James Krause spoke out about the Reebok deal and stated that due to the new uniform policy he will be losing $20,000 in sponsor money. In speaking with MMA Fighting, he indicated he did not know how much he will be making, but know how much he will be losing.
Krause is not the only fighter to state that he will be losing money due to the new policy. Brendan Schaub indicated on his podcast that he would be losing 6 sponsors and that he gets paid twice as much from sponsors than he does from his UFC fight purse.
In his last bout, a loss to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 178. Krause reportedly earned just $15,000. He did earn a double bonus at UFC 161.
Although Krause is hopeful about the Reebok deal will bring, the fact that he is not ranked as a lightweight likely means he will not be seeing payouts close to what he received from his sponsors. The Reebok deal is based on rankings with ranked fighters getting more than unranked fighters.
Payout Perspective:
The article is an interesting and thoughtful perspective on the impact of the new Reebok deal. For his part, Krause is thinking ahead and planning for the future which is a good thing. The article indicates he owns two gyms and a Metro PCS franchise (notably, an official UFC sponsor). He also owns an MMA promotion too. But, most fighters are likely not as financially forward-thinking as Krause. With the fact that most fighters do not know what the Reebok deal will make them, there is great concern ahead as they lose their current sponsors.
The Masters get paid and the slaves get nothing!
You would know a lot about your slave to master relationship with Bob Arum. HAHAHA! Homo!
Small money talk in this article….tyron spong is switching to boxing…smart guy…where the moneys at hahaha
Another idiot. How can you claim to be losing out when you have no clue what you are getting? This is a new structure and there will be winners and losers. Not everyone is going to come out better. Zuffa never said everyone would. But long term everyone will win but some are to short sighted and concerned with their own greed to take one for the team so to speak. Also there is a new system because people like Krause was bitching about the old system. They stirred the pot and got the old system removed.
Also how hard did he have to work for that 20k? Was he or his management calling and working to secure that deal? How long would it last? 3 fights? 3 years? The reebok money is automatic with no effort every single fight. That has to be worth something. But greedy people will always play up the poor me angle.
How can somebody say they are losing Z amount of dollars not knowing what ” The New Deal” will bring? Let’s say the new amount of funds coming in are equal, Krause would still be better off since there’s no agents or managers cut to pay. Let’s say that is 20% that would equal a 4000 dollar gain in his pocket. Also let’s say James moves up in the rankings bit by bit he could make significantly more cash. Here’s my question, if JK does end up making more after he knows what this new Reebok deal is will he come forward and say “I was wrong I’m making more money now or will he not say a word knowing he’ll look dumb after this article? My guess is NO he won’t say a word. Is every media source going to be writing article after article for every Zuffa fighter rambling on about the same thing? If so we can look forward to we’ll over 500 more stories of the same. I say let’s hold off any until we have all the facts, once fighters know how much they’ll be making. Then if it’s way less there really will be something to read about. Until then this entire read is just poppycock!