I'm not sure about the ins'n'outs of the whole scenario, but seems pretty straight forward to me;
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Fight game = Survival of the fittest, strongest
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Beat up majority of dudes you fight=more money
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Lose to majority of dudes you fight=less money
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For further dissertation of above points ring Xeno on 1800-Fukthalotofya :)

RwilsonR - then you tell me how much Zuffa made with the $900 million Fox paid them, the toys, posters, clothing, coffee, mugs, video games, gear, PPV's, live event seating, and all the income from branding and video content on TUF rebroadcasts, the sponsor endorsements, Spike, Fuel, Showtime, Versus etc... for the Strike Force and the UFC holdings?
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Once again we see you placed your foot in your mouth Wilson...Thats nothing new. Yet, nobody knows who much they make, unless you peeked at their IRS and shareholder disclosures.
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ESPN, seems to know they are a big enough threat to their own latch on broadcasting sports content....but you don't think they are make a billion dollars.
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Fair enough, you tell us what they make in a year then?

muthafuckers be writting novels up in this B

XENO, you do realize when they say "billion dollar company" it doesn't mean they earn $1 billion in revenue annually let alone profit to line their pockets, right? Right? Great analogy with MS' IPO. No need for relevancy when making an argument.
Oh, nevermind.

Stixy - Got a dam good point with your "$5 Tit Theory."
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Could be why Carano was allowed or pushed into her movie roll. Not saying its obvious, but she is the first "no namer" to make it big based on particular marketing sector. Just look at all those new Gong Show contestants from idol.

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@beef_kurtains Says:

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You bring up some good points. Instead of thinking or comparing sports, maybe its best to just compare other billion dollar companies to ZUFFA. 39 millionaires is not that big of number.
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Subtract 39 million from a billion and see what you are left with. It's: 1 billion minus 39 million = nine hundred sixty-one million
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$961,000,000.
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Stepping back to when Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond on February 26, 1986, and on March 13 the company went public. The ensuing rise in the stock would make an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.
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UFC is no Microsoft, but there is something you can't ignore about your big 4 sports leauges (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL). This is that the athletes earn about 50% of the profits.
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Inside ZUFFA this is was out of whack. Zuffa earns at least a cool billion per year, thus in comparison they would need to share collectively with the fighters $500 million. I don't think ZUFFA is even coming close - and wouldn't likely come close to their counterparts even if they double salaries.
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Bottom line is that cash is going into only 4 pockets. Those of the Fertitta bros, the Sheik, and White.

Comparing the UFC with the the any of the four major sports is crazy. It's like comparing a Kwikemart to Wal-Mart. I've been an MMA (not just the UFC) for many years and have followed their growth. For a company profitable for merely 7 years, 39i millionaires is a pretty good number! How many of YOUR friends are millionaires? Can't say I know or work with any... Pay equality is crazy, you can't pay an extra in a movie the same as you would the star? I'm sorry, but playing the "girl crossing street" can't make the same as Angelina Jolie in a movie, even if I'd give both $5 to see their tits!

points of interest for me:
Good job Lorenzo.
Fuck you espn.
Good job Dana.
Good job UFC.
fuck stupid fighters who bitch.
fuck all "pro sports".
FUCK anyone who wants a union.

This ESPN piece is such bullshit it is amazing. When you consider the UFC is still growing they are drawing analogies to other sports organizations. You cannot do that, simply because the UFC is still growing where other pro sports are already set in their growth. ESPN sucks so much ass it is pathetic. The sad thing are the poor sheeple that will fall for ESPN's bullshit. Thank god I never wasted my time watching ANYTHING on ESPN.

@Danga
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Dude pretty much fucked his son's chances of getting into the UFC.

Holy shit Karma, I thought of that EXACT SAME MOMENT when I first found out Shamrock was involved in this.

@Palmtreeguy

You sound pretty pissed off.

I'm just stating some obvious points; I agree with performance based pay but the lower tier fighters do deserve a little bump in pay. you have to account all the months of training prior to the fight.

I'm not suggesting them to be payed 50k but they deserve more than what the current pays are right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=O7neKshmjzI#t=704s
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At that point in the video watch the Clip with Ken Shamrock fucking gold..

I'm of the belief the UFC pays their fighters peanuts BUT I must admit I believe that's actually better for the fans because it forces fighters to fight the best. Sucks to say it, because I do feel they should be paid ALOT more, but the truth hurts, nawmsayin?
That's why boxing is in shambles; The fighters call the shots. Please see Pacquiao-Mayweather(or lackthere of)for further proof.

there's another video out there with a more complete response from the ufc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7neKshmjzI&feature=youtu.be

I just wanna know if ESPN got their credentials yanked or not. Everything else is a matter of opinion, in...my...oh...pinion.

1. MMA as a whole doesn't generate the kind of revenue of the big four (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL), therefore, the top earners in MMA will not earn the same as the the top earners in those four sports. Bad comparison. Maybe they should compare MMA to Soccer in the US, better comparison.

2. The UFC may be worth a billion, but so are the Yankees, one team in a league of 26 other teams. Apples and Oranges.

3. $6k to show and $6k to win for a relative rookie is fantastic. I had to work while I went to school and once I earned my degrees I picked up a job that enabled me to work full time and earn a good living; looks like fighters do the same. Seems fair to me.

4. UFC may be a monopoly, that's the only fair criticism. When you buy up all your competition, you're going to earn an anti-trust lawsuit. Happens in every industry, and I would guess UFC will feel that as well. The only reason Strikeforce even exists is to ensure there is at least one reasonable competitor, even though the UFC owns that promotion as well.

MMAFighting's article was very good, doing what ESPN didn't - they took specific examples (both hypothetical and real) and showed that new fighters CAN make a lot of money (Edson Barbosa did 348,000 in his first four fights... fuck being a doctor!)

http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/01/15/outside-the-lines-investigates-ufc-pay-but-questions-remain/

Of course, with that said, most of it rides on the performance of the athlete ...and if you pull a Dan Hardy early on, you're probably going to need a day job again... and probably for a long time. Maybe when the UFC is as big as the NFL, guys can get paid millions of dollars to stay in the sport even when they don't perform to any sort of potential for multiple games in a row...but then again, hopefully not.

Awesome KOs always make the top 10 but they are never #1. Usually #1 isn't the best play, its just a big play from a big upset or big game. The showtime kick was like #3 as well, but they incorrectly said he KOed Bendo Regarding the pay I think its somewhere in between. They aren't as poor as guys make them out to be but ZUFFA isn't paying them to the point that most low to mid tier fighters don't need to supplement their income. The best way to make a decent salary in the UFC if you aren't a headline guy is to stick around a while. Vera is a guy who is making 60k a fight and isn't a draw

Speaking of ESPN, anyone catch Sportscenter this morning? Barboza's wheel kick landed at #3 on the Top Plays. Fucking Eli Manning took #1.

Im with omunto, I that I want to see more of Lorenzo out there. However, I probably part ways with him in that I also love to see Dan White give interviews. I think he and Lorenzo are a good balance for each other, and both are entertaining for different reasons.

I am going to hold my hands up and say fair enough, I thought lorenzo fertita came across well and I wasn't aware they were making such large payouts to the fighters..if they are making up to 40% of the payout to the fighters that's fair. Looking at the payouts the publish to me it looked more like 10% quoted here..so I guess if the top fighters are all millionaires and happy to be fighting there why would they form a union and leave? they won't is the simple answer

Two seconds in... "Lorenzo and his brother Frank are heirs to the Stations Casino fortune, and both are billionaires..."
Heirs? That's a little condescending, considering their farther started them with one small junky locals casino, and it was Frank and Lorenzo who built the Stations Casino empire into 17 casinos. They aren't Paris Fucking Hilton!
Then the piece basically condescends again to Dan White's roll in it, by mentioning him as the president, but saying, "...most attribute the UFC's success to Lorenzo Fertitta's business acumen..."
Really? Most? They make a blanket statement basically suggesting the company's president is just an impotent figurehead, then back it up with an assumed consensus of opinion totally unsupported by anything. That was all in the first 20 seconds. What a shitty piece by ESPN.

the whole argument is fucking stupid...
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#1 the ufc is an emerging market. boxing ,nfl,nba,mlb ..those have been around for over 40 fucking years. and the are known worldwide..
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once the ufc is marketed and ppv's are sold in more country's the fighters will make tons more money.
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look at it like this .. when mike tyson fought evander holyfield the enitre fucking world was buying PPV of it. thats why boxers make some much fucking dough(but only the popular and good ones).
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MLB and NFL and stuff like that not evcen close to being in the conversation its so differnt.
anyways im not going to go into it. i got to get back to work.. peace out bitches

After watching both videos, I'm led to believe one thing...Vitor's old lady has a very nice Onion.
captcha= ate durit

E:60 - Another Gross misrepresentation of the truth.

Fucking hack reporting.

Ok I stepped out of this and google hopped the topic, and after reading around 20 different takes on this my honest first thought?
There are fighters they CANT shut up. They have guys who have threatened the fucking president, on camera, in front of 20k people, and the only person they can find to speak on camera is Shamrock? Let the conspiracy dipshits run amock, I have read a book, and I'm not buying.

"That question is above my pay grade!"
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I told you that the ESPN clowns are fucking geeks. Which alias was it that talked shit when I stated that about a week ago, and then ducked a response?
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Here is something to consider. Call it damage. Sure boxers get brain damage for getting popped in the head too many times. Does anyone remember watching Duk Koo Kim die at the hands of Mancini on a live feed from Las Vegas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk_Koo_Kim

In terms of damage, what is the average working span of boxing vs a MMA? Does anyone have that answer - or even a good educated guess?
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What's the total time one must spend mastering each art. If the 10,000 rule applies, MMA has many more facets to integrate and perfect...IMO.
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What amount of damage and their costs for medical surgeries and recuperation. Does a amateur and professional boxer spend as much over his career vs a professional M&M artist?
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If boxing can release their end of year financials, same as NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, why does the ZUFFA refuse to do the same?

One could fall back and say, well ZUFFA is a private company, fair enough.

But don't forget that Lorenzo stated that "...before he formed Zuffa, there was nothing." And when it was brought up there is no competitive option that pays the same for fighters fight in, he corrected agreed.
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So ZUFFA is the same as the others in terms of holding all the cards (some call that a monopoly) but ZUFFA refuses to be as transparent as his peers then its because he fears that his claims that he pays fighters 50% of the take is fraudulent.
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I will bet money that when he made that statement he did not include all revenues spread across all income streams. I think he just tripped himself, as in a major fuck up with that one, but let's see if the Feds or ESPN caught that too?

Maybe this all this greed will grab the attention of "Anonymous" and they will one day supply Wikileaks with Zuffa's complete IRS fillings for the past decade from all its holdings and straw companies along with a zillion other internal emails.
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Now that 'would be' some real interesting fucking news...

ESPN also fails to properly acknowledge the additional revenues that fighters earn through sponsorships. Do NHL and NFL players get to have a banner behind them on the bench with sponsor logos on it? Do they get to have whatever logos they want on their uniforms? Of course not.
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The sponsor revenue for fighters is a significant part of their pay which will only increase now that all of the prelims are being televised in some capacity.
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I've said this once and I'll say it again...if people think that MMA doesn't pay enough, then don't become a fighter!

ESPN dropped the ball on this piece.
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To show the 6k + 6k system really tells us nothing.
I would have expected a much more comprehensive look at UFC fighters pay, say the average salary of a UFC fighter knocking off the bottom ten and top ten percentile to give us a ball park figure.
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I think Lorenzo did a good job defending/explaining his mentality, but he could have underlined the fact that the UFC is still growing and growth requires profits to be re-invested i.e. Fox deal.
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After listening to Lorenzo, I think the UFC should continue to offer a win bonus as well as a "performance bonus" if a fighter finishes a fight via submission or KO, maybe equivalent to the fighters win bonus i.e. 6k to show, 6k to win, 6k to finish.
If paying based on performance is what Lorenzo honors, than paying every fighter based on performance is key.
Keep the KOTN, FOTN and SOTN(30k-60k+) in play as a reward for the best performances, but to take three fighters who had a sub or KO victory in the same night and pay only one of them a bonus while the two others get nothing is a little flawed.
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The UFC can do what they want, if it was not for the Fertitta's money and DW's leadership we probably would not see MMA where it is today(on the cusp of greatness). Moving forward though, the sport will only get better if the athletes get better, which requires the training and dedication that all elite sports do.
Too many UFC fighters have "day jobs" imo, a UFC fighter should only have to focus on training day in and day out in efforts to yield the best possible final product in the cage.

I have a feeling that when we look back on the history of every major sport you're going to see a similar growth pattern. When the UFC reaches the level of popularity that other mainstream sports in America have, that's when fighters will have the leverage required to negotiate better pay for themselves. Take a look at what NBA players were making back in the 40s and 50s and what their lifestyles were like, and it's fairly similar to what UFC fighters experienced from the 90's through a few years ago. It's like Lorenzo says, if a guy is someone that people want to see fight, he doesn't care what they say outside the UFC, that guy has negotiating power. Why do you think Brock Lesnar was able to say those things in a televised post-fight interview and not get fired? He has drawing power. Eventually we'll get to the point where there's enough money in the sport and enough mainstream interest in the sport that the fighters will, from top to bottom, get a fair share. Whatever that is.

Booosted you are so far out in left field. If you compared the percentage of top notch pro athletes in the big 4 sports and the top notch fighters in the UFC there is no comparison. Is that the UFC's fault? FUck no. Its ESPN's fault. They are paying those huge TV rights deals so these teams can afford to pay that outrageous money to the top players. Maybe ESPN should step up and pay the UFC for broadcasting rights so they can pay their fighters more. How can you pay a guy humongous paychecks when nobody really knows who they are and couldnt care to even watch them fight? If you become a fighter that people want to see it is obvious that these fighters have the potential to make 50,000 to 100,000 per fight not including the KO, Sub, and Fight of the night bonuses. What other sport gives a nobody the same chance as a top guy the chance to win a $60,000-$100,000 bonus ? NONE, NOT FUCKING ONE. Its a permanent incentive to motivate the up and comers to rise up and bring what they can to the fight. IF they do, they get a win bonus, a KO, SUB, or FOTN bonus, plus another couple fights guaranteed in the UFC. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. The biggest joke about ESPN is the fact that nothing is noted about the NCAA and how everyone gets to watch the growth of these athletes from day one. They have already created the "want" for fans to keep watching them on tv as they turn professional. There is none of that in MMA. How is that the UFC's fault? What a fucking joke ESPN has become. Why did the NHL have to adapt to a salary cap? Because ESPN stopped bidding on the TV rights so the price came way down. SO the NHL players make way less then they used to make presalary cap. Oh wait they will say that they did that cause people in the U.S. didnt watch hockey enough to make it work. Well no shit, and if you put a fight card on with all nobody fighters in the UFC, would anybody watch? WOuld their be profit then? Would the company stay afloat? Oh wait, the UFC did do that back in the day and look what happened. The company was going bankrupt and was rescued by the Fertittas. May karma rain down on ESPN for letting bias jealous POS like Josh Gross help put together a story that tells 20% of the truth 30% of lies and 50% of twisted around information.

Regardless of who's right and who's wrong, what's true and what's false, That man can talk his way out of anything. I kinda wish Lorenzo was more of a figurehead than Dana.

I was prepared to learn some dirty secrets on the business, but this was weak, as hit pieces go. Lorenza defended the UFC well and the unaired footage is pretty damaging to the point ESPN is trying to make. Sure, professional athletes make more in the big team sports, there is a whole culture there where kids are encouraged to pursue those sports from a young age and money is made from the early school levels. Like amsterdamheavy said, you get a predictable package from someone entering the professional level, you have years of scouting information on them, they've done the combine, you've poured through their medicals, etc. And for much of those sports long history good pay and working conditions weren't the case. The athletes used to practically be indentured servants to the leagues and they unionized, fought for fair share, still fight for fair share. Given time, the UFC will have to pay more and more to have the best fighters on their payrolls, as the available pool grows, so will the fight culture around it. More smaller venues, more options for young fighters to establish themselves and prove their value, larger starting deals with the UFC as a result.

I personally thought this little snippet of the interview was poorly done. It did nothing to show that fighters don't make much money. I can think of 10 friends off the top of my head who make less than 48k a year and I would imagine for a fighter who is just getting into the UFC, they aren't doing a great deal of traveling to other camps to train. Yes, i do think that fighters should get paid a little more, but they also have "health" insurance through the UFC now. My guess would be that by the end of the year, relatively unknown fighters will be getting paid more, due to the exposure from FOX and the new deal.

It's true that some of the boxers are payed crap. But thats more up to the boxing promoters too. Pointing out that the UFC pays 10x more don't mean jack because after all said and done 6k and small sponsorships to show isnt much when they have to pay for training and living expense. UFC is the big league they should atleast give a little more. Fighters also have a big hand in making the UFC

I watched this yesterday morning and I was laughing my ass off when they were interviewing Ricco, Josh Gross, and the lawyer who's name I can't remember. Wasn't Ricco talking about how he wanted to get back to the UFC?? Well he can kiss that dream good bye. And you'd think there would be somone more comfortable in front of the camera than that lawyer, watch his eyes when they ask him a question, he just keeps looking down and reading his answers off a piece of paper. And what can I say about Josh Gross, the guy who got picked on in high school and now he wants the world to pick on all the "bullys" or athletes but mostly just DW. I thought Lorenzo was absolutly amazing and I was laughing when they attempted to read DW's tweets but every other word was censored.

Waste of time really. It's kind of obvious that prospects make little money (as they should) as nobody pays $50 to watch them fight. And Dana White saying that fighters get 50% of the revenues? Really? Then why is the disclosed amount always smaller than the live gate, meaning the rest of the hundreds of thousands of ppv buys is profit for them? Maybe higher drawing people do get a cut of the ppv's but even still, I doubt it's a high percentage.

any fighter filmed and added to the ufc footage vault or aired, regardless of the percieved quality of the fight, should go home with a minimum of 20k. That is a drop in the bucket for the ufc but a more fair price for a junior fighter.

Lorenzo did a great job.

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I think the comparison to NFL, NBA, NFL is *BULLSHIT*, mainly because there is no official development structure, perhaps yet, in MMA. Dudes get 320k minimum in the NFL first and foremost because of the mega TV deals the league signs. Second, your getting a relatively known commodity when you sign a guy in any of those sports; some of them have been watched since their High School days. They are also (mostly) well developed through the college systems. I mean, how often do you get a walk-on in the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB? In the UFC, if you can get someones attention on the regional circuit and rack up some wins in impressive style, you might get a call up, but I wouldnt call that development like baseball or hockey's minor leagues.

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Fuck ESPN

They wasted all the time just to tell me unpopular MMA fighters make more than unpopular boxers, but make less than Pro football players? I thought this was supposed to be a hard-hitting expose'.