Would fighters go for this in return for a pay increase?

[winkydinks]

I'm talking about fight quotas. We know that fighters generally make jack shit compared to the athletes in the other more mainstream sports, but the one luxury they have compared to their higher-earning brethren is flexibility. When NFL offseason training camps begin, the players need to be there through the end of the season. On the contrary, if a UFC fighter wants to fuck off to the beach for nine months, they generally can.

Given the fact that fiscal motivation is going to vary from fighter to fighter, the question needs to be asked as to whether or not giving Ortega or Ponzi a quarter million to show and telling them to call when they're ready to fight again is a good idea. Neither have been useful to the company for 18 months, and they'll be knocking on the 2 year door before they'll supposedly will fight again. Conor jerks everyone's chain, and Khabib's now forced interim belts two years in a row. Both they and their defenders will come up with every excuse in the book, and it'll all be a bunch of bullshit. Both of them would fight more if they wanted, or with what I'm proposing, they were required to.

Fighters get paid more, on the stipulation that they fight 2-3x per year. They cease to be "independent contractors", and become employees required to contribute. They're satisfied by more money, and Dana doesn't have to deal with Jon/Mas situations. Better fighters fighting more often allows the UFC to have better cards and get rid of cans. Better cards=more money for the company. Everyone's happy.

 

[Slatersan]

Asking fighters these days to fight twice a year is asking too much.

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

Fighters would, UFC wouldn’t.

 

[jeff7b9]

There may be a amenable way to work that idea into a contract.

ie - Rate is x per fight but 3rd fight in a calendar year bumps up to x + 30%.


The danger in that Is that it incentivizes the UFC to not give the fighter the 3rd fight but rather stall them to the next year.

probably not as easy as you would think to get that to play out smoothly in a contract.

 

[Fight Professor]

The reason fighters are not fighting as much as they used to 10-15 years ago is due to higher payouts.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

Today a fighter signs a contract for let's say 3 fights over 2 years, and the UFC has to offer them a fight every 6 months. If the fighter turns it down, the contract extends for 6 months (a legal loophole UFC basically invented about 4 years ago and no one has taken to court yet). This allows UFC to keep fighters in contract - or give them fights they don't want - forever.

Wouldn't your idea of forcing fighters to fight 2x-3x/yr - for the same pay, you seem to be implying, and without any further protections - actually just give UFC even more leverage, in a power imbalance that UFC already holds?

And remember, when considering a policy, you cannot just think of a few big named fighters (Conor, Khabib, Ortega, etc). Keep the Daniel Ige's and Jordan Griffin's in mind as well.

 

[Fight Professor]

There may be a amenable way to work that idea into a contract.

ie - Rate is x per fight but 3rd fight in a calendar year bumps up to x + 30%.


The danger in that Is that it incentivizes the UFC to not give the fighter the 3rd fight but rather stall them to the next year.

probably not as easy as you would think to get that to play out smoothly in a contract.

It would be easier to penalize fighters for inactivity. Obviously, fighters get injured once in a while and should be protected from that. But frequent inactivity should be dealt with just like it would be in any other work field.

 

[TheBulletwithWings]

There may be a amenable way to work that idea into a contract.

ie - Rate is x per fight but 3rd fight in a calendar year bumps up to x + 30%.


The danger in that Is that it incentivizes the UFC to not give the fighter the 3rd fight but rather stall them to the next year.

probably not as easy as you would think to get that to play out smoothly in a contract.

Plus, injuries are a factor but I still kinda like the idea.

 

[Fight Professor]

I predict a close decision with Yan getting the win. But a lot of Sherdoggers are going to complain that Aldo got robbed again.

 

[jeff7b9]

It would be easier to penalize fighters for inactivity. Obviously, fighters get injured once in a while and should be protected from that. But frequent inactivity should be dealt with just like it would be in any other work field.

how do you penalize a guy who isn’t working by choice when he only gets paid when he comes to work and he only comes to work when it is in his terms?


“I’m not coming in today”
“Ok then you can’t work tomorrow either.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“You have to work graveyard shift when you come back.”
“I’m not doin that.”
...
“You have to wear a uniform when you come back to work.”
“What?”
“It’s reebok”
“Fuck you.”

 

[Fight Professor]

how do you penalize a guy who isn’t working by choice when he only gets paid when he comes to work and he only comes to work when it is in his terms?


“I’m not coming in today”
“Ok then you can’t work tomorrow either.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“You have to work graveyard shift when you come back.”
“I’m not doin that.”
...
“You have to wear a uniform when you come back to work.”
“What?”
“It’s reebok”
“Fuck you.”

By reducing the payout in the next fight.

 

[Wizzlebiz]

I predict a close decision with Yan getting the win. But a lot of Sherdoggers are going to complain that Aldo got robbed again.

I'm pretty sure you are responding to the wrong thread.

Aldo kos yan is over >

 

[Volador]

I'm talking about fight quotas. We know that fighters generally make jack shit compared to the athletes in the other more mainstream sports, but the one luxury they have compared to their higher-earning brethren is flexibility. When NFL offseason training camps begin, the players need to be there through the end of the season. On the contrary, if a UFC fighter wants to fuck off to the beach for nine months, they generally can.

Given the fact that fiscal motivation is going to vary from fighter to fighter, the question needs to be asked as to whether or not giving Ortega or Ponzi a quarter million to show and telling them to call when they're ready to fight again is a good idea. Neither have been useful to the company for 18 months, and they'll be knocking on the 2 year door before they'll supposedly will fight again. Conor jerks everyone's chain, and Khabib's now forced interim belts two years in a row. Both they and their defenders will come up with every excuse in the book, and it'll all be a bunch of bullshit. Both of them would fight more if they wanted, or with what I'm proposing, they were required to.

Fighters get paid more, on the stipulation that they fight 2-3x per year. They cease to be "independent contractors", and become employees required to contribute. They're satisfied by more money, and Dana doesn't have to deal with Jon/Mas situations. Better fighters fighting more often allows the UFC to have better cards and get rid of cans. Better cards=more money for the company. Everyone's happy.

I don’t think they will ever become employees, the fighters probably enjoy the freedom (which, mind you, is only relative, as they can’t fight anywhere else like a true freelancer) and the UFC does as well. The UFC saves many millions they would probably have to pay otherwise in tax contributions, benefits, etc.

The reality is that any rich fighter might not want to fight too often. We see this with Conor already. This won’t change, but only applies to a small minority. And make no mistake, he’s not a liability. As soon as he returns, he’ll be as big as ever and make tons of money for the UFC.

You could be more strict, for example, saying champions are stripped of their belt as a rule if they don’t defend during a 12 month period and lose PPV points or stuff like that. 90% of the roster would fight in a similar schedule if they made more money though. Guys like Tony, Gaethje, Poirier, Usman, etc. make mid to high 6 figures per fight and still fight often.

 

[Ingjr]

I predict a close decision with Yan getting the win. But a lot of Sherdoggers are going to complain that Aldo got robbed again.

I predict your in the wrong thread.

 

[letgodiego]

There may be a amenable way to work that idea into a contract.

ie - Rate is x per fight but 3rd fight in a calendar year bumps up to x + 30%.


The danger in that Is that it incentivizes the UFC to not give the fighter the 3rd fight but rather stall them to the next year.

probably not as easy as you would think to get that to play out smoothly in a contract.

and thats exactly what they would do.

 

[JBJ was here]

If you want UFC fighters to fight more often, pay them what they're worth, or at least enough for them to pay their trainers full time during fight camps and part time year round. The fighters get 20% or less of UFC revenue right now, while unionized sports leagues that make their owners a fuckton of money pay out about 50% of revenues. Pay the fighters 40% of revenue, making sure all fighters are paid enough to pay for their training and fight camps. Then, if the UFC offers a fight at 50% or more over the contracted rate, require the fighter to provide a justified cause for turning down the fight (injury, less that four months after previous fight, scheduled surgery for the fighter or an immediate family member, etc.) or the fight will count towards the contracted total if turned down.

 

[Shaddows]

I'm talking about fight quotas. We know that fighters generally make jack shit compared to the athletes in the other more mainstream sports, but the one luxury they have compared to their higher-earning brethren is flexibility. When NFL offseason training camps begin, the players need to be there through the end of the season. On the contrary, if a UFC fighter wants to fuck off to the beach for nine months, they generally can.

Given the fact that fiscal motivation is going to vary from fighter to fighter, the question needs to be asked as to whether or not giving Ortega or Ponzi a quarter million to show and telling them to call when they're ready to fight again is a good idea. Neither have been useful to the company for 18 months, and they'll be knocking on the 2 year door before they'll supposedly will fight again. Conor jerks everyone's chain, and Khabib's now forced interim belts two years in a row. Both they and their defenders will come up with every excuse in the book, and it'll all be a bunch of bullshit. Both of them would fight more if they wanted, or with what I'm proposing, they were required to.

Fighters get paid more, on the stipulation that they fight 2-3x per year. They cease to be "independent contractors", and become employees required to contribute. They're satisfied by more money, and Dana doesn't have to deal with Jon/Mas situations. Better fighters fighting more often allows the UFC to have better cards and get rid of cans. Better cards=more money for the company. Everyone's happy.

the problem with this is that UFC is not open 300 days per year.
They have about 1-2 cards per month.
So demanding fighters to fight is not as simple since there would not be enough events for everyone to fight 3 times per year.

Add to the fact that fighters live all around the globe and that events can happen far away from them, the time it takes for training camp AND the fact that they have a real possibility of getting injured while preparing for a fight, you can't simply predict what will happen.

If I am healthy and ready for my third fight in December and my opponent gets injured, so they cancel my fight... does it count? After all, it takes two o tango, and it was not my fault that fight did not happen.

So as you see, there are a lot more variables than making a simplistic blank statement like that.

 

[skylolow]

I always cringe when people or fighters want to talk about other sports pay scales.

When the UFC has Billions guaranteed a year then you can talk about a 50/50 or whatever split.

Do fighters deserve more, no doubt. But the percentage of the pie is probably more realistic at about 25% to 30%. On top of that with the next uniform sponsorship work out with the brand and other top tier sponsors to up kitty to an amount the UFC can easily triple the current tier system payouts.

 

[jeff7b9]

and thats exactly what they would do.

the problem with all of this is that the guys the UFC needs to fight more, the big names, don’t need the money and have an incentive to pick the right fights even if that means waiting, better to stay in that “champ/PPV points” status as long as possible.

whereas the guys who are depending on that next paycheck to pay their bills, tend to be prelim/lower level guys who the UFC doesn’t “need” and from the UFC’s perspective those guys should be happy to have the opportunity to maybe become a star one day because there are a long list of other hungry fighters that would take their place in a heartbeat.

It is not an easy situation to solve. You need the guys who don’t need money to stick their necks out.