[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] The following are the complete reported pay outs to fighters who participated on the UFC 79 "Nemesis" fight card on December 29th: -Georges St. Pierre ($160,000) def. Matt Hughes ($100,000) -Chuck Liddell ($500,000) def. Wanderlei Silva ($150,000) -Eddie Sanchez ($46,000) def. Sao Palelei ($5,000) -"Lyoto" Ryoto Machida ($60,000) def. Sokoudjou ($40,000) -Rich Clementi ($28,000) def. Melvin Guillard ($10,000) -James Irvin ($16,000) def. Luis Cane ($5,000) -Manny Gamburyan ($20,000) def. Nate Mohr ($6,000) -Dean Lister ($22,000) def. Jordan Radev ($5,000) -Roan Carneiro ($10,000) def. Tony DeSouza ($7,000) -Mark Bocek ($6,000) def. Doug Evans ($3,000) Total disclosed fighter pay out: $1,199,000 The KO, submission and fight of the night bonuses were as follows: The fight of the night, which is no surprise - went to Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva. Both fighters received an additional $50,000 to their contracted purses (Liddell received $500,000, Silva a cool $150,000). Submission of the night honors were given to Georges St. Pierre for his armbar victory over Matt Hughes in their interim Welterweight title rubber match. The armbar victory gave him an additional $50,000, which adds to his $160,000 official fight purse. Due to lack of options, knockout of the night went to Eddie Sanchez, for his stoppage of the newcomer Sao Palelei. Sanchez received $50,000 on top of his contracted salary of $46,000. [/FONT]
The payscale is improving .I guess the UFC is taking the fighters complaints seriously as they should but I don't think its enough to make them resign with them though.
:clap: Yes it has. Now the minimum payout for a fighter is $3000 compared to $2000 as it was a little while back. The pay is definitely increasing slowly but surely.
I'd still like to see the fighter's pay from a major boxing PPV. I'd guess the undercard fighters, especially the non televised ones, don't make much more then the UFC guys. TFK
It's reported pretty much everywhere that these figures are just their low end base salaries, and the fighters get unreported bonuses that really increase their total pay. Now, I'm sure that is the case, and I have no problem with it at all. I just hope the UFC is doing it the right way, and there aren't any kind of tax implications involved. I'd hate to see the UFC taken down by the IRS. TFK
Link? Like I said, I was just guessing, because I never see boxing payoffs, other then the main event fighters listed anywhere. If you have a link to back prove that I'm wrong, let's see it. TFK
The only way to tell is to get the story from a real UFC fighter who's actually competed. I can't remember his name but recently, a losing UFC fighter was paid I believe $5,000 and he was very angry according to the interview and claimed he never received any bonus of any kind and that the cheque didn't even cover his travel and accomodation. I would rather get the scoop from the fighters themselves rather than some BS reports.
I'm sure whoever the fighter was, he knew exactly how much he was getting paid when he agreed to fight. And I don't think all fighters deserve bonuses. Do you think Palelei deserved any kind of bonus? If anything, he was overpaid for his non-effort. TFK
I'm not talking about actual 'bonuses' based on putting on a good effort. You said fighters get more than what is stated on the NSAC reports. And according to that particular fighter, it's all BS. Not all of them get something added to their base pay, especially this guy who was vocal about not being compensated for his travel and his medical bills. Regardless, it's not my problem.:dunno: I'm just putting it out there that these 'bonus pay' reports are likely inaccurate for some fighters.
I'll see if I can find something. I have a hard time believing your right though. I go to the local casino here and watch boxing about every other month. I know the promoter personally, he comes to our gym quite often. We have a few fighters in the gym that he uses as kind of "local heroes" on the cards. I know even the bottom fighters on these cards make around 2000 for the fight. These are local fights, no belts on the line(if there are they are usually regional belts) and these fighters make roughly the same as the fighters on the UFC cards. Now the top end isn't close, no one is pulling home 500,000. But like I said, these are pretty much local club fights.
I thought Matt Hughes would be in the 250K range by now this far into his UFC career, considering his popularity also. He's been in the UFC for many years now.
Please. Hughes against St. Pierre is easily a multi-million dollar fight. The UFC is a fucking joke when it comes to paying their fighters and giving them credit for 'improving' (as some do in this thread) is pathetic. The UFC, afaict, justifies these slave wages by the fact that their fighters get substantial promotional deals. However much you think that is relevant, it still doesn't come close to justifying the bullshit going on. I can appreciate what the UFC has accomplished under Dana and the Ferts, but I hope they lose their asses in the future because of their short-sightedness. Will they? I wouldn't bet on it. And even if they do 'lose their ass', they've already 'won' and it's not like they'll end up not being extremely wealthy, anyway. But, they could have built this empire on a far more secure (and fair) foundation, imo, and it would be pure justice to see them get fucked over because of it.
Short-sightedness? Actually, it's the opposite. Ok, so let's say UFC starts paying their main eventers like boxing. Guys like Liddell, GSP, Rampage, etc are now making 10, 15, 20 Million a fight. The bar has then been set. That would be the accepted payday for a main event fighter, and once it hits that mark, it's not gonna go down. But then a few years from now, business starts to slow. The novelty has worn off to part of the fan base who were boxing fans when Tyson was big, then moved on to wrestling during the Monday Night Wars, then to UFC, and now they have moved on to whatever is new and trendy. Now, a signifigant source of income is gone, and with the bar being set for paydays, where is that money gonna come from? UFC would then be forced to do what boxing does, and blow all their money on the main event, and leave us terrible undercards that nobody cares about. PPV prices will go up, and people will be pissed because they're paying a lot of money for what equates to one fight of interest. Fights will end up not being made because of disputes over money. Boxing has been around for over a century. They've been a part of every kind of media, from radio, to network TV, to closed circuit, to PPV. UFC, under it's current ownership, has been around a couple of years. You can't expect them to be on par with boxing salaries, especially when you consider the debt the UFC had when Zuffa bought the company, and when high paydays like boxing are part of what's bad about boxing. Also, what would happen if UFC lost their deal with Spike TV? Losing a TV deal is a major part of what killed Pride. You don't think the UFC knows this? UFC is being cheap, but they're being smart as well. There are cycles to everything, and I'm sure Zuffa knows that for as much as UFC has been skyrocketing, it will eventually come down. The bottom line is, nobody holds a gun to the fighters head's to make them sign with the UFC. They know what they're being paid when they sign their contracts. UFC isn't the only MMA group out there. If fighters have a problem with UFC paydays, they're free to try and find a better deal from EliteXC, Bodog, IFL, etc. The funny this is, it's rare when you hear a fighter complaining about the UFC's salary. The people doing the most bitching are people who post on messageboards. TFK
These guys are getting PAID.. so it's not 10 million!!??? 250k or so is NICE! to do something alot of us have done for nothing in gyms around the country
They don't get paid that good because they are a bunch of friggin' bums, not the refined athletes that boxing has to offfer.
Just cuz boxers get PAID dont mean everyone will.. back in the old days boxers didnt get paid as much either.. they were more working class guys.. a lot of them used to have jobs and box.. now a days they are like celebreties! I almost think it's better to NOT be paid millions and millions.. I feel if Boxing purses were winner take all and the pot was like 50k or so.. I feel Tyson would have had a better run.. so would a lot of fighters.. you'd have to fight for it and it'd keep the desire longer maybe.. remeber what someone said about sleeping in silk pj's?? these guys (MMA) ARE getting paid! and paid WELL!! just not the outrageous sums that boxers are getting!! if I could make what I make in my day job fighting I'd do it in a second!
I have no idea how anyone can justify these fighters getting shafted on the pay. eventually this monopoly will fall apart when other promoters with some sense figure out how to build a competitive and successful product and fighters start to have alternatives.
There is no monopoly,They can make just as much fighting for other orgs.UFC wants people to thinking there paying the most when really there not.
Link? With Pride absorbed, I wouldn't think the money would be there for the fighters. Bodog? TFK, your counter about setting the bar too high is misguided, imo. The bar can be lowered if the money isn't there in the future. It absolutely can be. You are just being an apologist and/or you don't understand how bad the fucking is? $50 million taken in and $1.8 paid out to fighters...unconscionable ratios like that and yet some of you stick up for 'the man.' If the screwing could ever be justified, it would only be when the investors were trying to get a fair return on their investment. Those days are long, long gone. Now it's all windfall and as I explained above, I hope it comes back to bite them in the ass.
