WSoF to debut new PPV model in 2015: Fighters get 50%
Ray Sefo: “This is a proud day for the sport of mixed martial arts and our organization and one that we hope will create a better opportunity for the fighters.”
World Series of Fighting just announced that they will put on their first pay-per-view event in the second half of 2015. It will feature a revenue split for fighters on the card that only “Money” Mayweather seems to have pulled off – half the revenue will go to the fighters.
This is a proud day for the sport of mixed martial arts and our organization and one that we hope will create a better opportunity for the fighters who put everything on the line every time they step inside the cage, said WSOF president Ray Sefo. Until now. one of the main things holding this sport back from becoming even bigger than it is today has been fighter compensation and the inability of the sport’s top athletes to earn on par with top-level professional athletes in other sports.
If fighters can’t earn a fair share of the money at the top, the fighters lose hope or become disenchanted with the sport, which impacts their commitment to training and preparing properly for title fights. That is about to change, thanks to this major step we are taking now fighters will train harder than ever to become a champion giving the fans some epic championship bouts to enjoy.
The league has a number of marketable figures on its roster, including welterweight champ Rousimar Palhares, women’s strawweight champ Jessica Aguilar, bantamweight champ Marlon Moraes, featherweight champ Rick Glenn, Yushin Okami, and Jon Fitch. Many of them would presumably appear on a PPV.
Sefo did not indicate how the fighters would split the revenue, but it will presumably be proportionate to their purse. The UFC does have a process for giving major PPV draws a percentage of revenue, and although the amount is not publicly disclosed, it can safely be said that it is not near 50%.
Sefo also did not indicate what platforms would be in use for the PPV: cable, satellite, and/or web stream.
PPV has proven to a brutal market in the MMA space for everyone but the UFC, so it remains to be seen what size the pie is that fighters get 50% of.
WSoF returns to NBC Sports Network on Saturday, Oct. 11, with a four-fight telecast headlined by a welterweight showdown between Jake Shields and Canada’s Ryan Ford (22-4) . The promotion will also crown its first heavyweight champion in history in the co-main event between Smealinho Rama (8-1) of Calgary, Alberta Canada and KO artist Derek Mehman of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
