MMA Junkie reports that Alexander Gustafsson is the latest UFC fighter to speak out about the Reebok apparel deal. Although Gustafsson chose his words, he advocated for more pay for the lesser-established fighters.
“Pay the fighters a lot more money,” Gustafsson told MMA Junkie. He also chimed in on the Reebok deal and while he did not criticize the deal, he believed that fighters that make less should benefit from sponsors to help those “pay the rent.” “I don’t have anything negative to say about it [Reebok deal]. I just think, why take away from fighters who haven’t established themselves in the organization?”
Gustafsson also stated that fighters starting out (that make minimal money) should be supported from local sponsors. He believes that this would help develop within the sport as being funded by sponsors would allow fighters to spend more time in the gym.
Payout Perspective:
While Gustafsson wanted to make sure that he did not want to be negative about the Reebok deal, he does offer a critique of what he observes is occurring as a result of the deal. Without sponsors to help fund fighters, it inhibits those on the low end of the salary scale from dedicating the time to cultivate their abilities as most have to take on jobs to pay their bills. Of course, training for a fight also costs money. Thus, Gustafsson definitely sees the reasons why the deal does not help younger fighters. It’s good that fighters like Gustafsson are willing to speak out about the Reebok deal even though they may not be directly affected.
I think it is sickening how the fighters can’t even give this deal a couple years to develope. If it was an easy change it would have been done long ago. Give it time.
I do think there is a better way it could have been done to easy fighters into this. Of course they still would have bitched like the sky is falling because the big picture requires short term sacrifice. But the YFC should have made the Reebok deal only for main are fighters only. Let the undercard guys have their cheap low class sponsors. This allows only the biggest names in the company don the Reebok logo. It would also free up more Reebok money to be split across the 10 main card fighters. Or look for a different sponsors for all undercard fighters to be able to pay them closer to 10,000 each. This would be dependent on Reebok accepting this term under the same pay. If they were smart they would. It would keep the fighters happy with no negative effect on the deal. They would still have all the biggest names. But currently fighters and fans are bashing the deal and the Reebok brand is caught in the cross fire.
I thought “What the hell does Gus Johnson have to say about this deal?”
Maybe he would say that sometimes these shi**y deals happen in MMA… who knows.
This has turned out to be the worst decision the UFC has made to date/probably Reebok too. Had they not gone for this deal, that suit probably would have never come around. Of course there are always disgruntled employees, but this is really starting to agitate nearly everyone involved because of its totalitarian control. I don’t even think it is just the money, because had they gotten a bigger deal and the fighters had a bigger cut, I think they’d still be agitated over the fact that they have zero control over their sponsors.
Reebok is dealing with fighters who are trashing them on a daily basis- they probably didn’t expect this and wish they never got involved with this. I don’t see any end in sight and it will only get worse when the suit heats up.
I disagree with Gustafsson in the sense that the lower level fighters are underpaid. They don’t sell the fights and can be replaced by anyone, but the issue lies with the absolute control the UFC has over their fighters. They need to loosen the reigns on the sponsorship obviously, likeness issue, champion’s clause, etc.
Every top champ started off as a low level fighter. Not giving them enough money will just demotivate them from pursuing a career in mma.
The problem with the ufc is that it’s essentially a business focused primarily on making money. It’s not about the sport, it’s about the dough. It’s so obvious at this point.
@BrainSmasher
You are correct in saying the deal needs a few more years to incubate, however, the core issue for the fighters is that they were not included in the negotiations about something that affected them directly (sponsorship). No doubt they were give ample time to adjust to the new situation, but I believe at the end of the day, including them in the discussion would have helped to bring them on board.
The fact that this did not occur really brings about the real problem in that there is no fighter organization. I don’t like to use the word union as this would not be possible in a sport such as MMA for many reasons. However, a fighter organization more loosely coupled, modeled around the ATP for example, could take on issues such as this on behalf of the fighters and would allow fighters to collectively bargain on certain areas of their domain.
Thoughts?
And who’s to say there won’t be other deals like this Rebook deal?
What people don’t understand is that this deal affects average fighters the most. If a fighter is one of the UFC’s main cashcows, he will receive special treatment and his income won’t be as affected as that of the average fighter. That’s not fair.
Guru, why should the fighters get a say? It is a private business as with any business that has employees or hiring contracts which is the case with the UFC. You don’t ask their opinion on company financial decisions. Also you can’t discuss this with 600 fighters even if they wanted to.
The fact they are complaining is exactly why they should not have a voice. They are unreasonable and have no business sense and bring the one aspect that kills boxing to the table and that is personal greed to take every penny and give nothing back to the sport. They know full well there is no company who is goin to pay the ufc enough to replace every fighters old sponsorship money on the first deal out of the chute. But you can never reach the big money level other sports enjoy allowing the old system to continue of fighter taking money from 10,000 mom and pop stores.
So what can you do? The UFC did what they always do. They did what was best for the sports long term health and basically told the greedy people with the boxing mentality to fvck off. The fighters are always trying to horn the sport back and black male the UFC for personal gain even when they are the ones benefitting and can’t see it. We have had fighters try to stop the UFC video game(you know how many people I know who follow the sport and fighters because that game?) fighters have taken belts and left. He’ll during the UFC first big TV marketing campaign the UFC had to air brush Couture out of a promo poster with Carmen Electra. It is always something.
Guru, why should the fighters get a say? It is a private business as with any business that has employees or hiring contracts which is the case with the UFC. You don’t ask their opinion on company financial decisions. Also you can’t discuss this with 600 fighters even if they wanted to.
The fact they are complaining is exactly why they should not have a voice. They are unreasonable and have no business sense and bring the one aspect that kills boxing to the table and that is personal greed to take every penny and give nothing back to the sport. They know full well there is no company who is goin to pay the ufc enough to replace every fighters old sponsorship money on the first deal out of the chute. But you can never reach the big money level other sports enjoy allowing the old system to continue of fighter taking money from 10,000 mom and pop stores.
So what can you do? The UFC did what they always do. They did what was best for the sports long term health and basically told the greedy people with the boxing mentality to fvck off. The fighters are always trying to horn the sport back and black male the UFC for personal gain even when they are the ones benefitting and can’t see it. We have had fighters try to stop the UFC video game(you know how many people I know who follow the sport and fighters because that game?) fighters have taken belts and left. He’ll during the UFC first big TV marketing campaign the UFC had to air brush Couture out of a promo poster with Carmen Electra. It is always something.
If the UFC cared about the sport it would also care about its fighters. The fighters ARE the sport. The UFC is making millions of dollars while some of its fighters need a part time job to make ends meet. Fighters have bills to pay too, you know. They can’t train if they have other occupations. They can’t fight at their best if they don’t follow a strict diet. It’s simply outrageous that the UFC head honchos gamble thousands of dollars in one night while some of their fighters need 2 or 3 jobs to pay their bills. It’s not right!
Apparently, many mma fans haven’t realized that fighters aren’t cartoon characters. They too breathe air and drink water and need money to be able to give us decent fights. Just because they aren’t marketable enough to be on TUF and other BS events doesn’t mean their needs should be overlooked. Every fighter should get enough money to make ends meet. I don’t see why anyone would disagree with that.
“I think it is sickening how the fighters can’t even give this deal a couple years to develope. If it was an easy change it would have been done long ago. Give it time.”
No, what’s sickening is that the UFC has TAKEN AWAY the little money these athletes were making. They are terrorized of UFC retaliation and are STILL speaking out in droves.
WTF can’t you understand about this? They are paid peanuts by the UFC and now they are losing sponsorship money… NOW. Why the fuck would they give this time ??? “Well, I lost thousands of dollars this months, but, let,s give this a couple more year to see where it goes…”
How does Dana White’s ass taste?
Boo hooo! All that bullshit and none of it is true. Show me one fighter living on the street? Oh you can’t? All of them easily make a living. Anyone who works a second job chooses to. They don’t have to. It’s not the ufc job to run an expense account for fighters who haven’t done shit so they can take on responsibilities they shouldn’t be taking on.
“Every top champ started off as a low level fighter. Not giving them enough money will just demotivate them from pursuing a career in mma.”
Name the top champs who are demotivated by the money they are making?
The problem with the ufc is that it’s essentially a business focused primarily on making money. It’s not about the sport, it’s about the dough. It’s so obvious at this point.”
Just like every other business in the world. You may be thinking about charities.
April Fools,
Your argument doesn’t make any sense. These guys get paid enough to make ends meet. Explain to me how a fighter who makes at least 20k in purse money, 5k in sponsorship money(those are the least any fighter in the UFC can make in a calendar year if they fight 2x which everyone basically does), and that is for only 4 months worth of work, can’t make ends meet? If you are saying they are underpaid, show me how they are worth more than that, because if they were in another promotion, whether it be boxing or mma, they would make less.
You seriously lack reading comprehension. If someone says the word “pumpkin” you immediately understand it as ” gold carriage pulled by 8 white horses”. But I shouldn’t use too much irony because who knows how you might interpret it.
Here’s what I said, in simple English: all champs started off as nobodies. All champs were low level fighters at first. Therefore, it’s not right to neglect low level fighters because in doing so we might lose the next Bas Rutten.
Do you understand now? Must I dumb it down for you even more?
No one has a problem with the UFC being a business. It’s the fact that the UFC is an unfair business that people have a problem with. The UFC is basically compromising the future of MMA in order to make money.
—————————————————————————————————
As for your second rant, not only do you lack basic reading comprehension but you have no effing clue how much money a fighter needs in order to successfully pursue an mma career. Do you even know how much a personal trainer costs? Of course you don’t. Many times, fighters need more than one personal trainer. An average fighter needs to pay about 400 bucks a month to train properly for cage fighting. Only fighters with at least 11 bouts earn $10,000. So good luck surviving with less than 10k as an MMA fighter. And by the way, fighters also need to pay for their medicals in order to fight. That costs around 5k.
Now I know business is business but when fighters need to ask for help from their fans to be able to pay for their medicals or surgeries, I can’t help but suspect that the UFC doesn’t pay them enough. The fact that the UFC head honchos also boast of gambling millions of dollars in one night gives weight to my suspicion. It’s pretty effing outrageous for the UFC to gamble more money in one day than a 10-0 MMA fighter makes in one year.
If fighters got enough money there wouldn’t be so many of them complaining and the UFC wouldn’t be involved in a lawsuit now. There’s too much smoke. There has got to be some fire.
Dear troll who uses a million aliases and is too stupid to comprehend how he just contradicted himself and has proven he doesn’t grasp how businesses operate:
Here’s what you said:
“Every top champ started off as a low level fighter. Not giving them enough money will just demotivate them from pursuing a career in mma.”
Followed by:
” All champs were low level fighters at first. Therefore, it’s not right to neglect low level fighters because in doing so we might lose the next Bas Rutten.”
So by stating this, you are claiming that the champs WERE DEMOTIVATED!! Because they were paid dirt when they first started, but they still managed to get to the top despite their low pay. You proved you are a complete moron who just contradicted yourself. By the way, Bas Rutten made a lot less money fighting than these guys do now, yet was still motivated.
So in plain English, if it demotivated them, how did they manage to still get to the top and make millions??? Oops.
“No one has a problem with the UFC being a business. It’s the fact that the UFC is an unfair business that people have a problem with. The UFC is basically compromising the future of MMA in order to make money.”
I notice you are now altering your nonsensical argument after I pointed out what kind of idiot you were for saying “The problem with the ufc is that it’s essentially a business focused primarily on making money. ” I’m assuming you realized that was arguably the most idiotic thing someone could say, seeing how that is every business’s primary focus.
Explain how the UFC is compromising the future of MMA in order to make money. I see them doing quite the opposite. They are reinvesting their money into expansion abroad and doing everything they can to grow the sport. Now, to be fair, they are doing it for their own interests- they want to make more money, but they aren’t compromising the future at all, that is what boxing promoters do.
” As for your second rant, not only do you lack basic reading comprehension but you have no effing clue how much money a fighter needs in order to successfully pursue an mma career. Do you even know how much a personal trainer costs? Of course you don’t. Many times, fighters need more than one personal trainer. An average fighter needs to pay about 400 bucks a month to train properly for cage fighting. Only fighters with at least 11 bouts earn $10,000. So good luck surviving with less than 10k as an MMA fighter. And by the way, fighters also need to pay for their medicals in order to fight. That costs around 5k.”
With every comment, you are proving you are turning into more of an idiot.
Ironic that you are claiming I don’t know the business where you are oblivious to reality here. I’ve trained at decorated gyms with literally UFC champs before. I know what their costs are- you have no clue. Okay, so first off, of course they have costs to go on top of that 20k- they have to pay trainer/manager fees, some hire a dietitian, they have to pay athletic commission fees, etc. They also have additional sources of income and those 2 fights they have per year, is only for roughly 4 months worth of work. So let’s say after that 25k from two fights UFC prelimers make(that’s considering they lose both fights), before taxes, roughly 18k(ballpark figure), they still have another 8 months out of the year where they aren’t training for a fight to make money elsewhere (and those are the lowest level fighters who will never be champs anyway because they lost their first 2 ufc fights right out of the gate). Often these guys are paid-notably if they are specialists in one field, to be a higher profile fighter’s sparring partner, they can use their name from being a UFC fighter to start seminars, private lessons, open their own gym or go to smaller gyms and get paid as a trainer, etc.
One other thing- unless there has been some sort of drastic increase in the pre fight medicals, it doesn’t cost 5k. They are around 2k.
Also, what the hell are you talking about 11 fights you need to make 10k?? Was that some sort of nonsensical estimate of how long it takes to make it to the UFC? If so, now you are lumping ALL MMA fighters in minor league shows and attempting to say the UFC is responsible for their pay prior to them signing a UFC contract? Idiotic. To address even that, those fighters at the beginning aren’t hiring personal trainers, dietitians typically and do not have a lot of costs associated with their fights, not that it matters though because they don’t fight in the UFC. That is a joke to bring something like that up.
“Now I know business is business but when fighters need to ask for help from their fans to be able to pay for their medicals or surgeries, I can’t help but suspect that the UFC doesn’t pay them enough.”
What’s ironic about that is one of the 3 fighters at the top of the lawsuit (Nate Quarry) had major back surgery that cost a ton of money and guess who footed the bill?? That’s right, the UFC.
“The fact that the UFC head honchos also boast of gambling millions of dollars in one night gives weight to my suspicion. It’s pretty effing outrageous for the UFC to gamble more money in one day than a 10-0 MMA fighter makes in one year.”
You are exaggerating- there was one incident of Dana White throwing down a crazy amount of money gambling. It isn’t like the Fertittas, White, and Silva are at the tables every night dropping a mil on blackjack.
“If fighters got enough money there wouldn’t be so many of them complaining and the UFC wouldn’t be involved in a lawsuit now. There’s too much smoke. There has got to be some fire.”
More idiocies. You could be paying the fighters on the undercard millions and they would still be complaining based off of what someone else was making. These guys were thrilled with the money they were making 20 years ago, but now when it turned into a big money maker, everyone wants more. I can’t say I blame them to a degree, I would want to make as much as possible, it is a rough job, but let’s not act like the pay situation is the main reason why they are complaining. Most fighters who are on the main card make a lot more money than the average person is this country even after all their fight associated costs are included.
The biggest issue they have-which I agree with to an extent, is the lack of control over contract terms. The sponsorship deal was really the straw that broke the camel’s back that started the lawsuit. That wasn’t so much about money, but lack of control over sponsorship and the fact that they were forced to wear someone else’s gear that they may or may not have wanted. Also, the fact that they black ball fighters, use ways to manipulate the market, attempted to take total control over their likeness, length of contracts, etc. are the biggest issues.
The truth is your argument is ridiculous. Why aren’t you fighting for an increase in pay for minor league baseball/hockey/football/basketball players? They are in the same position. Even practice squad players in the NFL get paid dirt. This is a business. These athletes are paid accordingly because they are not making money for the company and are very replaceable. You are looking for charities, not businesses.
You are an idiot.
Also, one more thing to point out: you mentioned surgeries and although there is a cap to some extent, the UFC covers their fighters for medical insurance both inside and out of the Octagon.
By “them” I was referring to new fighters. I made this clear in my PREVIOUS posts where I was talking about average fighters that need 2 jobs to make ends meet.
You can’t demotivate MMA champs from pursuing a career in MMA, they already have one! It’s pretty clear I was talking about debut fighters. Seriously, what do you take to be immune to common sense? Do I really have to spoon-feed you and explain the obvious to you every single time?
The problem with you is that you’re always cherry picking quotes and numbers and never correlating them to other quotes and numbers.
You went as far as to claim that respectable news outlets like Business Insider were wrong and you were right. At this point, you’re so ridiculous I’m barely angry. Maybe you are better informed than Business Insider, who knows?
————————————————————————————————————
Considering that the UFC is facing a lawsuit now filed by some mma veterans, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the UFC doesn’t really give a s#@t about fighters.
It’s a question of common sense: if a promotion cares about the future of the sport, it will help new talents. And when a new fighter with a record of 10-0 is on the UFC’s main card, he should get more than 10k per fight. According to the new Rebook deal, a fighter needs 11 bouts to earn 10k per fight. Some of them fight only once a year. Good luck surviving with 10k a year as a fighter.
Another problem with you is that you’re always thinking idealistically, not realistically: it’s almost impossible for every new fighter to get good sponsorship deals if any at all. Do you really think EVERY new fighter is going to get a satisfactory sponsorship deal? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you.
Yesterday, 25 September Aljamain Sterling, a top UFC fighter, said he was thinking of quitting mma completely because of low pay. Here’s what he said:
” The pay is definitely not what it is unless you’re the champ or a guy that’s been around the sport for a very, very, very long time. I still think I have a very promising future, but just doing the math on how much I fight, how often I fight per year, there’s no way I’m gonna be able to make a significant amount of money where I can put it aside to do something when I’m done.”
Contrary to what you’ve just said, the medicals cost about 5k. That’s what Cody McKenzie said, and he’s fought for the UFC 7 times. He also needed to pay for his hotel room whenever he was travelling for the UFC. Whom should I believe? You or Cody?
Considering the fact that there are a lot of fighters asking for donations from their fans to be able to pay for surgeries and medicals, I think it’s clear that the UFC’s deals don’t cover s#$t.
You can suck up to the UFC all you want. There are too many fighters complaining of low pay. I suppose now you’re going to say that they’re all lying. Right?
Boxing wins again
“By “them” I was referring to new fighters. I made this clear in my PREVIOUS posts where I was talking about average fighters that need 2 jobs to make ends meet.
You can’t demotivate MMA champs from pursuing a career in MMA, they already have one! It’s pretty clear I was talking about debut fighters. Seriously, what do you take to be immune to common sense? Do I really have to spoon-feed you and explain the obvious to you every single time?”
This is why you are a professional moron.
Yes, I addressed that point. Your whole thesis is the alleged low pay demotivates fighters and in doing so will lose champions like Bas Rutten. This makes zero sense because Bas Rutten was paid dirt initially(far worse than these guys are now) yet still became a champion. Since you are an idiot, I will help you out- you could have said something along the lines that the low pay may motivate high level talent to join other sports and has prevented the UFC from gaining top talent. You made it seem as if there has been a shift in pay where now fighters are looking at this and are demotivated, thus leaving a pro fighting career to do something else. The pay has only improved other the years you moron. Your analysis makes no sense.
Name a few average main card fighters in the UFC who need a second job. You can’t because most of them make much more than the average person, which is 100x more than your dumbass.
“The problem with you is that you’re always cherry picking quotes and numbers and never correlating them to other quotes and numbers.
You went as far as to claim that respectable news outlets like Business Insider were wrong and you were right. At this point, you’re so ridiculous I’m barely angry. Maybe you are better informed than Business Insider, who knows?”
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! RESPECTABLE??????? Business Insider???? Okay genius- explain to me how they are privy to any information or knowledge of any business figures related to any combat sports figures. They literally REPEAT WHAT THE PROMOTERS TELL THEM YOU IDIOT!!!!! They don’t do any legitimate research because they can’t. How can they come to these numbers with an unbiased source? Do they work for the IRS? Because outside of the promotion, the only people who know how much that idiot makes is the IRS.
What’s really pathetic is when an alleged respectable website or newspaper doesn’t know basic information about the subject they are covering and refuses to do math on the numbers. I do have a real flaw in the sense that I don’t just accept what some bs writer says just because its published. Any time you want to go back and debate the numbers I am all for it- you are just an idiot that doesn’t know the subject and has to hide through his pathetic aliases for cover on his nonsense.
“Considering that the UFC is facing a lawsuit now filed by some mma veterans, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the UFC doesn’t really give a s#@t about fighters.”
Right and the NFL/NHL/NBA/MLB do, right? Because none of them have ever faced lawsuits before. Laughable.
“It’s a question of common sense: if a promotion cares about the future of the sport, it will help new talents. And when a new fighter with a record of 10-0 is on the UFC’s main card, he should get more than 10k per fight. According to the new Rebook deal, a fighter needs 11 bouts to earn 10k per fight. Some of them fight only once a year. Good luck surviving with 10k a year as a fighter”
You really haven’t researched any of this. Either that or you are just blinded by the fact that you don’t like the sport and the promoters.
You are literally clueless. First off, the purses are 10k/10k, the Reebok deal is separate. Those fighters start out at 2,500 for Reebok sponsorship per fight which doesn’t include any royalties they earn from selling their specific jerseys. So to be clear, no fighter in the UFC makes less than 20k in purse money per year if they fight 2x and that would be considering they lost both fights and didn’t win any discretionary bonuses.
More importantly though, main card fighters about 99% of the time make more than 10k per fight in purse money. The only fighters with 10k/10k contracts are fighters in their first contract, and if they are in their first contract, they typically are fighting on prelims, not the main card.
But since you claim I’m cherry picking stats, why don’t we just look at the actual stats to see who’s argument they line up with. For example, here are the last few UFC fight cards main card payouts:
UFC 191:
Main card (pay-per-view)
Demetrious Johnson ($133,000 + $58,000 = $191,000) def. John Dodson ($60,000)
Andrei Arlovski ($225,000) def. Frank Mir ($200,000)
Anthony Johnson ($115,000 + $115,000 = $230,000) def. Jimi Manuwa ($24,000)
Corey Anderson ($15,000 + $15,000 = $30,000) def. Jan Blachowicz ($34,000)
Paige VanZant ($12,000 + $12,000 = $24,000) def. Alex Chambers ($12,000)
Johnson also made 50k more for KO of the night. This also doesn’t include any discretionary bonuses, signing bonus money or what the headliners were paid to promote the fight.
UFN 74:
Patrick Cote: $139,000 ($37,000 to show, $37,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $15,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Josh Burkman: $105,000 ($45,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Max Holloway: $74,000 ($32,000 to show, $32,000 win bonus, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship
Charles Oliveira: $43,000 ($33,000 to show, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Erick Silva: $36,000 ($26,000 to show, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Neil Magny: $54,000 ($22,000 to show, $22,000 win bonus, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Francisco Trinaldo: $46,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 win bonus, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Chad Laprise: $17,500 ($15,000 to show, $2,500 Reebok sponsorship)
Olivier Aubin-Mercier: $26,500 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $2,500 Reebok sponsorship)
Tony Sims: $14,500 ($12,000 to show, $2,500 Reebok sponsorship)
-mmamanifesto
UFN 73:
Glover Teixeira: $115,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $5,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Ovince Saint Preux: $98,000 ($38,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Amanda Nunes: $89,000 ($17,000 to show, $17,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $5,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Marlon Vera: $72,500 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $2,500 Reebok sponsorship)
Michael Johnson: $34,000 ($24,000 to show, $10,000 Reebok sponsorship)-Pretty sure he was paid his win bonus afterwards to- I remember someone commenting on that because everyone knew he was robbed.
Beneil Dariush: $41,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 win bonus, $5,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Derek Brunson: $61,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 win bonus, $5,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Sam Alvey: $16,500 ($14,000 to show, $2,500 Reebok sponsorship)
Jared Rosholt: $37,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 win bonus, $5,000 Reebok sponsorship)
Timothy Johnson: $14,500 ($12,000 to show, $2,500 Reebok sponsorship)
mmamanifesto.
Those were the last 3 salary listings where literally NO ONE was paid under 12k in purse money, most of whom were paid well over 20k in purse. Almost no one makes only 10k that fights on a UFC main card. It is extremely rare. These numbers literally debunk your entire idiotic analysis.
Also who only fights 1x per year? The only guys who may are fighters who are injured or lose and get cut. Name someone who was a decent fighter who only made 10k in a calendar year that wasn’t injured.
“:Another problem with you is that you’re always thinking idealistically, not realistically: it’s almost impossible for every new fighter to get good sponsorship deals if any at all. Do you really think EVERY new fighter is going to get a satisfactory sponsorship deal? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you.”
Again, you are delusional. This is exactly what YOU are doing. You are the one who thinks businesses are here to provide for the people. I’m the one telling you this isn’t the way the world operates and businesses are doing what’s best for them first.
Also, your comments above are contradictory. Your entire argument is defending the UFC here. Wow.
This one’s great:
“Aljamain Sterling”
3 fights in genius. First contract.
He’ s probably too stupid to even comprehend how the pay grade goes up as he gets more experience/wins.
He also fights at 135lbs which most fans don’t even know exists.
“Contrary to what you’ve just said, the medicals cost about 5k. That’s what Cody McKenzie said, and he’s fought for the UFC 7 times. He also needed to pay for his hotel room whenever he was travelling for the UFC. Whom should I believe? You or Cody?”
More words of wisdom from the mutated idiot.
No they don’t cost that much, unless they changed drastically. Every fighter I’ve ever heard discuss it have put it in the 1-2k range. Your own source who I find to be highly dubious DOES NOT say 5k- this just goes to show the length you take these things to lie. He said and I quote:
“When I fought in New Jersey, it cost me $4,000 in medicals just to get to the damn fight, and the UFC doesn’t pay for a penny of that.”
Now, although I believe he is exaggerating the cost, he claimed 4k not 5k and that was one fight in NJ he was referring to. The athletic commissions do operate differently, so I can’t say for sure what the exact costs were here, but everyone that ever talks about the NSAC, always put the figure 1-2k.
Also, the UFC DID pay for McKenzie’s room, you compulsive liar.
His quotes exactly:
“So I finally brought a full team to one of my fights, and one of my cornermen was snoring and sleepwalking and s–t and keeping me up all night, so I asked the UFC for another room. It was like $500 for a room at this place we were staying. I couldn’t afford another room. But they wouldn’t get me another room.”
He wanted a second room. Maybe McKenzie was lying here though and you were right, but who are we to believe you or McKenzie? Hahaha.
“Considering the fact that there are a lot of fighters asking for donations from their fans to be able to pay for surgeries and medicals, I think it’s clear that the UFC’s deals don’t cover s#$t.”
Give an example of a fighter presently asking for donations from their fans to pay for surgery and medicals.
If you are talking about Mark Coleman, that is beyond idiotic because he’s fought in a number of organizations over the years and has admittedly mismanaged his money through his career.
“You can suck up to the UFC all you want. There are too many fighters complaining of low pay. I suppose now you’re going to say that they’re all lying. Right?”
You can create these delusions of claims that I literally debunked with indisputable statistics and quotes, but the reality is you are just a moron on an idiotic mission. Kam Chancellor was complaining about money and held out from Seattle up until last week. Do you know how much money his contract was paying him prior to him holding out? Over 5m per year. The point being, it doesn’t matter how much money you pay people, employees are always going to complain about money.
Maybe those figures reported to the athletic commission and quotes from fighters are lies, right?
The only fighters who are being somewhat underpaid are the headliners and few of those guys are complaining. They are the ones who sell these fights. This is a business, not a charity. God you are an idiot.
“Boxing wins again”
It’s like a two year old when someone defends them.
And no they don’t here, their lower level fighters get paid far less than UFC fighters. Bellator fighters get paid more than banner promoted prelimers.