Aljo Sterling calls UFC new offer "Laughable" Doesn't have enough $ to go see Doctor

[Davemeddlehed]

Yes, sorry I missed that originally. I agree of course on those things not mattering, but I strongly believe the bills he accrues strictly because he is a fighter absolutely should be taken into account.

I don't disagree with that. His fees for a fight camp should be considered, as should any bills directly related to fight injuries. But this "he has to pay a mortgage, and buy food!" nonsense is no different than anyone else in any other line of work.

 

[rjmbrd]

We're talking about an organization paying less than 60k a year to someone ranked in the top 5 "by it's own website's rankings", and you're going to call adding another salary a non issue?

You can't have it both ways. Either they don't care about hiring someone for whateverthefuck, or they're cheap commercial money grubbing jerks who don't even pay their own talent. It literally cannot be both, because one undermines the other.

I think you've missed the clear demarcation line of underpaying fighters because they have no competition or advocacy.

When their headquarters hires a lawyer, video editor, office admin, junior accountant or any other standard job they pay the market rate everyone else does. That is because normal jobs have a marketplace and competition. In my own business I cannot offer $8/hour to paraprofessionals because they can make much more doing similar work elsewhere.

They have a large staff of hundreds doing various jobs. It is absurd to assume any notion that entertains your point, considering 1) they already employ competent staff who could produce their own rankings as part of their current work, and 2) it would not be cumbersome to add another office employee to produce such compiled from metrics the back office supplied.

I shouldn't have to summarize this because it is common sense.

They hand pick media who are invited into their ranking system because they can de facto control it while maintaining some semblance of fairness.

 

[kimocomplex]

If you have charisma and your a good fighter then shouldn't the UFC start marketing you more? He has more charisma than Sage, and Sage get's his own embeddeds. Fact of the matter is most fighters are boring as fuck, but its the job of the promoter to actually PROMOTE there top fighters.

im sure the promotional push was on the way, Sterling began complaining to the media pretty fast. Not everyone gets a big push early, Sage has all those karate/bjj tournament history plus his dad/bodybuilding. However look at a guy like James Vick, from TUF is like 4-0 UFC and no push yet

 

[Gervinho]

Aljo needs to promote himself better imo. Fighting is all good, but you have to make people remember you. I cant remember him being involved in any beef. Unless you are clean cut white guy like Sage or white girl like Paige. Dont expect the ufc to push you. Make shit happen, call people out, be loud

 

[Mpower]

its never been a good way to make a living, is my point.

They weren't making a living in UFC 1. It was meant to be perceived as a one off tournament where firemen and bouncers with McDojo black belts could test themselves to see who's the baddest man around. None of them would be able to achieve that goal today on a UFC 1 purse, the most relevant reason being that they would have to quit their job at the zipper manufacturing plant and train full time.

Today's UFC is a different sport completely. The demands are much much higher and the money is there in abundance, so long as a fighter can convince Zuffa that they've been or will generate revenue for them. What makes the Aljamain sterling issue so strange is that you actually have a guy with an exciting style of grappling, who finishes fights, is charismatic and can potentially help them tap into a demographic that they havent been able to capitalize on since Rampage's demise. And they choose to hide him away and ruin his appeal to competitors.......just to save about 10 grand a fight.

 

[eon001]

Aljo needs to promote himself better imo. Fighting is all good, but you have to make people remember you. I cant remember him being involved in any beef. Unless you are clean cut white guy like Sage or white girl like Paige. Dont expect the ufc to push you. Make shit happen, call people out, be loud

C 'Mon Aljo has called out carraway and now assunco. He's doing a better job promoting than Cain, Frankie, Stipe etc. What more can the guy do? He's winning, talking shit

 

[Bagatur]

Some of these fighters sense of entitlement is disgusting.

Why should this bloat make more than someone who has gone to school and paid for 6 years and has to work 40hrs a week?

for starters, a fighter keeps paying for his training, not just for 6 years, but for their whole career.
also, that someone can work those 40 hours a week 4-5 times longer than the average fighter's career.

some of these posters' stupidity is disgusting.

 

[Darkart]

Being a fighter isn't a career it is a hobby, something done in addition to a day job. At least for 98% of "pro" fighters. Its not the NBA, or MLB, or NFL, or NHL. When you sign the UFC contract you are not set for life, you will probably bring home an average middle class salary IF you win all your fights on your contract, if you lose even one fight you can expect to struggle financially unless you have a real job. Especially since the average guy signed to the UFC fights less than 2 times a year now, guys at the bottom fight even less, you lose and your on your first contract you may not fight for a long time, but those bills will keep coming in..

 

[Sid Arthur]

They weren't making a living in UFC 1. It was meant to be perceived as a one off tournament where firemen and bouncers with McDojo black belts could test themselves to see who's the baddest man around. None of them would be able to achieve that goal today on a UFC 1 purse, the most relevant reason being that they would have to quit their job at the zipper manufacturing plant and train full time.

Today's UFC is a different sport completely. The demands are much much higher and the money is there in abundance, so long as a fighter can convince Zuffa that they've been or will generate revenue for them. What makes the Aljamain sterling issue so strange is that you actually have a guy with an exciting style of grappling, who finishes fights, is charismatic and can potentially help them tap into a demographic that they havent been able to capitalize on since Rampage's demise. And they choose to hide him away and ruin his appeal to competitors.......just to save about 10 grand a fight.

im saying that mma has not yet become a sport that can provide a living. i realize the issues youre discussing.

 

[Hester65]

I knew their discretionary bonuses weren't that great. Although if you think about it, if he was making 20/20 and won the fight, that's a 15% bonus check.

Aljo was 14/14 in his last fight against Eduardo, which would mean a $6000 check is around a 21.5% bonus.
He made 12/12 against against Mizugaki, which meant a $6000 bonus check was a 25% bonus over his win.
Aljo made 10/10 in his win over Wolverine Viana, which would mean a $6000 check was a 30% bonus above his win.
In his debut fight, he made 8/8 in his debut win over Cody Gibson, which would mean that the $6000 check was a 37.5% bonus on top of his win.

So his contract went from 8/8 to 10/10 to 12/12 to 14/14 after each win, and Aljo went 4-0 in the UFC to this point.
The offered increase from 14/14 to 20/20 is a ~43% (edited to correct bad calculations previously done on the fly, my bad y'all) salary bump, which isn't crazy if you think about it since he's been nowhere near a main card despite having three finishes among four wins in the UFC. No performance bonuses to this point, so it's a question of what he's worth to the UFC.

He hasn't been promoted as a name yet, and has not been featured on a major card yet outside of the preliminaries. I'm speaking objectively, outside of me being a personal fan of his.

You get to a point where things should double. As a promotion they could afford to pay him 30/30 for his next fight. He is fun to watch and he fits their model of entertainment in the cage.

I don't think people realize that we are dealing with something completely different then boxing and something completely different then the nba. The UFC is a company, a company that sells mma. The nfl sells football but doesn't pay its players. Team owners pay players.

 

[IamStryker]

. If Aljo continues to perform and win he's gonna get his money. .

I don't care how more legit other fighters are. He is ranked number 5 and still will only get 20/20 his next fight. He doesn't even have real health insurance. This is pathetic.

You shouldn't have to win 7 fights in a row and get a title fight to be paid somewhat decently.

 

[lifelessheap]

That's because generally 8/8 is an entry level offer for an unknown. Anyone who wants to stay in the UFC migrates to a well-known gym and those gyms charge upwards of 15k for a fight camp.

I'm not trying to be rude, but do a little research and you'll find out that, yes, some of these guys making low amounts (in some cases even 8/8 as sad as it is) do pay this amount for a fight camp. This is why you hear stories of guys cleaning up the gym afterwards, because they simply can't afford a full camp on their own and anything extra they can do on the side helps.

And choosing to spend 30% of their purse (as in your example above) isn't really a choice. If guys want to be the best they need to invest $$$ in the big gyms, and that isn't cheap.

Well, if a guy is on a 10/10 and paying 15k for a camp he is an idiot because he will be 5 grand in the hole if he loses. Find a cheaper team to train with.

 

[BattleBeast]

He should go to bellator before he becomes a gatekeeper in the ufc, after that it's gonna be weird going somewhere else.

 

[muaythaibeast]

How is 20/20 not enough to see a doctor? If you fight three times a year, you're pulling in 60K, and that's assuming you lose every fight. Sounds decent to me.

(Yeah, yeah, "training camp fee" and all that. It's still a good amount of money.)

seems poor to me. Hes a professional athlete. I'm a Plumber and earn more than that. MMA was much better when there was PRIDE/Strikeforce/WEC/Affliction as a serious alternative to the UFC

 

[IamStryker]

Being a fighter isn't a career it is a hobby, ..

I don't really think it's fair to call what these guys do a "hobby". They of course should be thinking about the future and some do other work on the side but that doesn't make it a hobby. Not when you fight at the highest level.

 

[Spookv]

Did Sterling ever prove his worth?

 

[TheLinguist]

Prove your worth Sterling.

Too many fighters overestimate their worth, if it’s about money then they need to be spectacular either that or get an education out in the real world, because Sterling is a dime a dozen.

 

[Ying Li]

He's in a weight class nobody really cares about and he never developed himself as a name. I gotta side with the UFC on this one.

If guys want money they should build themselves OUTSIDE the UFC then come in after a 10 fight win streak and get a big paycheck.

MMA isn't a sport for money to be honest. Small prime window too. Guys want Conor money but they ain't Conor.

 

[GraveyardFilla]

Surprised he didn't sign with another organization back then . Heard Bellator was paying huge for midcarders.