The 27 Most Persistent Myths in MMA


(“I’m telling you people, this is the most stacked UFC card OF ALL TIME!” / Photo via Getty)

Like price sticker residue on a prized picture frame, these myths refused to be scrubbed away. You’ll encounter them on forums, barroom discussions, and even from the mouths of so-called experts. What myths are these? We’re glad you asked…

By CagePotato.com Staff 

1. MMA wouldn’t exist without Dana White. Wrong. See here.

2. Royce Gracie was a humble, respectful warrior. [Ed’s note: Hopefully there’s been enough recent evidence to put this falsehood to bed until the end of time.]

3. Chuck Liddell in his prime would have destroyed ________.

4. MMA has nothing in common with professional wrestling.

5. [Celebrity with zero combat sports experience] would make a great MMA fighter!

6. Motivated BJ Penn could/still can beat anybody.

7. Healthy Shogun could/still can beat anybody.

8. Brock Lesnar could’ve held the belt forever and a day had it not been for diverticulitis.

9. The UFC is not a sports entertainment company.


(“I’m telling you people, this is the most stacked UFC card OF ALL TIME!” / Photo via Getty)

Like price sticker residue on a prized picture frame, these myths refused to be scrubbed away. You’ll encounter them on forums, barroom discussions, and even from the mouths of so-called experts. What myths are these? We’re glad you asked…

By CagePotato.com Staff 

1. MMA wouldn’t exist without Dana White. Wrong. See here.

2. Royce Gracie was a humble, respectful warrior. [Ed’s note: Hopefully there’s been enough recent evidence to put this falsehood to bed until the end of time.]

3. Chuck Liddell in his prime would have destroyed ________.

4. MMA has nothing in common with professional wrestling.

5. [Celebrity with zero combat sports experience] would make a great MMA fighter!

6. Motivated BJ Penn could/still can beat anybody.

7. Healthy Shogun could/still can beat anybody.

8. Brock Lesnar could’ve held the belt forever and a day had it not been for diverticulitis.

9. The UFC is not a sports entertainment company.

10. MMA wouldn’t exist without Bruce Lee.

11. Tito Ortiz held the most UFC light heavyweight wins of all time (too soon?).

12. _____, _____, and _____ will be the toughest test of [insert headliner of next PPV]‘s career so far.

13. Xyience is a thing people use outside of UFC press conferences, where cans of it are used as paper weights.

14. Michael Bisping won the Matt Hamill fight.

15. Rampage Jackson is funny.

16. Forrest Griffin is funny.

17. The low salaries Zuffa pays the fighters are okay because they all get rich off locker room bonuses.

18. The media isn’t on the take.

19. “I used supplements that must have been tainted.”

20. “I was hacked.”

21. “My phone was stolen.”

22. “My PR firm went rogue.”

23. Brazilian events bring out only respectful, educated fans.

24. Women’s fights are always exciting (and no, we don’t hate WMMA. You can criticize something and still like it. Imagine that…)

25. Dana White isn’t an asshole (this behavior is indefensible, no matter how much snow you have imported into your driveway).

26. Boxing is dead. Did you see how many MMA sites covered Mayweather-Maidana?

27. “Fastest growing sport in the world.”

Quote of the Day: Nate Diaz Unleashes the Mother of All Fighter Pay Rants (to Dana White’s Confusion)


(“Hold up a second, Nate. If you’re really only making that much money for this fight, I’ll gladly bow out.” Photo via Getty)

You may recall that back in February, Nate Diaz requested to be released from his UFC contract, stating via Twitter that “It’s time for me to be on my way..?” Most of us assumed that the empty threat was just that, a thinly-veiled attempt by the former title challenger and TUF winner to get some of that Gil Melendez money (see previously: “ive gotta high school reuinion i have to tend too“). In any case, we haven’t heard a word from Diaz since.

Until yesterday, however, when MMAFighting managed to get ahold of the ever-elusive Stocktonian and pressed him on his current standing with the promotion. Diaz’s response was a rant against the current state of fighter pay so vivid and thorough that we’re still not convinced it wasn’t spoken through his anger translator:

I’m ready to fight but not for some funny money that they’re trying to give me. They can let me go or they can let me fight, but let me do something. They know I need to make some money. I feel like they’re just trying to keep me on the waiting list. I don’t even want to communicate through anybody. If they want to figure out what’s going on, we should talk. No one is contacting me. I’m just doing my thing. Training every day. I’m ready to fight tomorrow.

They need to be about more money. My contract is all f*cked up. I want to be paid like these other fighters. I’m over here getting chump change. At this point, they’re paying all my partners and other people I train with are getting real money, and it’s too embarrassing for me to even fight again for the money they’re paying me. So they can either pay me or let me go. I’m with that.


(“Hold up a second, Nate. If you’re really only making that much money for this fight, I’ll gladly bow out.” Photo via Getty)

You may recall that back in February, Nate Diaz requested to be released from his UFC contract, stating via Twitter that “It’s time for me to be on my way..?” Most of us assumed that the empty threat was just that, a thinly-veiled attempt by the former title challenger and TUF winner to get some of that Gil Melendez money (see previously: “ive gotta high school reuinion i have to tend too“). In any case, we haven’t heard a word from Diaz since.

Until yesterday, however, when MMAFighting managed to get ahold of the ever-elusive Stocktonian and pressed him on his current standing with the promotion. Diaz’s response was a rant against the current state of fighter pay so vivid and thorough that we’re still not convinced it wasn’t spoken through his anger translator:

I’m ready to fight but not for some funny money that they’re trying to give me. They can let me go or they can let me fight, but let me do something. They know I need to make some money. I feel like they’re just trying to keep me on the waiting list. I don’t even want to communicate through anybody. If they want to figure out what’s going on, we should talk. No one is contacting me. I’m just doing my thing. Training every day. I’m ready to fight tomorrow.

They need to be about more money. My contract is all f*cked up. I want to be paid like these other fighters. I’m over here getting chump change. At this point, they’re paying all my partners and other people I train with are getting real money, and it’s too embarrassing for me to even fight again for the money they’re paying me. So they can either pay me or let me go. I’m with that.

Has anyone else ever considered the possibility that the Diaz’s are capable of being embarrassed? Like, that they possess the amount of self-awareness necessary to understand the emotion?

I train harder than everybody in the UFC. And then there’s boxers out there getting multimillion dollar contracts, and I’m a bigger draw than boxers. It’s embarrassing. I think I’m the biggest draw in the lightweight division. I feel like they’re trying to weed me out of the top 10. I saw that I went from no. 5 to 6 in the rankings, for some reason. That doesn’t make any sense. 

Preaching to the choir there, brotha.

I don’t get paid sh*t, and I’m about to tell the world. I didn’t like what my brother and my partners got paid. Now that they got a better contract, which still ain’t sh*t, it blows what I get out of the water. And they deserve triple what they get. I’ve been in the UFC for eight years and never turned down a fight. It’s not like I’m getting paid 20 bucks an hour and they’re getting 50 bucks an hour. I’m getting 20 bucks an hour and they’re getting paid 15,000 bucks an hour. They blow me out the water. At this point, I can’t even go to lunch with my partners because if we start talking about contracts or our business, I don’t have anything but bitter sh*t to say.

I like to imagine that these power lunches consist of Diaz, Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, and Ice-T sitting at the head table of Medieval Times and lamenting recent business ventures while ravaging on tankards of ale and turkey legs.

“It’s like, no, you know, I can barely even afford a side of tomato bisque soup like all you made motherf*ckers, know what I’m saying?”

We’re entertaining entertainers. We get Shaq, Justin Bieber and Lil’ Jon at the show. How are we entertaining billionaires and we can’t even get sh*t?

Don’t forget Rosie!

My partners still make sh*t money for what the company is bringing in. They’re happy because they’re not getting paid what they used to get paid, so they get little chunks to shut up. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t get paid sh*t. I get $60,000 (to show) and $60,000 (to win). If I were doing this for the fame, I would have quit seven years ago. I can’t tell you what my brother and Gil make, but I can tell you that they signed a contract for more than I get paid to headline and win a fight, and that’s bullsh*t. So you understand where I’m coming from? I can’t even fight for the money they’re offering me. So I ask to get released because I can’t fight there for that. 

I don’t talk to the UFC. No one calls me. I’m not going to call them begging. They know I’m on call, I take every fight. They know what they should be giving out. 

When I signed my last contract, they conned me into signing an eight-fight contract to fight [Benson] Henderson. I was negotiating my contract three weeks out from the fight. [My manager] Mike [Kogan] came in and got me a little bit of a raise — a little – they act like they hooked me up. They didn’t do sh*t. They gave me a little something to shut me up for a minute. [They] got me to sign the contract, but the way they got me to sign the contract was like, Just trust me, sign the contract, and we can renegotiate anytime. I was like, I’ll just fight a couple of fights and then talk some sh*t because I don’t like this contract. So I’ll renegotiate in a couple of fights because they told me I could do that. Then they called me to take the Khabib [Nurmagomedov] fight when it wasn’t working out for them and Gil [Melendez]. They were trying to lowball Gil, too, and he was supposed to fight Khabib, but he said he couldn’t take the fight for the money they were offering. So they call me the next day and ask me to fight Khabib. I said, I’ll take the fight as long as I can renegotiate my contract. And then it was all downhill from there. Then they tweeted out that I turned down the fight, and I never turned down the fight. They tried to do me dirty. 

Wait, wait, wait…you mean to say that Dana White might have tweeted something completely reactionary and not based in fact? Well I for one am shocked. Shocked I tells ya!

If I can get released, I can go fight somewhere and make some money. If they can renegotiate, I can make some money, because right now I’m broke. For some reason, the IRS is telling me that I owe them more money than I have right now, and I pay my taxes every year. 

“Uh…Nate, I’m pretty sure ‘joint return’ doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
– Diaz’s accountant

At this point, they’re having a fat-ass party with others getting paid and they’re letting me see it. Before, I had no argument because I didn’t really know. But now they’re letting me see the party and letting me in. So now that I know for sure, I’m going to talk. If everybody would start speaking up and quit keeping their mouths shut, people would start getting paid. We’re working for a billion-dollar company. It’s ridiculous. I go to boxing events where they pay the fighters so much money and those boxing events aren’t even half the shows that the UFC is.

The crazy thing to me is that in what other professional sport do the cheerleaders make more than the athletes? I’m sure Arianny Celeste, Brittney Palmer, Joe Rogan, Bruce Buffer, probably you, everybody makes more money than I do. So I’m trying to make a move here. The way that the UFC makes me look, too, makes people I know believe that I’m some type of millionaire. I got a family to feed. I got my mom. She just got a brand new house and working two jobs still. I’m trying to break her off some money when I can but I’m going as broke as her.

There’s a lot more money that needs to be dished out because it’s coming in, and I know it.

It just goes to show, even the hardest, realest, anti-bullshitingest motherf*ckers in the UFC are just doing this MMA thing to break off some money for their moms. (*tattoos tear drop on cheek*)

As you would expect, Dana White’s response was equal parts logical business owner and corporate fat cat rubbing his greedy palms together.

Nate Diaz came in and signed a new deal and was very happy with his new deal. We gave him a shot at the title and he lost to Benson Henderson. If he would have won, obviously his deal would have changed if he became champion, which he did not. Then he got stopped by Thomson. Thomson finished him.

Now he comes off a win over Gray Maynard and feels like he should be making Justin Bieber money. Nate needs to get back in there and start fighting, win fights again and earn a title shot again.

What the hell is with all these Bieber shout-outs? I CHOSE MMA BLOGGING TO *AVOID* THAT TURD, DANA.

He was happy as can be when he signed his new deal. Go back and look at my twitter after he signed the new deal. I tweeted it. He was happy. We’ve done everything to honor the contract. I’ve always been good to Diaz. This is the kind of craziness you see with athletes. They end up spinning off and don’t make the money they should have made. Nate Diaz has what it takes to be champion or he doesn’t, but I’ll tell you, there’s only one way to find out. He has to come back and fight. He thinks he loses to two of the best guys in the world and deserves more money? In what f*cking planet does that make sense?

Guess how much money he makes sitting at home? Zero. Get back to work, Nate.

You know, there was an interesting discussion on the Co-Main Event Podcast recently about whether or not there should be a precedent set regarding the absolute minimum an MMA fighter should receive for a fight. While the topic itself was spurred by the news that a fighter at WSOF 9 made just $500 to show, it’s a discussion that bears just as much relevance in the UFC.

While Diaz’s current 60k/60k is rather standard fare for someone in his position in today’s UFC landscape (Gray Maynard, a fellow TUF alum and former title challenger, made 45k for his fight with Diaz), perhaps that’s the problem. There’s no denying that any veteran of Diaz’s caliber surely deserves more than a 60k split per fight, let alone the 15k/15k he was reportedly paid for his performance at the TUF 18 Finale. Any occupation with as much inherent risk as MMA deserves to be paid accordingly, especially when a multi-billion dollar company is the one financing it.

But while we’re discussing how things should be done, I also think that topless Kate Upton should serve me breakfast in bed every morning. The difference between the fantasy I’ve just constructed and Diaz’s being that only one of us has any chance of actually doing something about it. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: If MMA fighters want to actually do something about their pathetic pay situation, they need to take greater action than bitching about it on Twitter. Form a fighter’s union, or at the very least, maybe discuss your payrate with your boss, face to face, instead of airing your grievances for the world to see like the true professional you are supposed to be. It’s really not that hard.

J. Jones

Friday Link Dump: Football Player Ejected for Nasty Uppercut, Epic UFC 168 Video Trailer, Mayweather Sets PPV Records + More

(Must-watch: “MMA Pay: Leverage & Power,” by CAINtheBULL)

Today’s Installment of “Football Players Using MMA Techniques”: Clemson Player Ejected for Devastating Lead Uppercut (BleacherReport)

EPIC video trailer for UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2, by the legendary NickTheFace (CagePotatoMMA Tumblr)

Tomato Can Blues: The True Story of the Michigan MMA Fighter Who Faked His Own Death (New York Times)

Following Chael Sonnen’s Rihanna Comments, Dana White Says ‘He’s Got to Knock That S**t Off’ (MMAFighting)

Golden Boy: Mayweather vs. Canelo PPV Sets Records With Reported 2.2 Million Buys, $150 Million in Revenue (MMAMania)

Angels of Anarchy – Jade Bryce (BabesofMMA)

Anthony Perosh Takes on Ryan Bader at December’s UFC Fight Night 33 in Australia (MMAJunkie)

Spoil TUF and the UFC Will Sue You for Five Million Dollars (Fightlinker)

Get Down And Stay Down: MMA Style (Break)

Interview: Andy Samberg Fires Up ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (MadeMan)

20 Job Search Hacks That Will Get You Hired (Complex)

Russell Wilson: The Quarterback That Connects (MensFitness)

Insane Russian Flattens Nails With Bare Hands (EgoTV)

The 33 Most Influential Events Of The Last 10 Years: A Summary For Average Joes (DoubleViking)

Supercut: Before They Were Famous (ScreenJunkies)


(Must-watch: “MMA Pay: Leverage & Power,” by CAINtheBULL)

Today’s Installment of “Football Players Using MMA Techniques”: Clemson Player Ejected for Devastating Lead Uppercut (BleacherReport)

EPIC video trailer for UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2, by the legendary NickTheFace (CagePotatoMMA Tumblr)

Tomato Can Blues: The True Story of the Michigan MMA Fighter Who Faked His Own Death (New York Times)

Following Chael Sonnen’s Rihanna Comments, Dana White Says ‘He’s Got to Knock That S**t Off’ (MMAFighting)

Golden Boy: Mayweather vs. Canelo PPV Sets Records With Reported 2.2 Million Buys, $150 Million in Revenue (MMAMania)

Angels of Anarchy – Jade Bryce (BabesofMMA)

Anthony Perosh Takes on Ryan Bader at December’s UFC Fight Night 33 in Australia (MMAJunkie)

Spoil TUF and the UFC Will Sue You for Five Million Dollars (Fightlinker)

Get Down And Stay Down: MMA Style (Break)

Interview: Andy Samberg Fires Up ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (MadeMan)

20 Job Search Hacks That Will Get You Hired (Complex)

Russell Wilson: The Quarterback That Connects (MensFitness)

Insane Russian Flattens Nails With Bare Hands (EgoTV)

The 33 Most Influential Events Of The Last 10 Years: A Summary For Average Joes (DoubleViking)

Supercut: Before They Were Famous (ScreenJunkies)

Don’t Worry, Dana White Is Just Bluffing About That ‘Eliminating Bonuses’ Thing


(“It’s an ‘undisclosed locker room bonus,’ okay? That means we don’t tell the media, we don’t tell the IRS, and we especially don’t tell my wife.” / Photo via TerezOwens.com)

For years, the UFC’s end-of-night performance bonuses have rewarded fighters for outstanding battles and finishes in the Octagon, as well as given fans a metric to determine which fighters are the most consistently entertaining. But now that more and more fighters are publicly coming out to blast the promotion’s pay scale, UFC president Dana White says he’s thinking about ending the practice altogether, and using that money instead to bump the guaranteed salaries of lower-tier fighter. As he explained to media yesterday:

“The bonuses were something we’ve been doing out of the kindnesses of our (expletive) hearts,” White said. “That’s not something that was ever done or structured. We started doing it and that was it. It was something we liked to do, thought it was a cool thing to do. Apparently people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money.”

Asked to clarify if this was really a move the promotion could make in the not-so-distant future, White answered emphatically.

“(Expletive) yeah, it could happen,” White said. “That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the (expletive) lower-level guys think they need their money boosted. Everyone thinks it’s not enough money, so that’s easy to do.”

This, of course, is nothing more than a transparent bluff, on par with your father threatening to “turn this car around, goddamnit!” 30 minutes into a family road trip. Now that Dana has suggested that the UFC will transform its pay structure — sacrificing those $50,000 end-of-night awards to fatten the paychecks of prospects — here’s what he expects will happen next:


(“It’s an ‘undisclosed locker room bonus,’ okay? That means we don’t tell the media, we don’t tell the IRS, and we especially don’t tell my wife.” / Photo via TerezOwens.com)

For years, the UFC’s end-of-night performance bonuses have rewarded fighters for outstanding battles and finishes in the Octagon, as well as given fans a metric to determine which fighters are the most consistently entertaining. But now that more and more fighters are publicly coming out to blast the promotion’s pay scale, UFC president Dana White says he’s thinking about ending the practice altogether, and using that money instead to bump the guaranteed salaries of lower-tier fighter. As he explained to media yesterday:

“The bonuses were something we’ve been doing out of the kindnesses of our (expletive) hearts,” White said. “That’s not something that was ever done or structured. We started doing it and that was it. It was something we liked to do, thought it was a cool thing to do. Apparently people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money.”

Asked to clarify if this was really a move the promotion could make in the not-so-distant future, White answered emphatically.

“(Expletive) yeah, it could happen,” White said. “That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the (expletive) lower-level guys think they need their money boosted. Everyone thinks it’s not enough money, so that’s easy to do.”

This, of course, is nothing more than a transparent bluff, on par with your father threatening to “turn this car around, goddamnit!” 30 minutes into a family road trip. Now that Dana has suggested that the UFC will transform its pay structure — sacrificing those $50,000 end-of-night awards to fatten the paychecks of prospects — here’s what he expects will happen next:

– Fighters who are notorious for gobbling up performance bonuses, but who have relatively modest base-salaries — think Donald Cerrone, Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon — will scream bloody murder at the thought of their $50k bumps going away. I mean, those guys depend on that money. How else are you going to convince 10 or 12 girls to come out on a pontoon boat with you?

– The lower-level fighters who actually stand to benefit from this pay-restructuring are going to have a change of heart, once they realize that there’s no possibility of earning a life-changing amount of money in a single fight. Right now, a newbie like James Krause can step into the Octagon for the first time and leave $100,000 richer. Under DW’s new proposed system, an $8k/$8k fighter might begin to earn a living wage, but those jackpot days would be over.

Either way, Dana’s betting that a lot of his contracted fighters will start to cry out, “No, no, we liked things the way they were, PLEASE DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR BONUSES DADDY!!!”

Again, that’s what Dana hopes will happen. But look, he’s not really going to eliminate end-of-night bonuses; it’s just a publicity stunt to keep the loud-mouths in line. What makes this threat so aggravating is that it’s based on such an obvious false choice: Low guaranteed money with the possibility of end-of-night bonuses, or higher guaranteed money with no possibility of end-of-night bonuses — pick your poison.

The thing is, there are other ways to fix the UFC’s pay structure that don’t involve eliminating those $50,000 bumps that everybody loves so much. For example, the UFC could do one of the following things for all new contracted fighters, going forward:

Keep FOTN/KOTN/SOTN bonuses, but eliminate win bonuses: Nearly all UFC fighters double their show-money by winning. This financial arrangement is apparently designed as an incentive for UFC fighters to fight hard and try to pull out a victory until the bitter end. But winning fights in the UFC and advancing up the ladder are major incentives in themselves. So instead of those win bonuses making UFC fighters push harder, the fighters became aware that half of their potential payday is based on winning the match. And so, safe-fighting was born; win each round in the most risk-averse way possible, and double your money when the last bell sounds. One solution to this problem would be giving all new fighters a flat fee for showing up and fighting, which would be higher than their show money under the existing structure. Therefore, new prospects get paid more in guaranteed money, and there would be no incentive just for winning — but those incentives for entertaining performances would still remain.

Put the fighters on salary: Can you imagine only getting 2-4 paychecks a year? It’s hard to plan for the future when you don’t know when the money’s coming in, or exactly how much it will be. So what if the UFC signed new prospects to an annual contract that paid them twice a month like regular working folks? Even if the money still isn’t fantastic — today’s $8k/$8k fighters might instead start off with a $40k/year salary in this scenario — it would give the lower-tier fighters some semblance of a normal life, and the stability they need to continue living as fighters.

Got any better ideas? Fire away in the comments section…

(BG)

Don’t Worry, Dana White Is Just Bluffing About That ‘Eliminating Bonuses’ Thing


(“It’s an ‘undisclosed locker room bonus,’ okay? That means we don’t tell the media, we don’t tell the IRS, and we especially don’t tell my wife.” / Photo via TerezOwens.com)

For years, the UFC’s end-of-night performance bonuses have rewarded fighters for outstanding battles and finishes in the Octagon, as well as given fans a metric to determine which fighters are the most consistently entertaining. But now that more and more fighters are publicly coming out to blast the promotion’s pay scale, UFC president Dana White says he’s thinking about ending the practice altogether, and using that money instead to bump the guaranteed salaries of lower-tier fighter. As he explained to media yesterday:

“The bonuses were something we’ve been doing out of the kindnesses of our (expletive) hearts,” White said. “That’s not something that was ever done or structured. We started doing it and that was it. It was something we liked to do, thought it was a cool thing to do. Apparently people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money.”

Asked to clarify if this was really a move the promotion could make in the not-so-distant future, White answered emphatically.

“(Expletive) yeah, it could happen,” White said. “That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the (expletive) lower-level guys think they need their money boosted. Everyone thinks it’s not enough money, so that’s easy to do.”

This, of course, is nothing more than a transparent bluff, on par with your father threatening to “turn this car around, goddamnit!” 30 minutes into a family road trip. Now that Dana has suggested that the UFC will transform its pay structure — sacrificing those $50,000 end-of-night awards to fatten the paychecks of prospects — here’s what he expects will happen next:


(“It’s an ‘undisclosed locker room bonus,’ okay? That means we don’t tell the media, we don’t tell the IRS, and we especially don’t tell my wife.” / Photo via TerezOwens.com)

For years, the UFC’s end-of-night performance bonuses have rewarded fighters for outstanding battles and finishes in the Octagon, as well as given fans a metric to determine which fighters are the most consistently entertaining. But now that more and more fighters are publicly coming out to blast the promotion’s pay scale, UFC president Dana White says he’s thinking about ending the practice altogether, and using that money instead to bump the guaranteed salaries of lower-tier fighter. As he explained to media yesterday:

“The bonuses were something we’ve been doing out of the kindnesses of our (expletive) hearts,” White said. “That’s not something that was ever done or structured. We started doing it and that was it. It was something we liked to do, thought it was a cool thing to do. Apparently people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money.”

Asked to clarify if this was really a move the promotion could make in the not-so-distant future, White answered emphatically.

“(Expletive) yeah, it could happen,” White said. “That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the (expletive) lower-level guys think they need their money boosted. Everyone thinks it’s not enough money, so that’s easy to do.”

This, of course, is nothing more than a transparent bluff, on par with your father threatening to “turn this car around, goddamnit!” 30 minutes into a family road trip. Now that Dana has suggested that the UFC will transform its pay structure — sacrificing those $50,000 end-of-night awards to fatten the paychecks of prospects — here’s what he expects will happen next:

– Fighters who are notorious for gobbling up performance bonuses, but who have relatively modest base-salaries — think Donald Cerrone, Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon — will cry bloody murder at the thought of their $50k bumps going away. I mean, those guys depend on that money. How else are you going to convince 10 or 12 girls to come out on a pontoon boat with you?

– The lower-level fighters who actually stand to benefit from this pay-restructuring are going to have a change of heart, once they realize that there’s no possibility of earning a life-changing amount of money in a single fight. Right now, a newbie like James Krause can step into the Octagon for the first time and leave $100,000 richer. Under DW’s new proposed system, an $8k/$8k fighter might begin to earn a living wage, but those jackpot days would be over.

Either way, Dana’s betting that a lot of his contracted fighters will start to cry out, “No, no, we liked things the way they were, PLEASE DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR BONUSES DADDY!!!”

Again, that’s what Dana hopes will happen. But look, he’s not really going to eliminate end-of-night bonuses; it’s just a publicity stunt to keep the loud-mouths in line. What makes this threat so aggravating is that it’s based on such an obvious false choice: Low guaranteed money with the possibility of end-of-night bonuses, or higher guaranteed money with no possibility of end-of-night bonuses — pick your poison.

The thing is, there are other ways to fix the UFC’s pay structure that don’t involve eliminating those $50,000 bumps that everybody loves so much. For example, the UFC could do one of the following things for all new contracted fighters, going forward:

Keep FOTN/KOTN/STON bonuses, but eliminate win bonuses: Nearly all UFC fighters double their show-money by winning. This financial arrangement is apparently designed as an incentive for UFC fighters to fight hard and try to pull out a victory until the bitter end. But winning fights in the UFC and advancing up the ladder are major incentives in themselves. So instead of those win bonuses making UFC fighters push harder, the fighters became aware that half of their potential payday was based on winning the match. And so, safe-fighting was born; win each round in the most risk-averse way possible, and double your money when the last bell sounds. One solution to this problem would be giving all new fighters a flat fee for showing up and fighting, which would be higher than their show money under the existing structure. Therefore, new prospects get paid more in guaranteed money, and there would be no incentive just for winning — but those incentives for entertaining performances would still remain.

Put the fighters on salary: Can you imagine only getting 3-4 paychecks a year? It’s hard to plan for the future when you don’t know when the money’s coming in, or exactly how much it will be. So what if the UFC signed new prospects to an annual contract that paid them twice a month like regular working folks? Even if the money still isn’t fantastic — today’s $8k/$8k fighters might instead start off with a $40k/year salary in this scenario — it would give the lower-tier fighters some semblance of a normal life, and the stability they need to continue living as fighters.

Got any better ideas? Fire away in the comments section…

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Tim Kennedy Walks Back Criticism of UFC, Apologizes For Calling Pay Poor


(“Apologize or Dana will do WHAT to my butt?” Photo via OTM.)

By Elias Cepeda

Looks like someone got a call from their boss. Former Strikeforce fighter Tim Kennedy is set to make his UFC debut July 6th against Roger Gracie but made news yesterday for an interview he recently gave in which he criticized UFC fighter pay.

“It’s a good thing I have another job because the UFC doesn’t pay very well,” he told GrappleTalk Podcast.

“Anybody who accepts [fighters being underpaid] as a reality of the sport is sad and pathetic,” Kennedy went on. “I hope this isn’t the reality of the sport. If it is I should probably go do something else, like empty trash cans. I’d make more money than I do now.”

It didn’t take the middleweight long to regret his words, however, and he issued an apology to UFC brass for the interview through his facebook fan page yesterday. “I recently made comments regarding fighter pay. The intent of these statements was to highlight that professional fighters incur significant expense associated with their preparations to fight and that fighter compensation is still not on par with other major sports,” Kennedy began.


(“Apologize or Dana will do WHAT to my butt?” Photo via OTM.)

By Elias Cepeda

Looks like someone got a call from their boss. Former Strikeforce fighter Tim Kennedy is set to make his UFC debut July 6th against Roger Gracie but made news yesterday for an interview he recently gave in which he criticized UFC fighter pay.

“It’s a good thing I have another job because the UFC doesn’t pay very well,” he told GrappleTalk Podcast.

“Anybody who accepts [fighters being underpaid] as a reality of the sport is sad and pathetic,” Kennedy went on. “I hope this isn’t the reality of the sport. If it is I should probably go do something else, like empty trash cans. I’d make more money than I do now.”

It didn’t take the middleweight long to regret his words, however, and he issued an apology to UFC brass for the interview through his facebook fan page yesterday. “I recently made comments regarding fighter pay. The intent of these statements was to highlight that professional fighters incur significant expense associated with their preparations to fight and that fighter compensation is still not on par with other major sports,” Kennedy began.

While I am fortunate to have various revenue streams associated with my business interests, most fighters do not have that luxury. When you spend training camps with great guys with amazing talents and you see them barely making ends meet, while simultaneously seeing athletes in other sports with far less character and a far smaller work ethic making exponentially more, you can get frustrated.

Unfortunately, I made statements that alluded to how the UFC in particular pays its athletes. This was particularly offensive as Zuffa has taken better care of me than any other organization, even giving me a bonus for being amusing on Twitter. My choice of words was poor, not properly informed, and did not match my intent. Additionally, my comments were taken out of context. I can tell you that I have been fighting longer than most people and I remember all too well the days when there was no regulation or standard for an MMA promotion. I fought many times in Mexico where the rules were negligible, there were no physicals, and being paid was a luxury we didn’t expect. Our sport was shunned and was considered ‘human cockfighting’. Today, we are on Fox. We have doctors and insurance. We make more money than the average American. And we get these things by playing a sport we love. The only reason this is possible is because of Zuffa. They have legitimized the sport and taken better care of the athletes than any other organization, and the trend is only improving, with athletes making three times what they made on average five years ago.

My comments were hurtful and inappropriate. I accept full responsibility for the statements and apologize to the UFC, Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, & Joe Silva as well as anyone I might have offended with my comments. Fighting for the UFC is an honor and a privilege. I look forward to putting this situation behind me and focusing on my upcoming fight with Roger Gracie.

There are two sets of things to take issue with in Kennedy’s twenty four-hour public relations whirlwind. First, his notion that UFC fighters are not paid “on par” with other sports.

Assuming that we ignore the importance of the fact that MMA has only really existed in North America for less than twenty years, as opposed to over a hundred for all the major sports, Kennedy is still wrong.

Sure, athletes in unionized major sports leagues like the NBA, NFL and MLB get paid a lot more than UFC athletes, at the low-end, the middle range and at the top. But that’s not a great comparison. Those players bargain collectively, as associations and unions. More often than not, union work is higher-paid work in most fields. If UFC fighters want the benefits of unionization, they should unionize.

In comparison to boxers, however, it is a simple truth that UFC fighters get paid more than most of their counterparts in boxing. There are maybe three or four professional boxers in the entire world that get paid more than the top UFC champions. Other than that, fighters on a UFC card usually get paid more than boxers on top cable and pay per view boxing cards. Top level professional MMA has a much healthier middle class than top level professional boxing and the UFC has probably created more new fighter millionaires than boxing has in the past ten years.

Kennedy, no stranger to sounding out of touch, also said that he could make more money emptying trash cans. Listen, I’m not saying that fighters and athletes and everyone in the world shouldn’t get more money for honest work than they currently receive. Go for it. If you want to go that direction, see the above advice on banding together to get better wages and treatment. But Kennedy’s garbage man comparison and complaint is pretty silly for two reasons.

First off, let’s say that garbage collectors make more than a mid-card level UFC fighter. What’s wrong with that? We actually need functioning garbage collection in modern, healthy society. I like watching Tim Kennedy fight but I sure as heck don’t need him as much as I need the local garbage man or woman to come pick up my bags of filth every Friday.

Second, if Kennedy is complaining about low pay and has identified an alternate career path where he could earn more, then why in the world doesn’t he switch careers? Kennedy is a decorated, elite war veteran. Want to bet that he couldn’t walk into most cities in the U.S. and get a streets and sanitation job easier than most? Deservedly, government jobs often consider past military service quite favorably in evaluating potential hires.

If Kennedy were a garbage man, he could still train and fight MMA, like he loves. Then he’d have that high-paying job he’s always wanted and still be able to practice MMA. Chances are, however, that Kennedy likes fighting in the UFC for other reasons as well – notably the fame and opportunities to fight the best in the world.

All that is one set of issues with this Kennedy story. The bigger one, however, is how quickly he wilted under pressure, felt or anticipated.

Maybe Kennedy, in the midst of a training camp, thinking of lesser paid fighter friends of his, said some out of touch things in regards to UFC pay. But, there’s nothing wrong with him advocating for even better pay, overall. What’s really disappointing is that Kennedy is apparently willing to denounce important positions of his so easily. In his apology, Kennedy said, that his “choice of words was poor” and “not properly informed.”

Kennedy has been an MMA pro for years. Why wasn’t his opinion “properly informed?” And, what could have possibly happened in just a few hours to make Kennedy’s perspective more informed? Also, his apology wasn’t just a change in “choice of words,” it was a philosophical about-face.

Tim, does the UFC pay well or doesn’t it? You should have an answer, even if it’s a personal one. And, if the answer to the question is that, no, they do not, why back down from defending the low-paid fighters that you said you were concerned about in the first place?

For a more well thought out, balanced, and less likely to be so quickly denied view of UFC pay, check out Nate Quarry’s recent interview with BloodyElbow.

In it, Quarry provides a nuanced, first-hand perspective on the UFC being both cut throat and generous, the balance between what fighters give to the organization and what the UFC gives to them, the value of competition in the MMA promotions business, the value of sponsorship money and the possibility of unionization. Check it out.