If it ain’t for a belt, it ain’t worth much. That’s how the UFC’s set up their pay structure, much to the detriment of their athletes and the number of big fights that can be made.
UFC 268 goes down this Saturday November 6th from Madison Square Garden in New York City, and it is undeniably one of the biggest cards of the year. Not only are there two hype title fights in the offering with Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington and Rose Namajunas vs. Zhang Weili, but a banger of a PPV opener between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler.
But the strength of this particular card belies a problem laying under the surface when it comes to the UFC’s ability to keep its biggest stars active and happy. And each of the three main fights reflects one or more facets of that problem.
Look at Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler. Gaethje hasn’t fought since his October 2020 title shot where he lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov in Abu Dhabi. He spent the first half of 2021 sounding pretty upset about his inability to secure a fight while Michael Chandler was getting all that ‘Dana White privilege.’ Of course, there’s almost always some sort of unmet demand or two at play when the UFC won’t make a certain fight or book a certain fighter. For Gaethje, it’s his insistence that a win earn him another title shot.
“If I don’t get the shot, we riot,” Gaethje said during the lead up to UFC 268. “We go to war. I have to be biased when it comes to this. I’m not going to be around here for much longer, so if I were to get snubbed again then, yeah, I’d have to do something about it. Whether that’s causing ruckus.”
Winning the title isn’t just a point of pride and legacy. The UFC has carefully constructed their entire business around the belts being a fighter’s main route to fortune. No belt? No cut of the pay-per-view money. And if you’re not getting a cut of the pay-per-view money, good luck hitting a seven figure sum for your fight purse.
The financial incentives shift so much when you’re a UFC champion that we’re seeing top divisions grind to a halt as contenders angle for a shot at the strap. Welterweight is particularly ridiculous at the moment, as revealed by the UFC 269 main event between Usman and Covington. Colby fought once since his defeat to Kamaru Usman back in 2019. Jorge Masvidal managed to earn himself an immediate rematch with Usman off a one sided loss. With the UFC increasingly reluctant to renegotiate deals, fighters are hunkering down and holding out for a shot at the title … and real money.
This extends into other divisions as well. Rose Namajunas vs. Zhang Weili 1 almost didn’t happen at all because the UFC was trying to lowball Rose. And below Namajunas vs. Zhang at women’s strawweight is former 115 pound queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who defended her belt a staggering five times between 2015 and 2017. She’s basically said she’s not getting her face mangled without PPV points, or a proper equivalent.
But of course, the UFC isn’t interested in making non-champions with PPV points a ‘thing,’ they’re perfectly happy with the current myth that only champions (and Conor McGregor) deserve PPV points … and not even all champions. Former double champ and Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo dropped his belts and retired because the UFC refused to give him points, just in case you were wondering how tight wadded the UFC is about giving this out.
It’s hard to argue from a corporate perspective that what the UFC is doing is wrong — getting away with paying your athletes 17% of revenue is a feat unparalleled in sports outside of the whole scammy college system. And with the UFC’s deal with ESPN giving them a new found stability no matter how good or bad their cards may look, they’re free to sit out any fighter that seems likely to mess up the budget now or in the future. It’s too bad though, and not just for the fighters, whose primes are short enough without extended periods of political bench warming.
One could argue that a modest bump in pay and a less adversarial approach to negotiating and matchmaking could open the UFC up to more regular performances from their top athletes, and more superfights coming together. We see the results of the UFC’s financial rigidness in then news way too much. Almost every card tells a tale before or after: fights not made, fighters not happy. The word ‘broke’ being used to describe financial situations more than legs and noses.
UFC 268 represents a collection of some of the greatest fighters in the world. For those following closely it also reflects the current harsh realities of the promotion’s pay structure. It’s a miracle we get to see a night of big fights like this, and a tragedy that the athletes carrying it will make so little from it.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 268 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPNEWS/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
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