Benson Henderson has received a new 8 fight deal with the UFC. The current lightweight UFC champion tweeted thanks to his manager and lawyer for hammering out the details last night.
No monetary terms of the deal have been released as the information was just passed along by the fighter via twitter. Henderson had been making $39,000 to show and $39,000 to win.
One may assume that Henderson’s new deal comes with the news of the Eddie Alvarez lawsuit which revealed, in specific detail, the compensation for the former Bellator lightweight.
New deal done w/ @danawhite, @lorenzofertitta and @ufc, I’m a HAPPY man…thx to @malkikawa, @themmalawyer for staying late on this biz
— Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) January 12, 2013
New 8-fight deal, keeps me reppin’ these 3 lil letters, @ufc, I love it… instagr.am/p/UYItBJmZUQ/
— Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) January 12, 2013
UPDATED 1/12/13: According to Malki Kawa, Henderson’s agent, the deal was in the works for over two months.
No sorry this deal was being negotiated for over 2 months. Lol “@dilletaunt: Bendo got a new deal with #UFC?… m.tmi.me/Gjjui
— malki kawa (@malkikawa) January 13, 2013
Payout Perspective::
Good move by the UFC to make sure one of its top stars, not to mention the lightweight champ, is kept happy. We’ve seen in other sports a player gets a deal and another player similarly situated gets upset at the other player’s deal. Here, it made sense to keep Henderson happy and the 8 fight deal ensures Smooth will be around for 2 or 3 more years. It would be interesting to know if Henderson’s agent or the UFC initiated the contract talks. Certainly, its an agent’s job that they look out for their client. Drew Rosenhaus is known for renegotiating with teams on the premise that his player “outperformed their contract.” As the UFC lightweight champ with 2 successful title defenses, one would have to say that Henderson has done his part. The UFC could have started talks with Henderson knowing that the Alvarez contract terms would be made public. Would make sense to bump Henderson to something comparable to that contract.
He forgot to thank bjorn rebney.
And Malki is full of sh-t.
Competition will continue driving MMA fighter purses upwards
I hope you’re right Sampson. Seems like the benefits of competition may be limited to top-tier talent for awhile.
It will continue to drive MMA purses upwards but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will drive MMA revenue upwards for organizations.
It’s not a good thing for the growth of the sport but it will force orgs to strive harder to generate more revenue. We’ll see how it all ends up.
Im not sure why you hope he is right Machiel. I think he is right also but we all know compeition drives the bids up for fighters. The problem is it is never good for us fans or the sport itself. Keeping cost low is one of the reasons i watch all promotions to go under who try to compete with the UFC. Comsumers are to caught up in their fanaticism and fan boy nutriding to realize what is in everyones best interest. Fans piss and moan about everything and they are the reason for the problems they are complaining about. Look at every sport. Rival promotions and rival teams drive the cost of players in every sport to astonomical levels. It eventually reaches a point where the teams or leagues have to find others ways to make a profit to cover what it taken by the players. So as the players make more Ticket prices for Fans keep going up and up. When ticket sales decline games are blacked out on tv. Then every so many years the Owners lock the players out to fight for better profits then a few years later the Players Hold out to get it back. Then there is periods of now sport at all.
We have the same situation here. But in the case of MMA it isnt really the fault of a rival. With or without a rival. Fans are wishing this disaster on themselves. In MMA it will be worse than any of the other sports. As fighter pay rises we get more watered down cards. We have already seen this the last few years. The cards will always have a budget. The more they have to pay for each fighters the less talent they can put on the card. Ticket prices go up across the board. PPV prices go up. The when a rival comes around the talent in the UFC division becomes thinner as talent is spread out and not under one roof. So match ups become less compeitive and less interesting. Right now we get fighters who hold out or the UFC releases them when there is an issue over pay. Down the road if there is ever a Union the entire sport will come to a halt as they fight over money.
I will never understand why fans root against themselves and encourage the rapid increase of pay. It sounds ignorant to me. It makes as much sense as rooting for gas prices to go up. Why? So people who are already making more money than you and most people get even more at the expense of everyone who makes it possible they even have a career?
Any fighter in the UFC who ever gets to the point of making 20,000/20,000 has a better life than 99% of us will ever experience. You dont need to feel sorry for them. That type of pay will assure they will make 6 figures per year on average with sponsors while being famous and have to work a fraction of the time as the rest of us in the rat race. That pay is what almost everyone in the UFC makes who has fought more than a few times in the UFC. Now im not saying you should hate on anyone who makes money but they do not need your sympathy. Let the pay work itself out. It is important in combat sports that the UFC keeps its leverage over its fighters. IF pay every gets to high the UFC will not be able to give us the fights we want. The only way they can assure that is if the fighters still want/need money.We are already getting to that point with Anderson Silva. It no lover matter what fight the fans want or the UFC wants. Silva has to approve of it. We are not seeing him refuse to fight people that fans and the UFC want him to fight.
Scary to think I agree with Dana… err BS
Listen MMA fans. The average MMA fighter is under payed. Ufc makes 100’s of millions of the sweat of fighters. The average fighter career is what 3 years. Their injuries last forever. How dare any fan limit what they make, I don’t see any fan climbing into the ring to get beat on for peanuts.
The boxing model of payouts is broken. MMA is finally starting to pay the hard working fighters a comfortable amount of money. Have you guys seen 24/7 the pay per view show, the fighter homes are average at best, they are on welfare compared to other major league sports athletes.
I’m glad fighters will finally get paid for risking their health. Something everyone should keep in mind is some of these guys may be broken for the remainder of their lives.
Baller makes no sense
The average mean salary of an Australian rules football(AFL) player is $180K. The only reason I know the names of AFL players is the fact I live in Australia. I am sure outside of Australia few people know anything about the game. Australia has a population of around 24 Million. In comparison AFL athletes have a stronger financial position than professional MMA athletes excluding the few who share in PPV $. That is life. The economics of MMA has not yet caught up with its growth as a sport. The UFC as the premier organization controls & reaps the profit. MMA is an infant as a sport economically. Things will evolve & change eventually and there will be an economic shift.
At this stage MMA is not the most profitable option for an athletically gifted young person. I think this is what is so incredible about the sport from a fans point of view. An entry level UFC contract of 6&6K moving up in 2 K increments is not a huge incentive. It is getting to The Show! Look at Bendo- just stepped out of a 39&39K contract- yes he would make bonuses & sponsorship but imagine what his WEC purses were? He is a truly gifted athlete that could have chosen another sport. Thank goodness he did not. I still sit down & watch those battles from the WEC blue cage days he was in. I think many of the UFC fighters feel like gypsies in the palace on fight week – that is the buzz- that is the incentive at the moment. That is what the UFC does better than any other organization. Love or hate the fighter pay.