'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The subject of fighter pay in the UFC is always a touchy one. The general consensus is that UFC fighters deserve more money, but while the promotion remains the industry’s leader, it seems hard to find a solution to the issue.
With Paulo Costa and Francis Ngannou the latest fighters to have gripes with the UFC about their pay, can a resolution between all parties be found, or will this issue rage on? And more to the point, can the fighters do anything to force the UFC’s hand – and therefore make more than the reported 16% of the promotion’s revenue?
With this in mind, here are 3 ways that the UFC’s fighters could look to resolve their current pay issues, and the pros and cons of each.
#1 Stop signing lengthy contracts with the UFC
Perhaps the easiest way for UFC fighters to really test their value on the open market is to simply end their contract with the UFC by completing their contracted number of fights.
We’ve seen plenty of fighters do this in recent years, with the likes of Ryan Bader and Rory MacDonald departing for Bellator and Alistair Overeem and Aljamain Sterling inking bigger-money deals with the UFC after entering free agency.
Of course, entering free agency is easier said than done if you’re under a lengthy contract with the UFC, or if you just inked a new deal with the promotion.
That’s the issue facing Paulo Costa right now.
'The Eraser' recently voiced his frustrations with the fact that he isn’t paid anything close to the kind of money that YouTube stars Jake and Logan Paul have made from their forays into boxing.
However, as UFC President Dana White has in turn stated, Costa recently signed a contract with the UFC and so if he wishes to leave, he’ll need to fight that contract out.
All of this begs a simple question: if UFC fighters want to test their value on the free market, then why do they sign such lengthy deals with the UFC in the first place?
The fact that the UFC can cut a fighter from their roster at any time, regardless of the amount of fights left on a deal, only adds to the idea that signing for the long-term is probably a mistake.
If a fighter like Costa only had one fight left on his current deal, then he could easily complete it and then see what a competitor like Bellator would be willing to pay him. But right now – with White reportedly unwilling to release him – he can’t do that.
So it stands that any fighter signing with the UFC should only ever sign one or two-fight deals in order to squeeze the most money out of any promoter looking to sign them.
#2 Form a fighters’ union
With the UFC only paying a reported 16% of their overall revenue to their fighters, it’s pretty clear that something is going wrong. After all, other US-based sports leagues like the NBA, NFL and MLB pay a far higher percentage of revenue to the athletes competing for them.
So what’s the difference? Essentially, those sports leagues have collective bargaining agreements with the athletes whereas the UFC does not.
So why have the UFC’s fighters never formed a fighters’ union in order to change this?
There have been a number of notable attempts to do this, ranging from the brief formation of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes’ Association that involved the likes of Georges St. Pierre and Donald Cerrone, to Leslie Smith’s Project Spearhead.
However, none of these attempts have really taken off.
The reason for this is somewhat tricky to understand. Essentially, it probably comes down to the fact that MMA by its nature is an individual sport, with fighters competing against each other for big paydays.
With that in mind, how would Conor McGregor or Dustin Poirier feel if their pay went down slightly in order to ensure fighters lower down the card were able to make more money?
Of course, a fighters’ union may well be able to squeeze more money out of the UFC overall, meaning everyone’s pay could rise eventually. However, based on the current climate, it feels unlikely that this is going to happen – meaning more pay disputes are likely.
#3 Push for the implementation of the Ali Act
One common misconception that MMA fans and fighters alike make is that the stars of the UFC could make the same money as the big stars in boxing if the promotion were willing to pay more. That’s not really the case, for a variety of reasons.
Those reasons are too lengthy to list, but the main one is that boxing doesn’t have a large promotion that houses the world’s best fighters like the UFC.
Boxers like Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez therefore largely promote themselves, with broadcasters like Showtime then competing to show their fights.
This means that the lion’s share of any revenue created goes to the big-name fighters, while the promotions – the WBA and WBC, for instance – essentially act as little more than sanctioning bodies.
One way to change the MMA landscape to make it look more like boxing would be to implement the Muhammad Ali Act, something that a number of ex-UFC fighters have been pushing for over the past few years.
The Ali Act would – theoretically at least – mean that the UFC would lose most of its power when it comes to putting fights together and holding fighters in lengthy contracts.
Instead, the UFC would have to compete with the likes of Bellator to promote a fight, which would theoretically bump fighter pay up. However, there’d be a drawback to this, too.
While the likes of Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya and Jorge Masvidal might be big enough stars to promote themselves and make millions, this kind of system would hit mid-level and lower level fighters hard.
Right now mid-level fighters can easily make five or even six figures from the UFC. That’s because the UFC’s biggest stars are only making a little more than that.
But if a mid-level fighter were to fight on a McGregor promoted show – with the Irishman making a Mayweather-like amount of money – the likelihood would be that their pay would go down.
Add in the fact that MMA would quickly lose its allure to the fans – who have grown accustomed to stacked UFC shows with big-name fighters up and down the card – and this might not be the best solution, either.
