In the most recent episode of ESPN’s MMA Live, Franklin McNeil says there’s no way Fabricio Werdum is going to join the Affliction roster like he hoped following his UFC dismissal, and the culprit seems to be his unreasonable financial demands. Funny, his unwillingness to accept a paycut of his fairly bloated salary is what precipitated his release from the UFC to begin with. Could it be that having your sister act as your manager isn’t such a good idea after all?
On one hand, you can’t blame for Werdum for trying to squeeze some cash out of Affliction. They are the people who paid Tim Sylvia $800,000 to get beat up by Fedor Emelianenko, and that was just one of many ridiculously overblown payouts on their first show. But since then Affliction has been forced to tighten their belts somewhat, with rumors that some fighters under existing contracts have been asked to take paycuts for the second show.
Werdum has got to realize that it’s better to fight for some money, even if it’s not the figure he and his manager/sister had in mind, than to sit on the sidelines. The only way he’s going to get the big money is to prove that he’s worth it, and that’s not going to happen if he prices himself out of potential fights. The options for fighters are lean and getting leaner these days. Werdum might do well to make his expectations match that reality, and to get a real manager who knows a thing or two about this stuff.
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commentsIt seems fair to me, that only fighters headlining a card should be the ones to really take home serious money. I think fighters should be relegated to a more normal payday - and when the time comes for a step up, and possibly a championship fight, get the type of money that they would have earned up to that point.
If you look at boxing, only the headliners are the ones making big money. Fighters on the undercards get paid, but no where near main event money.
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