“I still find it comical that people follow what the NSAC releases. Those numbers are often so far from the truth that they aren’t even a starting point of discussion.”

^ Couldn’t agree more with that comment though.

Does anyone else remember when K-1 reported for one of their American shows that Gary Goodridge got paid $500? That was the most absurd thing payday-wise that I remember seeing.

I remember reading an interview and he wanted to stay in the UFC but his contract wasn’t renewed by them.

Certainly, there are levels of abuse in MMA and Boxing (more so in Boxing due to the sanctioning body and promoter format rather than organizational format as I detailed in the article above), just like there is anywhere in the business world (I wasn’t exactly making boatloads more money out of college than most High School graduate jobs gave, but that had to do with lack of experience in the real world), but in the end, if you play your cards right, you can very well become successful.

If I am a young fighter, and I had to sign a 3 fight contract with a company, I would do it with the UFC. If Bodog offered me $15k a fight, and the UFC offered me $5k, it wouldn’t even be a contest. Unless your name is Matt Lindland or Frank Shamrock, fighting out of the big show does not financially make sense.

It is sad when you hear a fighter like Paul Buentello admit that he took an offer from Strikeforce that was only a tiny bit more then what the UFC offered. He should have fired his manager on the spot for even suggesting it.

I think a lot of these fans online don’t put anything into perspective. They are the same kids out of high school that brag about making $35,000 a year while the college kids are completely broke out of college. Yet when that college kid gets out of college, he still might only be getting paid $30,000. Yet in 5 years, that high school student is still making $35k, and now the college student is making $50k, plus bonuses and stock options. And then in 15 years, that college student is now making $75,000, and the high school kid got laid off a few times and is now only making $25,000.

——-

Plus, fans often forget that the UFC has a right to underpay these fighters slightly. It sounds stupid, but think about it for a moment. The UFC is giving these 23 or 24 year old fighters the exposure of their life. That exposure if worth a pay cut. Consider the pay cut like buying advertising dollars for your product. You lose money in the short term, but hopefully enough people buy your product (the fighter) and you make more money in the longrun.

Tyson Griffin could of had that same fight with Frank Edgar at a KOTC show, and his pay potential would have gone down because he lost. Yet, because he lost like that on a UFC PPV, his value just went up. The fans got to see that he was a warrior, even in defeat. The fans are going to love to see him back in there. And then when a fighter starts to prove himself, the UFC easily takes care of them. The proof is there. They did that with Cro Cop. They did that with the new contract for GSP. He was being underpaid when he won the title. And now he will be well compensated for at least the next 2 years. It paid off in the end.

Not sure if you were pointing at me, but that’s exactly the purpose of my article: that the initial salaries listed by the NSAC are pretty much misleading on their own and that there are other forms of compensation (sponsorship cash, name recognition, etc.) that need to be factored in to truly value what the fighter is getting out of the UFC (or PRIDE, K-1 HERO*S or any other organization that carries any real negotiating power behind it). This article was more a response to the constant battering that I see on many forums (predominantly Sherdog) where the posters tend to bash Dana White and the UFC for being ‘monsters’ or ‘assholes’ for giving $5,000 to a fighter as a base when, really, the fighters themselves are gambling to see if they can win and increase their future salaries as well as build a name for themselves so they can potentially go elsewhere and make a great payoff. In the end, both parties benefit: the UFC gets to save salary expenses by paying less than the fighters may theoretically be worth if they truly negotiated to the last penny in most cases and the fighters get to call themselves “UFC veterans” when fighting in the IFL, PRIDE, etc. (as you mentioned with Nick Diaz), thus raising their bargaining base (unless they are a Tiki Ghosn or Patrick Cote who lost the vast majority if not all their bouts, of course; after all, wins and losses do mean something in the end).

Fighting for the UFC is like going to college. Yes, if you don’t go to college, there is still a chance that you will be successful. However, the chances are slimmer. On average, a UFC fighter will be paid more over his entire career due to sponsors and various other reasons.

Look at a guy like Nick Diaz. His UFC exposure has given him solid paydays outside of the UFC now. If he had the same record (against the same people) all outside of the UFC, he wouldn’t be getting paid half of what he is now.

This weeks Observer says that Herring got $60,000, not $6,000, under the terms of the WFA contract that the UFC picked up.

Thanks for the correction/catch, AS; much appreciated. Added an addendum at the end to clarify on your corrective point.