The UFC markets itself as one of the big boys of the sporting world, a first-class entity alongside the traditional big four sports.
There’s no doubt the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion has become a financial juggernaut. The UFC’s owner, Hollywood conglomerate Endeavor, is valued at about $10 billion after going public in May. This was largely on the strength of the UFC, which did its best numbers in history in 2020, generating approximately $900 million in revenue. While those numbers bring the UFC in shouting distance of pro sports’ big boys, athlete compensation is a different story.
The UFC pay gap remains a dark cloud over the organization and industry
Most major sports pay out roughly 50 percent of their revenues to athletes. Information released in an ongoing class-action antitrust suit filed against the promotion by several former UFC fighters, Le et al v Zuffa, LLC, have pegged the UFC’s athlete payouts at roughly 15-18% of annual revenue in recent years.
This disparity came even more nto focus after UFC strawweight Cheyanne Buys earned a spectacular knockout victory over Gloria de Paula in the co-feature bout at UFC Vegas 33 in Las Vegas. That earned the 26-year old Vegas resident, by way of Dallas, a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award, one of four such bonuses the company hands out after each fight card. Without the bonus, Buys would have been paid $20,000 for the victory. Which breaks down as $10,000 to fight, and another $10,000 to win. That’s before taxes, manager/agent fees, and paying for coaches and fight camp expenses.
This bonus is the only reason Buys, a professional athlete in a company that regards itself as the big time, is no longer in the red.
“I am negative in my account right now,” Buys said to media after the fight. “So it’s gonna make a big difference. My whole paycheck I have to pay back $15,000 for a loan I got from a few people, so I made 10 and 10 for my win and show so that $20,000 was just gone. And I’m okay with it, I was okay if I won and that check was gone because I made that move out here and I knew that this fight was just gonna be for the move.”
To be sure, the UFC’s system has made the select few at the top into millionaires. Transcendent stars like Conor McGregor earn a percentage of the company’s pay-per-view revenue and can leverage their fame into outside opportunities (in McGregor’s case, his Proper Twelve whiskey line).
But for every McGregor, there are scores of fighters like Buys. UFC athletes lack union representation which has helped drive up salaries in other major sports. They are legally classified as independent contractors, but while contracted fighters cannot fight in other organizations, the UFC can release them after so much as a single loss.
Mixed martial arts is not included under Congress’ 2000 Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which protects boxers from some of fight promoters’ most cutthroat practices. While there was momentum to change this up until 2016, the idea was dead in the water as long as former President Donald Trump, a personal friend of UFC president Dana White, was in charge and there has been little indication of a rebound in momentum under President Joe Biden.
“If you don’t like it, go start your own MMA league and pay ‘em whatever you want to pay ‘em,” a defensive White told the LA Times in July. “This is mine and this is the way we’re doing it.”
The best bet on changing the system then might lie in a favorable ruling in the antitrust case. But that could still be years away if it happens at all. Until then, we’re likely to hear more stories like those of Buys, making minor-league money while working in the big leagues because they love what they do, despite all the obstacles.
“I’ve been so broke my whole life because of this sport but it’s so worth it to me because I love this sport,” she said. “But to get a $50,000 paycheck … It’s life-changing for sure, but I’ve got to put the money away and just go out there and fight again.”
–Field Level Media
