Erick Silva is the latest UFC fighter to voice his displeasure with the Reebok deal. Silva, who is scheduled to fight at the TUF Brazil 4 Finale in Miami stated that he would be losing $12,000 per fight once the new sponsorship deal is in place.
The comments come out at an interesting time as Silva is seeking to renew his contract with Zuffa and hopes that he improves on his current deal. Obviously, he hopes to make up the money he will lose in sponsors with his new contract.
Silva fought 3 times in 2014 and is 1-0 in 2015 heading into his second fight of the year in June against Rick Story.
(h/t: Bloody Elbow and Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte)
Payout Perspective:
Is going public with how much you will be losing due to the Reebok deal good public relations as you go into negotiations for your new deal with Zuffa? Could his public announcement that he’d like a better deal help his negotiation leverage with Zuffa? Unlikely. But, the continued news that fighters are not pleased with the Reebok deal could facilitate another change toward the sponsorship policy. While it’s unlikely that Zuffa would penalize Silva due to his statements, it might mean that they are tougher in negotiating a new deal with him.
First Aldo says that the deal is crap. Now Silva comes out with how much he is losing. Did the news JUST get to Brazil??
Actually, it looks like the Silva news was first.
Also, he states that he’ll be losing $12000.00 per MONTH, not per fight.
That’s a definite punch to the gut.
Free sneakers and leotards for the fighters hahaha what a great company to work for !!!
How is he losing per month? Never heard any sponsor pay like that. Silva is full of crap.
Remember all the fighters claiming how poor they were and how tough they had it? All of a sudden they are coming out and claiming to make all this sponsor money. Everyone is claiming to have been making 20-30,000 per fight in sponsors at the bottom of the UFC. Maybe people should have stopped bitching about money and sponsors and they wouldn’t be in this position!
Point one. The reebok deal is more than the per fight pay the fighter gets. There is merchandise that also pays them that they are not counting.
Point two. I doubt that any of their sponsors have completely left them or that their pay is cut that significantly. The fighters are assuming they are losing the full amount before they have lost anything and then going public with it. Silva hasn’t lost his sponsor and is already acting like he has so he can over dramatize his loss.
To answer your first question.
Some sponsors do pay a monthly check.
Daniel Cormier mentioned several times after his recent win that his monthly check from the Cage Fighter sponsor is what kept his family afloat.
Is that what Arum pays you in fag boy Sal?
Joe, be that as it may, Silva imo is full of it. His next fight will be host 11th fight in the UFC. That puts him at 10,000 per fight from Reebok. That would make him getting about $180,000 per year in sponsorships. There is no way he is making that. I would bet DC was only getting a couple grand a month. I can see Silva getting that per fight. But not per month.
Also what is his sponsors losing? He wasn’t getting a lot of TV coverage anyway. Certainly not on a monthly basis. So why is he losing the entire amount? Why are all these guys refusing to tell who and what sponsors are leaving them or give more detail about the situation? Just yelling a number in the media to try to gain more money doesn’t make the claims true.
Aldo is talking crap about the reebok deal….its about time…hahahaha….and ufc cant do anything about it because they are promoting that fight with mc gregor…smart move by aldo..whats ufc going to do not promote that fight? the more they promote it the more aldo will talk….hahahahaha…ufc is being exposed….fighters union coming hahahaha
I agree more with Brainsmasher. The Reebok deal pays them only for fightweek duty UFC promotions and FightNight. Sponsors pay is not just for those two things but lots more, such as appearences, autographg signings, ad work, radio, TV or whatever the contract says. This deal really isn’t any different than the NBA or NFL, the athletes can STILL make a lot of cash outside the cage. Look at Brendan Shaub, he stated that on his TAX return he made over 100 k in sponsorships. But if that’s the case that would be ALL sponsorship cash, not just fightnight/week income. There certainly would’nt be a separate part on your income tax to separate the two. LOL The problem is the agents of these guys are putting the fear of god into them saying they’re losing and the fighters are buying it. Who is really losing inthis deal is the agents, since the Reebok deal cash goes straight to the fighters and the agents don’t get any of it. If an agent is worth his/her salt theyy can negotiate new deals with their existing sponsors for the same cash by by comining up with a new game plan. They do it with all other sports so why not with the UFC?
@ bully4me Why would the managers not tell their fighters they can get money from other sponsors when they get to benefit from it themselves?
You’re whole opinion makes no sense for a very simple fact: NO sponsor will be interested in paying to sponsor a fighter when his logo will only be shown when nobody’s watching. End of story. If there was ANY interesting visibility outside of the octagon or fight week, you can bet your ass Reebok would have asked for it.
You may believe these fighters are all absolute dimwits who can’t add, but the reality is that if there was any benefits to this deal, you wouldn’t be hearing such a strong amount of discontent. This is unheard of in combat sports history.