The Washington Post featured former UFC and current WSOF fighter John Howard in a piece about fighter pay in telling the news that an Oklahoma congressman is scheduled to sponsor a bill to amend the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act (“Ali Act”) to include mixed martial artists.
Markwayne Mullin, a Republican representative from Oklahoma was a former fighter and will be the legislator leading the charge in Washington D.C. The Ali Act came with a threefold purpose but with the most known reason being to protect the rights and welfare of boxers.
Although no specifics were given about the amendments to the Ali Act, one would assume that most of the measures would be the same as those that were set out to protect boxers since 2000.
The WaPo article quotes Howard as making $25,000 for his December 2015 fight against Tim Means in the UFC. NSAC states he made $27,000. However, Howard goes on to state in the article that he had to pay training partners, his gym and other costs for training which left him with about $12,000.
Preemptively, as an independent contractor for the UFC, Howard still has to pay taxes on the $27,000.
MMA Fighters’ Association hopes that an association can be created to help assist fighters and see that adding MMA to protection under the Ali Act would be a step in the right direction. Rob Maysey, the founder, is one of the attorneys active in the current antitrust lawsuit filed by fighters against Zuffa. Maysey’s firm is one of the plaintiffs’ firm litigating the case in Nevada.
Payout Perspective:
I was interviewed for this story but my part was cut out of the story. The news of a possible amendment may actually help fighters. Would fighters be willing to join an association (which likely means paying fee)? But, we shall see how the amendment would look and whether the Ali Act will see other tweaks to benefit fighters. The other question is whether this amendment would have enough support to have this passed. Also, how much opposition would such an amendment have by the UFC.
I hope this goes through… We’ll see
Good news for fighters…bad news for dictator dw hahaha
Lorenzo is the dictator.
So basically, this will hurt the smaller promotions like wsof and legacy more than Ufc and Bellator.
I doubt it passes once fighters realize there is fees and other rules.
What’s funny is all of those undercard fighters complaining about pay, are going to make LESS money if this goes through. That’s the irony of it all. The money will be concentrated further to the top of the card, where the headliners will certainly make more, but guys making 10k to show, are going to be making boxing money now, which as we saw from Pacquaio’s last fight, can be as low as $1,500 for a fighter on a ppv. Haha.
Guy’s like Howard would be buried by this, and that 12k, he claims he made, would be much smaller.
Which fighter made $1500 on the tv undercard d? Please give us a link to that
Who cares if it was televised or not, the fact remains these guys are literally paying to fight on a boxing ppv undercard that no one even watches-ie, they receive zero exposure. Lowest paid ufc fighter gets a 10k/10k contract with $2,500 in reebok money. Their boxing counterparts make a fraction of that.
@d
Why do you compare UFC money to boxing money and not MMA as a whole?
According to boxrec.com, there are 20 484 active boxers in the world.
The UFC has around 500 guys total. The UFC is like the NFL, NBA, NHL etc… UFC guys make peanuts compared to major league athletes in other sports.
One other thing, an undercard guy on a Pacquiao undercard is not necessarily a Top Rank fighter. Various promoters come together to build cards in boxing, a card can have 3 or 4 boxing promoters working together.
^^^ Agreed. Locally in terms of mma we have Legacy and other small promotions. Often the fighters are paid as little as $500, which I would think is on par with the lowest of the low in boxing as well. But then again, I think the constant bickering by fans of both sports on here who are not making a dime off the sport is the silliest thing since pet rocks.
And by the way, I absolutely look forward to the Ali Act being in place for MMA. Will do alot to clean out the dirty underhanded acts behind the scenes.
French Canadian, it would probably be a good idea to read the topic at hand rather than just attempting to spin numbers like you do every time you post one here.
Go back and review what started the conversation. My point was very clearly addressing how the Ali Act would affect fighters at the bottom rung.
Also, why are you comparing an entire sport to one league in a different sport?
Boxers also make peanuts compared to those other sports. Do you think NFL players lose money to play football like some boxers do to box?
The undercard fighter that made $1,500 was on Top Rank’s billing. Not that this should matter either way because he is fighting on a ppv card regardless of who is the promotion.
R.I.F. Reading is Fundamental!
@Wil,
Absolutely not. You are comparing apples to oranges. You are taking major promotions like Top Rank, GB, etc. and comparing them to mid major and minor league fight promotions. It is an absurd analogy.
Also, when the fighters at the top start to make more money and the fighters who are griping about pay (like many undercard fighters are), take a drastic pay cut which will swing into the headlines purse, are you going to feel like the Ali Act was justified?
Oh and also to Mr. Fight Fan,
You talk about non televised bouts. Here are what the non -televised UFC fighters made for the Jones-OSP fight:
Walt Harris ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Cody East ($10,000)
Marcos Rogerio de Lima ($12,000 + $12,000 = $24,000) def. Clint Hester ($12,000)
Kevin Lee ($24,000 + $24,000 = $48,000) def. Efrain Escudero ($18,000)
Do you see anyone there making $1,500? The lowest paid fighter made 10k. Can’t say the same for the boxing ppv. If that Ali Act were to kick in, these numbers would be similar to those boxing peanut payouts.
@d
you are the one who said “Their counterparts in boxing” when talking about UFC fighters.
Yes NFL players make more than boxers, but again boxing is A SPORT not a league. You’re the one who’s comparing a LEAGUE, the UFC against a SPORT, boxing.
Comparing the UFC and the NFL is fine since they’re both leagues. You are comparing boxing to the UFC and not to MMA as a whole.
You twist things like all MMA fans are doing about the boxing vs MMA debate. You talk about MMA as a whole (read non-UFC MMA) when it suits you but then, you flip it over to the “UFC vs boxing” in order to “win” some arguments which is twisted and strange. You want to have your cake and eat it too.
It is not spin to say that boxing has around 20 400 active boxers in the whole world. Just like it is not spin to say that the UFC has only 500 in total. These are facts.
@French Canadian,
Again, you need to read the topic at hand and then read my statements. I was addressing the Ali Act and how it effects purses. The points I made were relevant to the topic at hand. Your issue is you don’t read very well.
PBC fighters are competing in a LEAGUE, so using them as one example, the fighters make peanuts compared to those major sports leagues. So using your logic, PBC is a fair comparison to the NFL.
” You twist things like all MMA fans are doing about the boxing vs MMA debate. You talk about MMA as a whole (read non-UFC MMA) when it suits you but then, you flip it over to the “UFC vs boxing” in order to “win” some arguments which is twisted and strange. You want to have your cake and eat it too.”
No, that is what you do literally. That and not reading things.
“It is not spin to say that boxing has around 20 400 active boxers in the whole world. Just like it is not spin to say that the UFC has only 500 in total. These are facts.”
Yeah, and only a delusional person would compare the UFC to the entirety of the sport of boxing. I’m not the one doing that, you are. When I was addressing boxing, I was talking about the major promotions, not the entire sport. If I was discussing some local club boxing fights and attempted to use those as examples in comparison to the UFC, then of course that would be ridiculous. What’s amusing is that you take boxing major promotions and attempt to compare them to minor league mma fights. You also cherry pick, fabricate and ignore real stats all the time.
Good comparison on numbers french canadian boxing is global,many promotions from diff countries making money…its a global sport…..ufc is a club sport with reebok kit hahaha…d is huffing and puffing with long essays…hahaha…
Topps is still in self destruct mode from his 2014 predictions. He didn’t realize mma was about to explode and they were going to start dominating every aspect of the combat sports market. Hahahaha.
D you have no sources as usual and pick and choose your facts. Like french said above cards have multiple promotors and fighters at different stages in the game so if someone made $1500 then they are probably in the very early stages of a pro career.
Hahaha. Not only do I have the sources, they were posted on this site where you can locate them any time you would like.
“so if someone made $1500 then they are probably in the very early stages of a pro career.”
Which is exactly where those UFC prelim fighters are and they make 10x what the boxers do.
Hahaha. Not only do I have the sources, they were posted on this site where you can locate them any time you would like.
“so if someone made $1500 then they are probably in the very early stages of a pro career.”
Which is exactly where those UFC prelim fighters are and they make 10x what the boxers do.
Ufc fighters don’t have the same amateur experience like boxing does. Which is why you have circus acts like kimbo, lesnar and cm punk able to walk in and make a quick buck. Try doing that in boxing, never gonna happen.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kimbo Slice professional boxing record 7-0/ End of Argument.
Hahaha d self.conscious as usual…wheres the long essays? how bout flash,cfo and china media?doing well?
Tops’ self destructing as usual, didn’t expect Rousey & McGregor to become mainstream stars and boxing to collapse. He works overtime these days to try to spin numbers, etc. Hahaha.
Training costs should be a business expense and a tax right off. Same with supliments.
All the money in boxing is at the top. ufc its more spread out. And they pay better than any other promotion in general.
Hahahaha…writing long essays is working overtime and holidays, huffing and puffing….zuffa for sale d? being sold to flash and china media?
2015 ufc results…..Tops self destructing…..2016 ufc results…….Tops…flat line……..
Hahaha.
Are you forbidden by your employer to talk about ufc sale to flash or china media or new cfo? Hahahahaha
Full court press continues from Tops. He can’t take it. Hahahahaha.