Rogan: Show-Win purse structure should end
Joe Rogan: “I just don’t like the win bonus. I don’t think anybody fights harder for it. … That to me is a real issue.”
In mixed martial arts, each fighter’s purse is generally split into show money and win money, characteristically in equal amounts. For example, in the UFC, most fighters start at 10/10. That means both fighters get $10,000 to make weight and fight, and one fighter gets another $10,000 to win.
By contrast, when the Patriots play the Dolpins, the football players don’t get paid more to win. And in boxing as well, the purse is generally fixed.
During a recent JRE MMA Show, host Joe Rogan argued that the standard practice in MMA is based on a false premise, and should evolve. Rogan’s greatest problem with the Show/Win process is incompetent judges and referees leading to the wrong fighter winning.
UFC president Dana White famously tells fighters, “Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.” But that exactly whose hands the bonuses are.
I just don’t like the win bonus, said Rogan, as transcribed by Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. I don’t think anybody fights harder for it. … That to me is a real issue. I think a guy should be paid what they get paid. I think if you have a contract, that contract should be for ‘X’ amount of money. If you have points on the pay-per-view, that’s on top of that. But the idea that your win or loss has to be in the hands of what we have deemed completely incompetent judges…
Rogan feels strongly that officials should be held accountable for erorrs.
I’ve heard [blowback] from Athletic Commissions, but I say, ‘Go f*** yourself,'” he explained. You have guys who train for months and months and months and someone who literally doesn’t understand martial arts is giving these guys a decision, a loss or a win. That’s 50 percent of their money. That’s crazy.
A few fighters at the highest levels of the sport have negotiated flat sums to fight, but only those with the greatest pull. The vast majority of fighters don’t have the clout to evolve the system, and won’t unless they organize.
This is a must-hear show, for a number of reasons including the guest – fromer UFC welterweight champion Pat Miletich, the architect of modern MMA.
