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« | Home | »

Elite XC Stockton show payouts

By Zach Arnold | July 30, 2008

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From the desk of the CSAC:

Jeremy Freitag – $2,500
Anthony Ruiz – $2,001 + $3,000 win bonus
Shayna Baszler – $8,000
Cristiane Cyborg – $3,000 + $3,000 win bonus
Jake Shields – $35,000 + $10,000 win bonus
Nick Thompson – $25,000
Nick Diaz – $60,000
Thomas Denny – $8,500
David Douglas – $2,500 + $1,500 win bonus
Marlon Mathias – $2,500
Brandon Tarn – $2,000
Drew Montgomery – $1,500 + $1,500 win bonus
Mike Cook – $2,000
Carl Seumanutafa – $2,000 + $2,000 win bonus
Wilson Reis – $2,500 + $2,500 win bonus
Bryan Caraway – $2,000
Rafael Feijao – $10,000 + $10,000 win bonus
Travis Galbraith – $5,000
Antonio Silva – $100,000 + $100,000 win bonus
Justin Eilers – $20,000
Robbie Lawler – $45,000 + $45,000 win bonus
Scott Smith – $14,000

If we complain about fighter salaries in UFC, then we have to be as critical of Elite XC for paying a main event fighter (Scott Smith) $14,000 to headline a CBS show. They paid Antonio Silva $200,000 to headline a fight on Showtime?

Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

28 Responses to “Elite XC Stockton show payouts”

  1. The Citizen says:

    Is everybody sure they want to go mainstream? Obviously the Burger King only collects, doesn’t look like he pays out. 🙁

  2. Kelvin says:

    $200K to Antonio Silva and $200K a year to Shaw and DeLuca as consultants is just further evidence ignorance with EliteXC.

  3. cyph says:

    Antonio Silva? They took a page out of Affliction by paying unknown fighters more than their star fighters. Kimbo Slice I can understand, but Big Foot?

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    Antonio Silva has no drawing power. Makes zero sense to pay him that much.

    I’m not a person who complains about lower fighter pay. Fighters get what they can until they have proven themselves.

    However, Shields is grossly underpaid, and Silva is grossly overpaid.

  5. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    And the entire card made less than half the guys on Affliction’s card.

  6. Chuck says:

    “I’m not a person who complains about lower fighter pay. Fighters get what they can until they have proven themselves.”

    And you really believe this? So you believe pro wrestlers should only get payed 20 bucks a match until they hit either WWE or TNA? Or that boxers should take dives to make more money just so the right people would know they would play ball?

    Anyway, it is almost criminal what Proelite is paying some of their fighters. What ticks me off the most is the disparity between some of the fighters’ pay. Silva got a base salary of $100,000 plus a win bonus of another 100K whereas his opponent, Justin Eilers, only made 20K. That blows. And Smith should have made more especially considering the fact that he main evented the card. Hell, I think Lawler should have gotten payed better as well (his base salary I am talking about. A 45K win bonus sounds good to me. Then again, I don’t know what Lawler’s bank account looks like, so I don’t know if I can say for sure).

    What is sad is that I bet what a lot of the lower paid guys got on that EXC show is a lot more than even a lot of higher-end indy wrestlers make per show. I would say Proelite should take a page out of Affliction’s book on paying guys or even UFC in this case, but then Gary Shaw wouldn’t make enough money to eat for five on a regular basis. Gary Shaw……very few are like him. A man who is VERY obese who bashed fighters who didn’t make weight for past fights (Jose Luis Castillo).

  7. […] Payouts Elite XC Stockton show payouts | FightOpinion.com – Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry. […]

  8. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    Was Ruiz fined for something? It’s not often that you see someone with a win bonus higher than their show pay.

  9. Ivan Trembow says:

    The female fighters being on the CBS broadcast with salaries of $8,000/$8,000 and $3,000/$3,000 is a disgrace.

  10. Jeremy says:

    Elite has lost over thirty million dollars. If the upcoming 10-Q shows them making money, I will be more crtical.

    That being said, I am more than a little surprised at Silva’s pay.

  11. Rolf Rosenstein says:

    “The female fighters being on the CBS broadcast with salaries of $8,000/$8,000 and $3,000/$3,000 is a disgrace”

    Disgrace how? If you mean they should be paid more…ok. If you think it’s a disgrace that they were paid that much…then you’re an asshat. A retard like you should make that money right? Or maybe they should have given it to some jabroni no one ever heard of just cuz he’s a man.

    Baszler and Cyborg are and will be better money makers than 85% of those guys.

    Double R

  12. Leslie says:

    I thought people complained about UFC payouts because of absurd discrepancies between people who fight each other, as well as TUFfers making minimum wage. There are some eyebrow raising differences here, but Scott Smith still gets more than Jardine who has headlined a UFC PPV. I really don’t care much if EXC is paying some guy a bit more than his drawing power may warrant at the moment. If everyone is showing up to fight that doesn’t matter, but the discrepancies may be a concern, and selling the “brand” while hiring bargain basement fighters to feed to a few, extremely loyal stars while at the same time attempting to snuff out competition may be as well.

  13. IceMuncher says:

    I always thought EXC must be paying Jake Shields an inflated salary to keep him around. But in light of his real payout, I think he should definitely to go to the UFC. He’ll easily get the same amount of cash, and we won’t have to look back on his career and wonder if he could have beaten any top 5 welterweights.

  14. Michaelthebox says:

    Just occured to me, I remember the UFC saying they’d be interested in Bigfoot, then like a couple weeks later he signed an extension with EliteXC.

    Looks like Shaw and company panicked and threw way too much money at him.

    Maybe Shields is scheduled to go up to 75k/75k in his next fight?

  15. PizzaChef says:

    Rolf, Ivan ment it’s a disgrace that the female fighters weren’t paid more. Dear God how could you misunderstand that?

  16. PizzaChef says:

    And something off-topic but interesting to read.

    Tanigawa: DREAM TV show is finish in September (if ratings don’t improve)

    From http://sadironman.seesaa.net/article/103896545.html

    original article is “kamipro special”

    TANIAGWA Sadaharu FEG producer said”DREAM.5’s TV rating is only 10%.We can not said it is cuccess.If We can not grow up,DREAM TV show is finish in September……”

    If DREAM TV on air is end,DREAM7s damage is very serious.

    The link is in Japanese.

  17. Daniel5678 says:

    The thing no one seems to be talking about is how all the “big-name” heavyweights are commanding huge salaries. Explaining this would make a good story, Zach.

  18. 45 Huddle says:

    As a comparison, I believe both Koscheck & Sanchez get $35k/$35k per fight. So if they go 2-1 for the year, they are getting $175,000 for the year.

    Yes, the named Heavyweights are getting big money OUTSIDE of the UFC. Yet none of those companies can make money, so those payouts are obviously inflated. Sylvia, Fedor, Arlovski, Silva, & Barnett are getting paid more then any company can afford. It’s nice for these fighters in the short term, but they will have to continue to look for work with different companies a year from now.

  19. Dave says:

    Paying Silva that kind of money is pretty silly. I mean hey, good for him, but wow.

  20. D.Capitated says:

    If Fedor is getting paid 7 figures to fight, why the hell does he need to rush into fighting for someone else for 75,000?

  21. cyph says:

    Here we go again. The inevitable MMA pay complaint. It’s the free market people. Supply and demand. As long as there’s demand, the fighters will get paid.

    Every where you go, the talent gets 80% of the pay while the rest gets 20%. It’s the 80/20 rule. The bottom 80% gets 20% of the pay.

    EliteXC only gets 3000 tickets sold at the gate, and people are outraged at the pay? I’m outraged that Antonio Silva gets paid so much for bringing so little to EliteXC.

  22. jim allcorn says:

    Normally, discussing the payscale doesn’t interest me, but this business of Silva getting $200,ooo for dismantling a journeyman opponent like Eilers is just rediculous & clearly illustrates how the EliteXC is probably doomed despite the CBS deal.

    Other than his dull decision win over an out of shape Ricco Rodriguez, Silva has done next to nothing. Unless one counts his getting KO’d by a reality TV not all that long ago …

    Unless the powers that be at ProElite are just grooming him to hopefully be sacrificial lamb aka “transitional champion” for Kimbo Slice to win a belt off of, I don’t get it. If that’s the case that’s a heavy price to pay for someone to just keep a belt warm ( not that I believe Kimbo will ever reach the skill level needed to beat him however ).
    And I doubt Silva can draw well against any other name heavyweights. Not that there are any of them available between the UFC & Affliction!

    So, IMO EXC is just throwing their $$$ away on this guy enroute to their eventual demise.

  23. Kelvin says:

    Now, Roger Huerta is complaining bout making over $100K a year…not even counting indisclosed bonuses or money from sponsors.

  24. D.Capitated says:

    Huerta fought 5 times in 2007. I’m guessing he probably doesn’t want to have to fight that many times to crack the 6 figure barrier, just as anyone else in his position as a budding star wouldn’t. UFC helped make him a name, he wants to profit off of it. He’s allowed just as anyone who’s done their job exceedingly well and has options for major increases in salary would. He’s just got a far shorter time period with which to make his money than the average joe.

  25. dmp says:

    Huerta is a good fighter. However, I think Dana know’s he has a number of guys that would love to have that spot. I don’t think publicly bad mouthing your employer when they have a near monopoly in the industry is a good idea.

  26. Ivan Trembow says:

    Yes, I was saying that it’s a disgrace for Cyborg and Baszler to have made such a small amount, not that they were making too much.

  27. Rolf Rosenstein says:

    Double R says Ivan Trembow is a good man then. I retract, boil, then saute my words before eating them. Yum.

    Double R

  28. D.Capitated says:

    Huerta is a good fighter. However, I think Dana know’s he has a number of guys that would love to have that spot. I don’t think publicly bad mouthing your employer when they have a near monopoly in the industry is a good idea.

    As long as MMA has existed, there’s always been someone willing to spend a bunch of money and throw their hat into the ring. If Huerta walks, someone will sign him.

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