Rousey: Fighters should get paid better than ring card girls
Ronda Rousey: “I think that they should get paid more than the ring girls. And I don’t know if the ring girls get paid too much or the fighters don’t get paid enough.”
There are professional fighters in the USA who are getting elbowed in the face or $200 to show and $200 to win. There are professional fighters in Brazil for who .2/.2 is a princely sum. By the time you get to Bellator you are guaranteed to make 1/1 (ten fighters did on the last card). The UFC guarantees at least $8,000 to show and $8,000 to win.
But from that come taxes, training expenses, management fees, and more. 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in Judo and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey appeared Wednesday at a media day at Glendale Fighting Club to promote UFC 184, and discussed an aspect of fighter pay that doesn’t sit right with her.
“I think that they should get paid more than the ring girls,” said Rousey as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com. “And I don’t know if the ring girls get paid too much or the fighters don’t get paid enough. But yeah. There’s definitely a lot more in what the fighters do than what they do. So, I think that’s one thing that’s unfair.”
“I have a comparison with how I was treated as an Olympian to how I’m treated as a UFC fighter and I always feel like I’m just so lucky to work with a company that I feel like actually cares. There’s times where they give me more than they’re contractually obligated to or more than I even expect. That’s why I always trust them so much. Even if they didn’t ever give me anything extra, I would still be happy, because you know what I made an as Olympian? Nothing. It cost me money.”
“I got my first house, I got a car, what else do I need? I don’t need a private island. My house is paid off. My car is paid off. I just need to buy dog food and pay my taxes and that’s pretty much it. I have no need to want. The only thing I want to do now is fight and they made that possible for me and I’m eternally grateful.”
“I’ve always been very well taken care of. I’m always extremely happy with how I’ve been treated.”
Ring Card girl compensation in regional promotions is characteristically zero. It is not known what Jhenny Andrade or Ariany Celeste or Brittney Palmer make, so a direct comparison to UFC fighter purses is not possible. And it stands as a fact of life that a thing is worth what someone will pay for it.
Arianny responded, via Twitter.
AriannyCeleste @AriannyCeleste
pretty positive we don’t get paid more than fighters. I work my ass off outside of Ufc not sure if anyone notices.??TALK Is CHEAP.