Dana White doesn't want to pay the fighters their worth. UFC is losing talent prime years and superstars because of it

[Pechan]

Is up to the managers to do their job.

 

[Metallicalabran]

UFC belongs to Endeavor, a public traded company whose goal is to deliver shareholders the best value for their equity. Fighters are not shareholders

Losing Francis Ngannou is the best value?

Losing Olympic and double champion by being cheap is the best value?

Not paying and having a shitty UFC 300 main fight if the best value?

I am not worried for fighters wallet, I am worried for the sport losing talent, super stars and prospect because being TOO CHEAP.

 

[Neck&Neck]

Every fighter should get a 50 geez Dana bonus, just for showing up

 

[Thanos]

Did a thread already about we the fans losing the prime years of Olympic champion and double division UFC champ because Dana didn't want to pay him enough

Most people was defending that decision, for them is better the fighters to leave UFC like Francis Ngannou and Henry Cejudo instead of paying the fair amount.

How is this possible? Are you guys fan of the sport ? Want the best fighters and talent here or not ?

Just to add a little perspective, this are the share of revenue that goes to the players in

MLB: 54,2%

NFL: 48,5%

NBA: 50%

NHL: 50%

MLS: 28%

PGA tour: 33%

Nascar: 25%


UFC pay his fighters 10-15% of the total revenue (I ask you something, WHO IS MORE IMPORTANT IN UFC COMPARED TO THE FIGHTERS TO GET THE 85% OF THE REVENUE? ARE NOT THE FIGHTERS THE MOST IMPORTANT EMPLOYEES HERE?)

And there is a big difference here, those leagues let their players have their own sponsors and sometimes they get most of their money off it.

ALL the sponsor money in UFC comes from Reebok, directly payed to UFC (and then they give 2,5 k of the whole deal to each fighter, lol), fighters can't have their own sponsors and can't fight in other organizations either (they get trapped on the contract if you want a better deal outside).

UFC is first division, you can't be best fighter and fight outside UFC (almost a monopoly)

How a fan of the sport, and of course a fan of the fighters on this sport defend this rip off is beyond me

Francis Ngannou gone because Dana didn't want to pay

Cejudo wasted their prime years because Dana didn't want to pay

Zabit changed career because Dana didn't want to pay

The are more and more examples of this.

If we the fans don't put pressure on it, more and more talent is gone or directly will never arrived in the number one MMA organization.

I repeat, if 85% of the revenue is not going to the fighters THIS WILL NEVER BE CORRECT OR GOOD FOR THE HEALTH OF THE SPORT LONG RUN (TALENT AND SUPER STARS)

Losing their talent to who

 

[Metallicalabran]

Zabit literally became a doctor. That's not a career switch. He was studying for years and was always going to be a doctor. MMA was temporary while he could finish his studies.

If you don't understand is obvious Zabit has his whole life to be a doctor and just some years to be in athletic prime to be a fighting super star and didn't keep going because he was getting pennies on UFC, you are very very VERY naive.

We are losing talent and future superstars for being TOO CHEAP.

This is very clear guys, we don't even had a decent UFC 300 main fight.

This is hurting the sport, UFC can do better in the present and future with a fair split.

 

[Metallicalabran]

Losing their talent to who

To other sports (Francis), to other organizations (Demetrius Johnson), to different careers (Zabit), to just doing whatever else because getting pennies for fight (Cejudo). And many many more.

We don't even have a super star for UFC 300 main event.

Being THIS cheap is hurting the sport, is clear and no one wants to acknowledge it.

 

[Time]

Your ufc shrill routine doesn’t make a 85% to 15% split fair

I don't understand how people can say the fighters are over paid. You'd rather the fat old white guys got the lion's share?
Maybe if the pay was much higher, we'd be seeing more elite athletes getting into the sport.

 

[philweed]

Another douchebag thread whining about the ufc pay grade.
Why don’t you start up your own promotion and pay these guys what you think they should be paid instead of whining like a snowflake bitch?

 

[Metallicalabran]

Another douchebag thread whining about the ufc pay grade.
Why don’t you start up your own promotion and pay these guys what you think they should be paid instead of whining like a snowflake bitch?

That is not the most clever response I have ever read my man.

Are you a fan of the sport? Want to see the best of the best fighting in UFC?

This thread is about that.

 

[BKMMAFAN]

Ahem, fighters are not even "employees" of the UFC. They are "independent contractors", legally speaking. It's completely ridiculous and would only be solved with unionizing. Unfortunately, given the unique and irregular position of individual fighters, that will likely never happen.

Fighters will continue to be exploited and blackballed if they don't play with the corporate overlords.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

If you don't understand is obvious Zabit has his whole life to be a doctor and just some years to be in athletic prime to be a fighting super star and didn't keep going because he was getting pennies on UFC, you are very very VERY naive.

We are losing talent and future superstars for being TOO CHEAP.

This is very clear guys, we don't even had a decent UFC 300 main fight.

This is hurting the sport, UFC can do better in the present and future with a fair split.

Dude was chasing 1 fighter for 3 years and refused to fight anyone else then retired.

Miss me with that nonsense.

 

[Area809]

A tired debate over an issue that will never get solved on Sherdog. Get over it and move on.

 

[colorles]

Zabit literally became a doctor. That's not a career switch. He was studying for years and was always going to be a doctor. MMA was temporary while he could finish his studies.

MMA is like a throwback to sports a century ago where even athletes at the highest levels still worked day jobs or at least jobs in the off season. And sport was just something they did during a short window of their prime years - a segway until their next career in their thirties and beyond. Zabit being an mma fighter until he could become a doctor is a perfect example of this.

That is perfectly respectable. In most times in history a doctor would be in much higher demand and much higher paid than an athlete - professional sports was not even a thing for most of human history and for the small part of human history it has existed, the pay was moderate at best until the last few decades really. But: can you imagine a professional athlete in any of the major sports leagues - MLB, NBA, NFL. NHL, Premier League, etc - leaving their athletic career early to...work a day job? Like it or not, the fact that UFC fighters even have to work day jobs or find day jobs preferable to fighting monetarily, just makes mma as a whole look illegitimate and bush league compared to the "real athletes" in the major sports. That is literally how fans look at it; the athletes making eight and nine figure contracts are almost look at like demigods, while a bunch of guys that work warehouse and construction jobs fighting for peanuts in the UFC just don't garner anywhere near the same leave of respect and admiration and, thus, the majority of the public doesn't give a fuck about mma. I assure you if these guys started making even seven figures a year regularly, that the public would pay more attention to them - not to mention the level of athletic competition would go up. It really does just come down to the money.

Yes, let's feel bad about millionaires as you regularly pass by homeless people in your neighborhood.

Arguably the most retarded things that people have been saying for last 20+ years I've been on Sherdog.

"Oh no poor him with his millions, but fuc* off you homeless and disabled and orphans"

This. But the vast majority of mma fighters are not even close to millionaires. MMA is a throwback to a century ago when even high level athletes worked day jobs or at least jobs in the offseason. This might sound crazy but I would recon there are some guys that make more money panhandling in a year, than some UFC fighters make in a year.

 

[nonoob]

"Oh no poor him with his millions.

Never have cared about or commented on this before and will give you credit for one thing - you said "him" and not them. If 1 % of 1% of 1 % of them EVER reached a single million dollars in the ufc it'd amaze me.

Other sports mentioned have cared enough about their athletes enough to pay them their worth and not allow a POS figurehead to publicly and privately degrade them at will, while bragging they are an opportunity, not a career. Public declarations made with no truth involved by Dana and somehow he's never been hit with charges of slander. Luckily the legal system got involved to save future fighters from having the illegal contract issues removed that have plagued MMA athletes for decades.

The lottery also is an opportunity, but after spending the $2 dollars, your body and brain remain unscathed afterwards.

 

[colorles]

Never have cared about or commented on this before and will give you credit for one thing - you said "him" and not them. If 1 % of 1% of 1 % of them EVER reached a single million dollars in the ufc it'd amaze me.

Other sports mentioned have cared enough about their athletes enough to pay them their worth and not allow a POS figurehead to publicly and privately degrade them at will, while bragging they are an opportunity, not a career. Public declarations made with no truth involved are somehow not hit with charges of slander.

The lottery also is an opportunity, but your body and brain still remain unscathed.

Those other sports didn't "care enough about their athletes". Said athletes coordinated and unionized. It was only after the fact that the owners of those major sports leagues realized that paying their athletes very highly was, in fact actually very good for businesses because it in effect turned these athletes into demigods as far as the general public is concerned. If Lebron James played water polo nobody would give a fuck. But he makes tens of millions of dollars to play basketball so people idolize him like he is barely even human. Same with - insert multi millionaire pro athlete here - . The larger than life amount of money they make turns them into larger than life icons which, in turn makes more and more people - "normies" if you will - want to funnel their hard earned money into the wallets of the major sports leagues. So you see: athletes making more money is actually good for business.

 

[nonoob]

Colorles, great points. My views of thing in life have been formed of what I've seen and experienced, admittedly only small views have been caught while not seeing the big overall picture.

 

[colorles]

Fighters in the UFC make a guaranteed seven figures per fight, and fight two to four times a year. The competition level would skyrocket. Now, you might be thinking to yourself: "but colorles, even seven figures per fight is still not much compared to what the athletes in the major ball sports are making". that is true. However,

More high level athletes than you know, would chose to fight a few times a year for seven figures a fight, than have to show up to practice almost every day and compete in dozens if not hundreds of games a year for eight figures. Being a professional athlete is a job. A job many people would want to have, yes...but still a job. Being a pro fighter, on the other hand, is a much different lifestyle. At the end of the day you are only fighting a few times a year. What you do with your times those other three hundred and sixty days or so is completely up to you. Yeah I know there is the occasional media day and weigh in but it is still a lifestyle that many athletes would like to live if the money was there. And you can train at your own pace instead of having to show up to practices all the time which I never gave a fuck about I just wanted to compete. I mean yeah I would train to keep myself in shape but team practices were just an obligation I never liked. well with mma you don't have to worry about that. you train when and where you want to train. If you don't feel like training at all and show up out of shape, you can do that: maybe you have so much natural talent you can get away with it. Of course most athletes would train reasonably hard. But in any case you can live, train and do whatever the fuck you want for those three hundred and sixty days or so that you are not fighting.

Many up and coming high level athletic boys and high level athletic men would chose that lifestyle, over having to go to practice almost every day and compete potentially over a hundred times a year. This would revolutionize the sport of mma and turn it into a major sport talent wise practically overnight.

 

[TheChance]

Dana White has never had anything to do with how the revenue is split in the UFC.

 

[notsojollyroger]

The 10,000 starting wage is pretty brutal. They should at least pay enough so that the new guys don't need a second job.

 

[Alacran]

I don't really care too much about the whole fighter pay issue, its the fact that they classify them as independent contractors but treat them like employees. If the fighters were able to go to other organizations that would make the MMA sport much more interesting. Once someone signs these UFC contracts the organization has them by the balls.