More and more lately, we are seeing fighters speaking out about low fighter pay. the low end is $6k to show, $6k to win, which then obviously adds up to $12k plus sponsorships and bonuses to a winning fighter. But, once subtracting taxes, gear, gym time, coaches, flights, proper nutrition and more, some fighters need to pick up second jobs just to keep themselves afloat. That’s no way to live. Even proven guys, like Tim Kennedy, who will be getting $50k just to show are having a hard time. He broke it down and he’ll only be seeing a fraction of his payout when it’s all said and done.
Unfortunately, instead of raising the minimums ever so slightly so he doesn’t have to make millions per event, Dana White is now considering yanking away fighter bonuses. You would wish cooler heads would prevail, right? Well, it’s still a solution. By eliminating the bonuses, he can raise up the minimums for all fighters, thus allowing them to live the lifestyles of a pro fighter. This is what Dana said at the UFC 162 media meeting:
“You don’t like the structure? Alright, we’ll pay the lower-level guys more money — no more f–king bonuses,”You guys come in, you negotiate your contracts, and we do away with all bonuses. That’s what I’m thinking about doing. “
“The bonuses are something we’ve been doing out of the kindness of our f–king hearts, it was something we liked to do. Apparently, people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money.”
Well, it was always my understanding that the bonuses were not done out of the kindness of their hearts, they were done in order to push great fights and finishes with a cash incentive. I guess not. It’s all charity, it seems. But, it’s hard not to agree somewhat with Dana:
“We’re more like Major League Soccer, as far as financials go, you fight three times a year, you make [$50,000 to show and $50,000 to win], you’re making $300,000 a year fighting three times a year. I know you have to take jiu-jitsu and do all these other things, but we have the same thing. We don’t just put on fights; we have overhead, too.
“All these f–king morons have no idea what goes into this and what it takes to build a sport and a company at the same time. And we’ve been very fair to guys.”
Granted, that’s if you win three times a year. Hard to do fighting in the UFC. When it’s all said and done, it’s obvious that the sport has a whole new set of growing pains to go through post FOX.
