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Originally Posted by Slava
Some pretty crazy things coming out this morning about the pay that UFC fights are making. Cheyanne Buys, who won her fight and a $50k bonus last night, was saying that she made “10 and 10” for the fight. Honestly, that’s atrocious. Being paid $20k before paying for coaches/training and such, and of course taxes is pretty brutal. For some context, the TV deal that the UFC signed was $1.5bn, and pretty clearly not a lot of that is ending up in the pockets of the athletes.
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This is pretty common for fighters who are on their first or second contract with the UFC, unfortunately.
I remember before Nate Diaz fought McGregor for the first time, he was only making $20k to show, $20k to win per fight. And was in the UFC for a long time at that point.
I've read different numbers but it seems only 15-18% of the UFC's revenues goes to the fighters - around a third of what athletes get in the big 4 North American sports leagues! It sucks because there's not enough fighters who are aware or care about how much they're getting screwed over, and are just happy to be in the UFC and be a lapdog for Dana White. Even if they were aware and spoke up, the UFC would have no problem cutting them or leaving them idle. Dana's favourite lie as of late is saying "He/she didn't want the fight" if a fighter asks for more pay. The media doesn't want to speak up about it either, out of fear of getting berated by Dana or being blacklisted by the UFC.
Even if a big star or champion spoke up (eg. Jones, Masvidal, or most recently Ngannou) and demanded more pay or pushed for unionization, it's a common tactic for the UFC to leave them on the sidelines and instead make an interim belt and find two contenders who are willing to fight for lesser pay, under the guise that they are getting a title shot. This is exactly what's happening with the interim Heavyweight title fight happening next week.
This is also why we're seeing former champions like Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren, who should be retired with their respect and dignity intact, chase stupid boxing fights against Jake Paul. Because fighting a celebrity in boxing will net these guys far more money than they've ever seen when they were champion.