I just saw the pay outs for Sonnen vs Ortiz...wow! Terrible. So many guys not paid even 2000!!! No excuses with the backing they have. Talk about "stars" making money and disproportionate pay...
The thing is, UFC has the PPV buys. The fights on cable aren't what pay the bills, and Bellator pretty much makes it's living on those free fights. UFC may pay their low-end fighters ten times more, but I'd be willing to bet UFC pulls in more than thirty times what Bellator makes.
If you can read this then you are trying too hard.
Bellator has VIACOM backing it and a TV deal.
I compared a UFC free tv (UFN 103) to a Bellator and it's bad. I'd say half the Bellator card got paid 1500-2000 to show and fight. Tito got 300,000.00 but most other fighters got almost nothing. The least paid for the UFC 10,000.00.
UFC may get more from PPV, but Bellator has deeper pockets than that!
Viacom is just taking whatever it can get from the MMA market. They know they aren't going to rival the UFC, but they have two revenue streams with the gate and the broadcast to keep it afloat without going in the red. It's just that UFC's PPV buys supersede all of that. It's a revenue stream that Viacom can't touch. Sometimes UFC will air a free show they know won't make any money, and may possibly go in the red. It's done on purpose, because those shows are essentially an advertisement for future PPVs.
If you can read this then you are trying too hard.
Ok great. But it still doesn't excuse paying guys 1500 to show!
If they are using MMA then they are doing it on the backs of fighters and paying peanuts. I'm not caring about why VIACOM does it, I'm saying it is wrong. The new "unions" are so he'll bent on the UFC and maybe they should be looking at fighters in general.
The guys sign the contracts, take the fights and know what they're doing, but the pay still, for what ever the reason, isn't fair.
I'm not familiar with Chinzo other than being Lyoto's older brother, but he managed to get 30k for his fight and his opponent was the guy that got $1500. Combined they have ten pro fights.
shareI'm not exactly sure, but wasn't the UFC paying the low-end guys around $2,000 as near as five years ago? I'm sure they were doing it ten years ago, and Bellator is most likely making less than UFC was back then.
I guess no matter how you slice it, all the organizations are underpaying the lesser-known guys. It's been happening in boxing for a lot longer.
If you can read this then you are trying too hard.
The problem is UFC can only charge PPV in US so it'll never be able to pay as much as boxing. It's on far too late in Europe because of the time difference so it's free, nobody is going to pay to watch a fight at 5 or 6am.
shareEveryone keeps saying free. The network pays to air the card. I figured the UFC either airs the card on Fight Pass, TV or PPV depending on who they can get to pay them for it. For a while we were getting really good Fight Nights and Fox cards and shi++y PPVs for a stretch. When I'm in Central America we watch UFC cards on TV too.
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The UFC was paying fighters on the undercard 2000 at one point. When this happened everyone was angry. They said the UFC can pay more and they were right.
Now that Bellator is doing it...and paying even less noone is saying much of anything.
I'm just pointing out, without saying what the UFC does and what Bellator does, is that we all know that Bellator, with their model, makes less, but not so much less that fighters get paid 1500 to show (and not 1 fighter, but waaaay more). They may not make as much as the UFC and that's not my point, but I am saying they have enough to share more of the wealth.
If people feel that Bellator shouldn't pay more and they don't complain about these fighters having the same rights as a fighter in the UFC then I'm saying it is hypocritical.
The UFC was paying fighters on the undercard 2000 at one point. When this happened everyone was angry. They said the UFC can pay more and they were right.
Now that Bellator is doing it...and paying even less noone is saying much of anything.
Everyone keeps saying free. The network pays to air the card."They know they aren't going to rival the UFC, but they have two revenue streams with the gate and the broadcast to keep it afloat without going in the red" is what I wrote.
My point is that MMA on TV is by no ways free. The UFC gets paid by either FOX or whatever cable or broadcast contracts they have. Include that with the Live Gate minus the event expenses and the fighters pay and that's what the UFC takes home after a non PPV, but in no way is it free. Put it this way you have to get Fox 1 to watch UFC fight nights or anything on FS1 so you gotta get the provider that carries them. And Fight Pass to see the other cards and different Orgs since they are carrying those cards on their Fight Pass. None of it is really free.
"Hi, excuse me. Can you use your karate to open up this pickle jar?"
It's free compared to boxing, no matter what TV package you have you had to pay extra (PPV) to watch the last Anthony joshua fight but with UFC if you have virgin media tv or bt tv its included, if you have bt Internet it's free and if you have a t mobile phone you can also get it for free, so it's basically free for the people. I doubt BT pay too much for the rights, if it was worth alot sky sports would get it, they have everything else.
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