Do you think UFC pay is stopping top athletes to become MMA fighters?

[nostradumbass]

What's the top, though? Making it to the NFL as a rookie nets you $750K as a minimum. Same with the NHL. $770K in MLB, $1.1 million in the NBA. What's the minimum in the UFC? How much do fighters coming off the Contender series make? What percentage of the UFC's roster makes over $100K/year? 5%? 10%? 15%? Let's say it is 15%. That would mean that you need to be in the top 15% of the top league in the sport to make 10% of the minimum salary in the NBA. Why would anyone choose that if they had any other options?

Dana and the Fertittas worked exceptionally hard and invested a ton of money to shake the image that nothing but bums and rejects from other sports fight in MMA. They keep this up and it won't be just an image.

It's around 40%. You're confusing per fight pay with yearly income. The average income last year for UFC fighters was $150k, but the top guys making millions pulls the average up, and it's about 40% who made 6 figures for the year.

And those are all team sports. What does a journeyman boxer or tennis player make, or a bjj player? To get to like 250 in the world in tennis, you've probably played every day since you were like 6 and it cost your parents about $1 million in tournaments, travel and coaching to get you there, and that'll fetch you about $150k in prize money and costs about $100k of that just to do because that's also traveling every week.

The expense for an MMA career is like a few hundred bucks in gym fees and then a percentage of your fight purses after you've already gone pro.

I don't know where you guys came up with this idea that journeymen not getting rich is the big deterrent for MMA. The deterrent for any sport is cost to do it, not whether you'll get rich from it even if you're not that good.

People still play tennis and spend a lot of money on it even though 99.9% of people who spend a lot of money doing it won't ever even recover the costs. People start bands even though none of them will amount to shit.

 

[tymikeson]

even boxers arent as great overall as they were in boxings heyday of the 50's/60's/70s where they were on par ith major league sports. now the better atheletes gravitate to nfl/nba/hocky/mlb as the pay is >>>>>>>>>>>>> much greater on average.


"the next mike tyson plays in the nfl" - i think that was a quote by bert sugar (commentator)in the early 90s

 

[AdamWarlock]

It's around 40%. You're confusing per fight pay with yearly income. The average income last year for UFC fighters was $150k, but the top guys making millions pulls the average up, and it's about 40% who made 6 figures for the year.

And those are all team sports. What does a journeyman boxer or tennis player make, or a bjj player? To get to like 250 in the world in tennis, you've probably played every day since you were like 6 and it cost your parents about $1 million in tournaments, travel and coaching to get you there, and that'll fetch you about $150k in prize money and costs about $100k of that just to do because that's also traveling every week.

The expense for an MMA career is like a few hundred bucks in gym fees and then a percentage of your fight purses after you've already gone pro.

I don't know where you guys came up with this idea that journeymen not getting rich is the big deterrent for MMA. The deterrent for any sport is cost to do it, not whether you'll get rich from it even if you're not that good.

People still play tennis and spend a lot of money on it even though 99.9% of people who spend a lot of money doing it won't ever even recover the costs. People start bands even though none of them will amount to shit.

you are so wrong in your information. average salary don't mean anything when the top fighters would skew the norm
the median income in ufc is 44k a year. that is the real stat, that means half of the ufc fighter make less than 44k a year. let that sink in.
the expense for mma career is very expensive. you need training camp, you need a fighting gym, and they take a lot of your fight purse. not to mention you pay for your own medical during training. god forbid you get injured, imagine any other sport where you have to make sure you get your own health insurance to do surgeries

journeymen are absolutely not getting rich. the real journeymen aren't jorge masvidal or cowboy cerrone, it's someone you can't even name them because they fight in the prelim.

 

[nostradumbass]

you are so wrong in your information. average salary don't mean anything when the top fighters would skew the norm
the median income in ufc is 44k a year. that is the real stat, that means half of the ufc fighter make less than 44k a year. let that sink in.
the expense for mma career is very expensive. you need training camp, you need a fighting gym, and they take a lot of your fight purse. not to mention you pay for your own medical during training. god forbid you get injured, imagine any other sport where you have to make sure you get your own health insurance to do surgeries

journeymen are absolutely not getting rich. the real journeymen aren't jorge masvidal or cowboy cerrone, it's someone you can't even name them because they fight in the prelim.

https://thesportsdaily.com/news/2021-ufc-fighter-salaries-complete-list-fox11/
– 256 fighters (42%) earned six-figures in 2021 (38% in 2020).

I didn't say anywhere that journeymen in mma make a lot of money, I said journeymen don't make money in any individual sport.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

It’s threads like this that show exactly how unintelligent mma fans really are. They’re so focused on shitting on the UFC for whatever reason. That they assume money is the biggest issue. It’s literally not the biggest issue, at all.

And I don’t feel like typing for the next hour for lowbrows to not read the post, anyway.

 

[Nathan LaMontagne]

When Kurt went into Wrestling MMA wasn't really a viable option.

He was getting UFC talks around the time of TUF 9 and he considered it but realised his body was too shot.

Yeah, that's a good point.

I mean the initial thought was in 98 or so.

I don't think he was even seriously considering doing it then, until when you said

A better example, wasn't there a super recent example of someone heavily discussed for doing MMA but then chose WWE?

Was it Gable Stevenson? (I'm on hour 9 of a shit job so brain function no any)

 

[Kampfpanzer]

If the pay for every fighter went up by 5 x it wouldn't make any difference at all

 

[Morning Star]

If the UFC paid in line with the other top sports or boxing I definitely think you'd see a deeper talent pool.

 

[Siver!]

Are there really many amazing athletes in heavyweight boxing?

There aren't really many amazing heavyweight athletes.

It's kinda a by-product of WWF wrestling.

There's an assumption massive guys are great athletes, but they generally are pretty awful.

Great athletes are usually small.

 

[philweed]

No. Mma fighters fight mma because they like mma. Boxers like to box. We see what you’re doing here. Starting another stupid thread about fighter pay. It’s been done to death, noob.

 

[ChimRichalds]

Absolutely, though I'm not sure many go to boxing. The most athletically gifted kids/teens do get into other sports though. With the lighter weights it's not as much of an issue though, as they're far less likely to make it in a major sport.

 

[marvinparsons]

How would higher pay not attract more athletes? Of course it would. The same as it would in virtually any possible industry. You could take the worst/most dangerous job in the world, increase the pay by 100%, you are going to have more people that think it's worth it.

 

[HHJ]

Yes, but getting punched, kneed, or kicked in the face has a lot to do with it as well.

This.

If people dont aint got the built in hunger to throw hands,shoot for deep doubles....then I dont care how athletic they are,or how much money they need to make in order to do it. We need more fighters,not athletes. All the guys who came up boxing and dont know a wristlock from a wristwatch and dont care to learn,well I dont lose sleep over them going and doing their thing in boxing. Im fine w MMA as it is. The tough motherfuckers who are about this shit,will come to the sport and do it.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Brock Lesnar and Kole Conrad (former Bellator Heavyweight Champion) BOTH attempted and failed to make the NFL before resorting to MMA as a backup option, with the Vikings and Jets respectively.

You would not BELIEVE how many Division I All American wrestlers are teaching high school gym for 60k/year with benefits and a pension. Thats how bad UFC pay is.

It's 12k show money in the UFC, at the highest level, to get your head punched in. These guys are taking brain damage in exchange for peanuts. Smart, suitably athletic young guys with options do not choose MMA. Only someone desperate or stupid would in most cases.

Until the revenue split is reasonable, upper weight divisions of MMA will continue to be an absolute embarrassment.




This is completely misinformed. Schaub was never signed to an NFL team, he never even made it through a training camp. He was not remotely a NFL caliber athelete, he wasn't even a standout collegiate player.

Mitirone has virtually zero NFL stats. He was injured and passed around, then shown the door without every really playing. If he could have continued getting NFL contracts, or was good enough to play, he would have.

Hardy and Jones were long washed out of football. You would want athletes of that caliber in their 20's, not literally looking for a second career after their first career in professional sports was used up.

A lot of wrestlers don't become MMA fighters because they don't want to be punched in the face. It's not like money is the only factor here.

 

[joeson]

It's around 40%. You're confusing per fight pay with yearly income. The average income last year for UFC fighters was $150k, but the top guys making millions pulls the average up, and it's about 40% who made 6 figures for the year.

And those are all team sports. What does a journeyman boxer or tennis player make, or a bjj player? To get to like 250 in the world in tennis, you've probably played every day since you were like 6 and it cost your parents about $1 million in tournaments, travel and coaching to get you there, and that'll fetch you about $150k in prize money and costs about $100k of that just to do because that's also traveling every week.

The expense for an MMA career is like a few hundred bucks in gym fees and then a percentage of your fight purses after you've already gone pro.

I don't know where you guys came up with this idea that journeymen not getting rich is the big deterrent for MMA. The deterrent for any sport is cost to do it, not whether you'll get rich from it even if you're not that good.

People still play tennis and spend a lot of money on it even though 99.9% of people who spend a lot of money doing it won't ever even recover the costs. People start bands even though none of them will amount to shit.

Where are you getting these stats? I thought the UFC didn't release their salary data? How do you know that 40% of fighters are earning six figures?

Tennis and golf are rich people's sports. People play as a hobby and there is prestige that comes with it. It is a form of networking. The top players are amongst the top paid athletes in any sport – mostly due to huge sponsorships. The same cannot be said for MMA.

Boxing suffers from the same problem. Most would go to other sports if it was available to them. Virtually no sponsorships and the pay is lousy on the bottom end. Bjj isn't even a career except for a handful of people. There is a good reason for the low pay, though. There is very little money made by anyone at the bottom end of boxing and in BJJ as a whole. The same cannot be said about the UFC. There is plenty of money being made. It's just not being paid to the fighters and it's getting less year over year.

 

[WallNStallToeStomper]

Thats why we need to continue to expand into the the third world bradda 20/20 contract goes along way in poor slavik country bradda.

 

[ferrisjso]

At HW yes.

Even at 135 a weight class you'd think they'd be no alternatives McDonald was forced to retire because the UFC wasn't paying enough to cover his expenses.

 

[DapperDave]

@AdamWarlock

Do you think it's interesting that the great majority of UFC fighters are not complaining about their pay?

Do you actually think that martial artists the world over are regularly deciding to box, or to not fight, because the UFC doesn't pay athletes as much as you think UFC should?

Do you think of fighters as children who need your protection and guidance?

Would you do us all a favor and go tell several of them?
And video it, please?
Not just the part where you say that to a fighter, but also the subsequent parts.

Hell, if you are that committed, do it once per month.

Start with Strickland. He is an unreserved communicator. He won't have any problem openly communicating, and we will all enjoy the outcome.

Then get ye yon to Brazeoh, and tell everyone at Chute Box that they are stupid children who need your guidance.

On to Dagestan. Tell 'em straight. Don't pussyfoot around about it.

Thanks.

 

[Cooliox]

If you get signed to play one of the REAL Sports... you are guaranteed to get paid, and get paid well.

The minimum salary in the NBA is $1.1Million per year. This means the worst guy in the league who may not even play a single game, and just sits on the bench.


Meanwhile Top UFC Star Wonderboy can't get paid because his opponent missed weight, despite already going through training camp and making weight himself.


Not to mention, the way UFC treats its top stars:
- Randy Couture was taken to court for years
- Liddell was fired from his managerial role after being promised a lifetime job
- GSP was thrown under the bus multiple times despite being a great company man
- Anderson was released with 1 fight left on contract after all he did for the company
- Jones vacated the belt for not being given a proper pay to fight at HW
- Conor held out for years and went to make real money in boxing
- Ngannou was ridiculed publicly for not rolling over and accepting UFC's terms, and is now going to boxing to make real money too


So you wanna be a f*cking fighter?
You do the math

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

Yes because someone is already solidified as a "top athlete" who is guaranteed to compete at the highest level for the biggest money in absolutely any sport of their choosing before they even start. Thats totally how it works.

That's why so many talented fighters turn to boxing. And the best athletes in the world do not bother with MMA

Was this the true aim of your post?

Boxings entire talent pool both pro and amateur can be fit into a large football stadium. Clearly the big money isnt doing much there.