This spring Venum became the exclusive in-octagon Fight Kit and Fight Week apparel sponsor replacing Reebok.
Perhaps, due in part to the pandemic, Venum’s new partnership received little fan fare as compared to the big Reebok reveal several years prior.
Still, the Venum partnership promised a bump in pay which was a nice tease. However, the reality was that it appeared to be a slight adjustment.
Per the ESPN report:
Champions will now get $42,000 per bout in fight week incentive pay, compared to $40,000 under Reebok. Title challengers will get $32,000, compared to the old rate of $30,000. Fighters with 21 or more UFC fights get $21,000, up from $20,000. Athletes with between 16 and 20 fights will also see a $1,000 increase, from $15,000 to $16,000.
Entry-level fighters with between one and three UFC fights will now get $4,000 compared with $3,500 previously. Athletes with four or five UFC fights also get a $500 bump, from $4,000 to $4,500; athletes who have six to 10 UFC fights will go from $5,000 to $6,000; and fighters with between 11 and 15 fights get $11,000, compared with $10,000 under Reebok.
Even though the pay bump was a raise, it was not a significant increase from Reebok’s pay scale which was seen as miniscule.
There is speculation that the deal with Venum is short-term bridge with the hopes of landing a more lucrative sponsor in the near future.
Later in the year, the UFC landed Crypto.com to one of its biggest sponsorship deals in the company’s history with its branding on Venum’s fight kit which seem to make the Venum brand secondary to Crypto.com’s sponsor deal which now adorns the front of every walkout kit by the UFC athletes.
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