"Who is that guy" "UFC wont attract top talent" fighter pay argument......

[accolyte1022]

If the fighters are too selfish and disorganized to collectively bargain, that's their problem.

Sherdoggers spend more time worrying about what fighters make than the fighters do.

PS:

Fighters don't give a flying fuck about you or you family.

 

[SuperNerd]

The winds of change! Thank you TS.

I'm inspired.

 

[Ingjr]

MMA is a fallback sport for D & E level athletes, they shouldn't be paid like A-level athletes.

I'd put these D and E level athletes up against most any of your A level athletes on a level playing field. Say like a obstacle course or the like. Most of your A level athletes are very, very talented but as far as athletic ability, not so much. I'm talking in general and I'm sure instances can be found on both sides to prove/disprove my argument. JMO

 

[MMA]

A fighter's union looks out for the fighters' interests.



NOT the sport's interest


certainly NOT the fan's interest


NOT the future fighters' interest



ONLY the present fighters' interest



So when it comes to long-term investments, and where money is allocated, a fighters' union is by nature short-sighted and selfish -- because that's where their interest lies. Strict drug testing with random, inconvenient visits? Buh-bye. Millions of dollars invested into growing the sport in new markets? See yuh! That big new training facility/lab they're building? Won't happen! I could really go on and on.

No, instead of spending all this money and mildly inconveniencing athletes. we'll lose out on ALL that.... just so the guys on the undercard can make an extra 10/10.


Which raises the question: How the FUCK can any reasonable fan want this??? I know the answer -- do you?

 

[Toco]

LMAO, if they were A level athletes they'd get into sports that paid better. Aldo is a failed soccer player, Stipe is a failed baseball player and a failed boxer. And those are 2 of the better athletes on the roster.

miocic is far from the better athletes on the roster. maybe on the HW division, but overall, no way

 

[Hoop]

I don't know why fans care so much about fighter pay. Fighters should be the ones that care about how much they get paid, and if they don't like it, get another job.

I agree. It's a nice sentiment and all to care about how much a fighter gets paid, but they don't give a shit how much the average person is getting paid.

The fighter's are the product and part of their pay comes out of the fans pocket. I think that evens things out.

 

[Tormund]

miocic is far from the better athletes on the roster. maybe on the HW division, but overall, no way

You underrate him, can go hard for 5 rounds and had a promising baseball career but ultimately failed.

 

[Brandon Taylor]

I would love to see fighter pay increase but I understand the argument against it as well. As an undercard fighter you are basically getting a chance to audition for the bigger money. Noone comes to the events or buys the PPV for the unknown fighters who fill in the card. They are just time fillers who get a chance at building their name because they appear on a card with a big name fighter who gives them an audience. They don't make the UFC any money unless they succeed to the pint their name on a main card adds to the viewership.

The big problem which I think op is directly addressing is that people with potential often can't afford to live up to that potential because they can't be full time fighters until they make it to that next level.

 

[Kenshi]

It is stupid to think of cage fighting as a "career" choice. It's the entertainment industry and only a select few will make a career out of it and earn the big bucks. If you're a newcomer to the UFC it's your shot to find out or prove how good of a fighter you are and see how far you can take it - if you're willing to take that chance. I really don't give a shit how much these guys make - no one is forcing them to do this. It's a gamble - if these guys see it as anything more they're delusional.

 

[Blayt7hh]

I love this idea that some people have that if they were better athletes they would just go play soccer or basketball or something and not do MMA. No dummies, they have to play that shit when they were young. Most people do whatever they like when they're young, and plenty of athletic people will never step out on the football field but will go join the wrestling team or do bjj or something being that this is a free country. It's not China where 10 year olds are given aptitude tests and ushered onto the gymnastics team. They can't just go and do football later in life. You guys make it sound like you put your athletic ability down on a job application and take it around until you get picked up by the highest paying sport you can.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Right - you realize he's arguing that they should get a step up to make a fraction of A level athletes?

The absolutely minimum mandated pay in the NFL, for a rookie is $450k/year.

TS proposes a bump up to 16/16. Lets assume this fighter gets two bouts and wins both, we're talking $64k/year.

So he is proposing rookie UFC fighters get pay increase so they make 14% of the absolute minimum rookie pay in the NFL.

This isn't crazy talk, its common sense.

The UFC just sold for 4 bil.


The NY Jets are worth 2.6 bil by themselves and they aren't even in the top 5 most valuable teams.

The NFL, NBA, and MLB generate much more money than the UFC or mma in general does. This leads to their athletes getting paid much better.

These leagues also have player unions to make sure participants get a decent cut of the money train.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I love this idea that some people have that if they were better athletes they would just go play soccer or basketball or something and not do MMA. No dummies, they have to play that shit when they were young. Most people do whatever they like when they're young, and plenty of athletic people will never step out on the football field but will go join the wrestling team or do bjj or something being that this is a free country. It's not China where 10 year olds are given aptitude tests and ushered onto the gymnastics team. They can't just go and do football later in life. You guys make it sound like you put your athletic ability down on a job application and take it around until you get picked up by the highest paying sport you can.

Parents push kids into sports for various reasons. I can imagine football, hockey, baseball, soccer and wrestling being very high on those lists.


I can't imagine there's a lot of parents pushing their kids to do bjj or Muay Thai. Those are things you get into in your late teens or early 20's.

 

[Brandon Taylor]

The UFC just sold for 4 bil.


The NY Jets are worth 2.6 bil by themselves and they aren't even in the top 5 most valuable teams.

The NFL, NBA, and MLB generate much more money than the UFC or mma in general does. This leads to their athletes getting paid much better.

These leagues also have player unions to make sure participants get a decent cut of the money train.

I bet the Jets would get over 4B if they sold right now. Sports franchises are hot right now and a New York based team isn't on the market often.

 

[giusti825]

If competent businessmen just offered the UFC 4.2 Billion.....you better believe that they ufc has been paying the fighters less than 1% of the revenue they generate.....

 

[SlicerDM]

The best athletes go into the high paying sports.

There is no possible way you can defend fighter pay, stop trying.

 

[daniel san]

The UFC benefited by increasing the number of fighters (mostly undercard), through more live events that padded their pockets; by giving them more live gates/fulfilling a fox contract which is going to lead to them making even more money on the next TV deal. This led to the UFC being able to justify paying debut guys 10/10k or 12/12k as most were brought in just to fill a FS1 or FS2 timeslot. This also spread money away from the guys who actually will have longetivity in the sport,who actually deserve more money at the beginning of their UFC Careers. It also led to viewers saying that these undercard guys didnt deserve more money as fans dont know who many of them are.'

To be fair, I don't think that the UFC benefitted that much from increasing the number of undercard/unknown fighters - next to no one would buy a PPV or tune in to watch some random, though maybe talented, guy or woman fight someone else they have never heard of. Doing more shows has very likely increased the revenue stream coming from live gate and FOX. Live gate revenue is very little compared to PPVs though and I don't know how much the UFC earns from FOX.

However, I fully agree with you - if you sign with the UFC, you should be able to be a fighter full time unless you get injured and don't fight. If you fight three times a year, which any healthy individual should be capable of, you should not be forced to have another job than being a fighter. Minimum show money used to be $8k for several years, seems like it's at $10k now based on the latest Holm card. I think this is too little - at the very least, show money should be between $15-$20k. The thing is, even though these guys do absolutely nothing for ratings, bumping up their salary with $5k+ does absolutely nothing to the bottom line.

In the last Holm card, total show money paid out was $581k. Five fighters had $10k in show money, 13 out of 23 earned less than $14k or less in show money. If minimum show money was $15k, the UFC would have paid 7% extra ($39k). If minimum show money was $20k, the UFC would have paid 20% extra ($77k). Considering how much the UFC earns and that they pay a relatively low percentage of gross income to fighters, I think they at the very least could offer $15k in show money. This would mean that a fighter who fights three times a year, would earn at least $45k in show money and $7.5k in dat Reebok money. If they win all three fights, well, they've got a damn good income for probably not having an education whatsoever.

 

[CRuck1980]

I don't know why fans care so much about fighter pay. Fighters should be the ones that care about how much they get paid, and if they don't like it, get another job.

They think if the UFC gives a million dollars to a curtain jerker they'll get lebron James to fight

 

[Bend NvR Break]

If competent businessmen just offered the UFC 4.2 Billion.....you better believe that they ufc has been paying the fighters less than 1% of the revenue they generate.....

Dude what Brock made alone is MORE than like 2 FOX cards total payouts combined.

 

[Super Grover]

Oh and a non star that starts in the NFL, MLB and even NBA does not make more money than McGregor, GSP, or Jones.

LMAO. You are on fucking crack if you believe that (or you just have no idea what you are talking about).

Ian Kennedy signed a contract this offseason for 5 years, $70 million. SEVENTY MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS! That is more than probably every single UFC fighter has ever made in the past 10 years combined. Ian Kennedy has never ever been one of even the top 50 starting pitchers in baseball.

Wei Yen Chen got 5 years $80 million dollars. You think Wei Yen Chen is a household name? lol.

Brock just set a record for highest UFC payout ever at $2.5 million. The average salary in MLB is $4 million. AVERAGE.

 

[bigconan]

Especially heavyweights, that's why most of the current UFC HW roster are in their mid 30's.

You could take the best "A" level athletes around but unless they are life long martial artists of some sort, meaning. a college wrestler or kickboxer or bjj, they will not be successful in the ufc. End of story. If you took the biggest baddest football players in the nfl and they tried to do mma. they would get slaughtered in under 30 seconds. They are not fighters and haven't trained as fighters.. This is a sport where guys need to be into a fighting sport since they were kids or they will simply not be successful..