saying he is a guy that knows significantly more about MMA than anyone here? If so I suppose you win!!
there are plenty of people even on these boards who know a lot more about mma than joe rogan. sure, they're drowned in an ocean of idiots, but joe rogan is hardly some world class expert.
 
If the UFC fighters grew some balls and organized they would form a union and collectively bargain, unlike other sports though they don't have teams so it makes it much more complicated and easier for the UFC to take advantage
 
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