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UFC 61 Payouts
By Stephan | July 20, 2006
The following are the official pay outs from the UFC 61 “Bitter Rivals” pay-per view from July 8th. Keep in mind that a few, definitely Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz, also received a percentage of the PPV sales profits.
- Tito Ortiz ($210,000) def. Ken Shamrock ($100,000)
- Tim Sylvia ($120,000) def. Andrei Arlovski ($90,000)
- Frank Mir ($56,000) def. Dan Christison ($5,000)
- Joe Stevenson ($24,000) def. Yves Edwards ($8,000)
- Jeff Monson ($20,000) def. Anthony Perosh ($3,000)
- Drew Fickett ($12,000) def. Kurt Pellegrino ($2,000)
- Josh Burkman ($10,000) def. Josh Neer ($6,000)
- Hermes Franca ($8,000) def. Joe Jordan ($4,000)
- Cheick Kongo ($6,000) def. Gilbert Aldana ($2,000)
Total fighter pay out: $676,000
Source www.MMANEWS.com.
Revenue: I have heard of around a 400,000 PPV buys, let me be conservative and estimate it at 300,000 with the UFC getting 50% of that, it translates to: $6 mil. For more on UFC PPV buys, read this here. For the actual live attendance, according to this generated a $3.3 million dollar live gate.
Total roughly $10 million, take out $1 mil for running the even and promotion, and you’re still looking at $9 mil
Let me preface this by saying that I really enjoy the UFC, but I wish it would be more generous with its fighters, like PRIDE. Why do you think the best fighters fight in Pride? Still is true today, but who knows for how long though.
I know the UFC keeps on saying that they have lost millions in the early years…And they should recover their cost and still make a decent profit. This is fightopinion and my opinion is that nobody should be fighting in the UFC for less than 5K anymore, that is actually damaging the UFC’s reputation.
Besides the fact that the UFC came close to save 23K on Frank Mir, anybody else see something wrong with this picture?
You think this is just an anomaly of this card? Check out these last few events as well:
UFC 58 Event which took place on March 4, 2006:
- Georges St. Pierre: $48,000 (defeated BJ Penn $25,000)
- Rich Franklin: $32,000 (defeated David Loiseau in main event $9,000)
- Nathan Marquardt: $30,000 (defeated Joe Doerksen $5,000)
- Tom Murphy: $10,000 (defeated Icho Larenas $3,000)
- Mike Swick: $10,000 (defeated Steve Vigneault $2,000)
- Spencer Fisher: $8,000 (lost to Sam Stout $4,000)
- Yves Edwards: $8,000 (lost to Mark Hominick $4,000)
- Rob Macdonald: $5,000 (lost to Jason Lambert)
- Jason Lambert: $4,000 (defeated Jason Macdonald)
Gross Totals: Fighter Payroll: $207,000 Event Revenue: $11 million
How about UFC 60 you say, that must have been expensive with Royce? UFC 60 Fighter Salaries Event which took place on May 27, 2006
- Royce Gracie: $400,000 (lost to Matt Hughes in main event $110,000)
- Jeremy Horn: $70,000 (defeated Chael Sonnen $5,000)
- Brandon Vera: $32,000 (defeated Assuerio Silva $8,000)
- Diego Sanchez: $24,000 (defeated John Alessio $3,000)
- Mike Swick: $14,000 (defeated Joe Riggs $12,000)
- Spencer Fisher: $14,000 (defeated Matt Wiman $3,000)
- Gabriel Gonzaga: $10,000 (defeated Fabiano Scherner $3,000)
- Melvin Guillard: $10,000 (defeated Rick Davis $2,000)
- Dean Lister: $10,000 (defeated Alessio Sakara $10,000)
Gross Totals: Fighter Payroll: $740,000 Event Revenue: $26 million (includes PPV revenue of $23 million; plus live gate of 2,900,090)
Total payout 740,000 and made 27 mil!!
My point? The UFC should pay the starting fighters a minimum of $5k as mentioned before. Second, great fighters like Rampage and Cro-cop should not be going to the WFA, but to the UFC. I understand why the WFA is trying to bring Co-cop in and I commend them for being able to put together an exciting card, even with legends and b-fighters. But really…who will be able to give Cro-cop a decent fight in the WFA? If Pride is losing momentum, the best fighters should be going to the UFC. If not, what is the U for in the UFC anymore? We know the UFC does have the money now, so do deliver us the best fighters!
Enough of my rant!
Topics: MMA, Stephan Marceau, UFC, WFA | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I will say this once again. If the fighters are willing to fight for a low purse, then hats off to the UFC for saving money. If the fighter’s want to make more money, hire a new agent. Simple as that.
When the demand for rate increase happens, the fight pay will increase. From a business standpoint, the UFC is doing an awesome job man. The goal in business is to make money without spending alot in return. They are doing just that.
Wondering about the payouts for the PRIDE fighters? Does anyone has statistics on it… I figured that they have wider audience and payout must in higher numbers.
seriously, look the Absolute Countdown 2006 fighters. Top 8 are all solid PRIDE fighters. cant wait for the next one in September…
I agree with Jason, but to a lesser extent. True the goal in any business is to increase revenues while decreasing overhead, but there comes a point when the organizations reputation may be more valuable in the long run than it’s immediate return on investment. If the UFC intends to be the best MMA organization in the world, then they will at some point in the near future have to make sure that fighters are well compensated on a regular basis in order to ensure that the talent pool is not looking to other organizations first for the opportunity to fight. If the WFA is paying an undercard fighter $10k on average, then the UFC will have to pay 12.
Prices slowly creeping up over the last couple of events. I’d imagine market forces will keep pushing them but at the end of the day, fighters like Kongo will always fancy a shot at the UFC and it’s only once or twice that they will have to fight for peanuts, before they start getting up to e.g. 6 and 6, which isnt bad at all for someone of his standing.
UFC will the last amount of money they can get away with. The only way they will pay more than they are is if there is another promotion able to steal their talent away for better contracts.
Also, I gotta say, Andrei sure picked the right time to renegotiate, $180,000 to lose two fights. I’d happily get my ass kicked for that kinda money.
I will just add to “If the fighters are willing to fight for a low purse, then hats off to the UFC for saving money.” comment that I hear often. They alreday have!
Have you seen the IFL? the fighters unkown there are way better quality than most so called TUF fighters…
And at the higher level…Rampage going to WFA, and now Cro-cop?!?
i dont know if that is a typo or what but it says royce gracie made 400,000 and he got his ass kicked that is bullshit and then those other guys worked harder and get shit i dont agree with that and im sure other people dont either what ever.!!!!!!!