@RwilsonR
I am not looking at fighters salaries from employee of Zuffa or Zuffa's perspective, I am neither, I am looking at it from the customers perspective. I was challenging CP on their statement that Kim is not an exciting fighter and that he was Overpaid.
I am sure the casual fan does not know who he is, I am sure the casual fan does not know who takanori gomi is nor Thiago Silva for that matter, but since when do casual fans order ppv's or buy tickets to these events anyway....they just show up late, maybe bring their own stash and liquor(if your lucky) and sit down asking questions like, who's that guy? while the fights are going on.
Dana likes to brag about being in over 100 million homes worldwide, I bet Kim has an audience in the far east that know who he is and perhaps ordered/viewed the fight to cheer him on.
I have never been polled on why I bought a $600.00 ticket or bought a $60 PPV, but my answer would never be to see one fighter, it would be to see a fight card with entertaining fights top to bottom.

The DHK was fun to watch...
Loved the counters...
He seems to be improving every time he fights...

Shouldn't the payout be proportional to what the UFC take in? I personally think the wages are terrible....as Charming Charlie laid out above if you take into account the time and effort put in its not a lot of money. You could count on one hand the amount of fighters who've made millions.

@ Get Off Me

I agree, I was very entertained by Kim's fight, thought it was hilarious how he was frustrating Diaz and fucking with him; I think he has charisma as a fighter.
He's really got to learn English though.

@ Get Off Me - I'm not saying the UFC should rest on a reputation of just barely doing the right thing, but I am pointing out that in a sport where the athletes are routinely screwed over, the UFC paid out win bonuses that it did not owe to the fighters. And not everyone fighting for the UFC is an "elite" athlete. Most everyone that is top 5 in their weight class is reasonably well compensated. I also want to stress that we don't honestly know how much these athletes make. The closest we have come to seeing that was from Randy Couture's lawsuit, where he was pissed because he was used to getting half-million dollar bonuses off the disclosed payroll books, and only got half that for one fight. And that was before the UFC was doing as well as it is now. Just like Fedor didn't make $300,000 to fight Tim Sylvia, where Tim made $800,000, and Fedor's asking price was well known to be in the $1.5-$3 million/fight range. Do you think that perhaps they aren't disclosing everything?

People also always look at this from the employees' point of view, most likely because they themselves have only been an employee their whole lives. You seem upset by how much Kim was paid, yet you aren't asking yourself what the UFC is getting from having Kim on the card. You have an arbitrary idea of how much a guy like Kim "should" be worth, but what is that based on? How many seats did Kim sell? How many people bought the PPV because of Kim? My guess would be very few, since almost all of my casual viewing friends had no idea who the guy was, even though they knew Nate Diaz - yet Kim was still paid more than Diaz. Why? Because the UFC is likely losing money on Kim in terms of his overall worth to them in the hopes that he keeps being undefeated, and one day people will actually know his name and pay to see him. I don't mean they are losing money in absolute terms, but realtive to what he would bring in, Kim, and most undercard fighters are paid more that what they bring to the UFC in the hopes that they develop into a marketable product, or they can act as a foil for someone who will develop into a marketable product.

At the end of the day, this is a for-profit business. The UFC is in it to make a profit. Given the major money that has gone into backing all of the other fight promotions that have failed in years past, if someone could find a better way to compensate fighters more and still come away as profitable then they likely would have done it, because fighters would have flocked to them if they were better taken care of. Big names like Mark Cuban and Donald Trump have waded into these waters, only to find that they couldn't make it work. If you take too much of the UFC's profit incentive away, or arbitrarily mess with their business model because you "feel" that fighters should be paid more, the likely end result will be that the fighters will have no place left to be employed.

Sorry. Got out of hand with that one. I was waiting for the fucking plumber to fix my water heater, and well... was bored.

Charlie Wilson's War has some hot fucking women in it!

@ LOKI

He is overpaid for that exact reason - pretty sure I don't get paid if I under-achieve in my job and I'm sure many others are like that as well.

Takanori Gomi should be a coach on TUF. Loved him in (shh, dont say it!) Pride.

R Wilson's War
 
 
 
(watched charlie wilsons war today... good shit)

cognitive dissonance? at least someone isn't above fart jokes.

Kim is undefeated, flirting with top-10 MW status. How do you call Maynard underpaid in one breath and then say Kim is boring and overpaid in the next? Doesn't that generate the tiniest bit of cognitive dissonance? Now if you want to talk about Antonio McKee...

Let's say 2 million paid to fighters....the live gate was 4 million...

@RwilsonR
The biggest promotions should not stake their reputation on writing good cheques.
Seriously the UFC needs to anti up a little bit better than that so as to offer a better overall show everytime they ask for you 50 bucks.
If any other sport tried to put a show on PPV for those kinds of dollars to the athletes they would not make it, the UFC should not take advantage of that status, they should use it as momentum to build a stronger product.
The more you pay a fighter, the less he has to work outside of the gym to make a good living is one thing, but this is about trying to offer elite level athletes who don't work at the tire shop on the side, I want to pay to watch a guy who is a professional fighter, that's it.

@CP
Kim is not a boring fighter and I watched the fight with some fighters, it had a good pace and was entertaining, that is the kind of grappling that may give GSP some trouble, but the kind of finish that could make a great fight with GSP after he exposes Shields. 70K for Kim(undefeated outside a drugged up and less portly Karo) who has an audience competing in an event that took in 4 million at the gate and is available worldwide for 50U.S., I think Lucien Bute's towel boy took that much home from his last fight.

Dustin Poirier got $8k? Seriously, even for a new fighter that's shit

Based on your rhetoric, I believe you meant "any attack on the Middle East not including Israel". Am I right or am I right?

No need to thank me, your attention is good enough. I WOULD, however, like to thank Briann Stann for beating The Crippler and netting me a handsome sum. Why he was an almost 2-1 underdog is anybody's guess. "Stann by me, Stann by me"

Go Thiago Silva! ! !

Mans got some new respect from me with his awesome drumming skilllls.

That being said, salary is obviously based on popularity over skill. Thiago has a strong fanbase and that mean mug he does should be worth some extra coin no doubt.

Edgar and Maynard are still building fanbases and really aren't the most popular lightweights. I bet Pettis will end up making more than Edgar and Maynard by the end of next year. As long as he keeps up with doing crazy shit and getting wins.

@ El Guapo - I agree, if you haven't served your country you suck and I think the invasion of Iraq was totally justified. As well as any attack on the Middle East. And Stan is the man. Thank you for picking at that scab.

Also, I wonder how comparable the pay for UFC journeymen and Bellator tourny participants is. Like what is the pay difference between Alexander Shlemenko and Nate Diaz?

And another thing, if you haven't served your countr.. Oops, wrong thread.

For all of the "UFC pays crap" crowd, that may be true, but keep in mind the shitshow that Keith Jardine and others just experienced that happens to other fighters all the time, and remember that the UFC paid out 'win' bonuses to both fighters who fought to a draw - and the checks didn't bounce!

This sport still isn't the NFL, but good for the UFC for paying out to both guys.

Plus, we really have no idea what main-eventers actually make. I doubt Dana is handing out bonus checks to guys lower down on the card, but I wouldn't be surprised if he slides guys like Maynard and Edgar a lot more than we think under the table. There is a long history of him doing this.

--Obligatory reminder that the fighter payouts we see here are contractual dues negotiated prior to the fight--
Cherry picking comparisons of one guy's pay to another guy's pay and attributing it to Dana White is stupid. Generally it is safe to assume the whacker a fighter's pay relative to their recent rank or popularity, the longer ago he negotiated a contract.


It would be interesting if someone who gets paid to cover MMA, or someone interested in numbers, were to compile this payout information over the past years and create a pyramid showing fighter pay. It's tempting, looking at these payouts, to feel like fighters are making a pretty good living at 20,000-100,000 a fight, especially considering they fight multiple times a year, e.g. Gray Maynards $112,0000 is almost $70/hour, if he worked a 40 hour work week, worked 11 months out of the year, and fought only once. But the majority of fighters, even at the UFC level, probably aren't making this kind of rate, if they're in that wide bottom tier of the pyramid.

Can you imagine Guida fighting the exact same way with a shaved head...

AND NOW THEY'RE FIRED!!

The UFC under pays ALL of its fighters!

@ Sonochamp - I just noticed the same thing and I cant fucking believe it.

I also can't believe Antonio McKee's show money was $15000 and Volkmanns was just $12000....I mean, how was there that much more interest in McKee? Check out the Volkman interview where he calls Obama an idiot and challenges him to a cage match.

Dustin Poirier's stock certainly increased after the confident stomping he put on Josh Grispi. Guaranteed he'll make more next time than the paultry $4000 he made UFC 125.

Yep, it'd be nice to see all the LWs get a little extra.

Brian Stann paid less than Leben even with his win bonus? Was he really that much of an underdog, and does Dana White really think Leben is that good? Hmm...

Here's something to think about: Thiago Silva's show money was greater than both main eventers' show money. No respect for lightweights.

Maynard looked like a finisher for a round. a round.

Brandon Vera isnt overpaid, he is just a consistent under-achiever.

Antonio Mckee on the other hand....

Kim is a big draw in the asian markets and with the UFC going global it makes sense, maynard got screwed twice but if you can't finish that's what happens.