You might be asking yourself, why does it always seem like Nick Diaz is involved in some sort of controversy?Well, it’s because the Stockton native, for one reason or another, consistently manages to throw himself into the fray. Whether it’s recording …
You might be asking yourself, why does it always seem like Nick Diaz is involved in some sort of controversy?
Well, it’s because the Stockton native, for one reason or another, consistently manages to throw himself into the fray. Whether it’s recording street fights outside a local bar or throwing his friend’s TV off a balcony, Diaz is always up to something, both good and bad.
Looking to alleviate some of the attention of Diaz will be these men, who were also engaged in some memorable antics of their own.
UFC 1 is still an entertaining show to watch nearly two decades after the mixed martial arts competition debuted on pay-per-view in Denver on Nov. 12, 1993. Instead of focusing on who was the best fighter, UFC 1 was about determining which style of fig…
UFC 1 is still an entertaining show to watch nearly two decades after the mixed martial arts competition debuted on pay-per-view in Denver on Nov. 12, 1993.
Instead of focusing on who was the best fighter, UFC 1 was about determining which style of fighting was the greatest.
None of the fights made it past the five-minute mark, and that’s a good thing since the finalists would endure three fights in one night. That’s a full year’s schedule for some of today’s fighters.
1. Gerald Gordeau (savate) destroyed Telia Tuli (sumo).
Like a good sumo, Tuli rushed at Gordeau and pushed him to the outside of the Octagon. However, Gordeau pushed him down to a seated position and blasted him with a kick to the face.
Give credit to Tuli; once the cobwebs cleared, he wanted to keep fighting. After a period of confusion that lasted longer than the fight itself, the ref ruled that Gordeau had won by knockout.
2. Kevin Rosier (kickboxing) beat Zane Frazier (karate) by TKO.
These two weren’t even thinking about grappling. Without gloves, they were just blasting each other with bare-knuckle shots.
Late in the five-minute first round, both men ran out of gas, but Rosier gathered himself for a flurry of punches and stomps, and Frazier’s cornerman threw in the towel.
3. Royce Gracie (Brazilian jiu jitsu) beat Art Jimmerson (boxing) by submission.
Jimmerson wore a giant boxing glove on his left hand; he was hoping the fight would not go to the ground. He landed zero punches before Gracie took him down and choked him out.
4. Ken Shamrock (shoot fighting) beats Pat Smith (tae kwon do) by submission.
The Denver fans gave a hometown ovation to Smith. He was announced as having a record of 250-0 (whoa!).
Both men employed the exact same offense: headbutts then ankle locks. Shamrock’s ankle lock was better, and Smith tapped out.
5. In the first semifinal, Gerard Gordeau beat Kevin Rosier by TKO.
Gordeau somehow broke his hand in the first fight, so it was all taped up. Gordeau pounded Rosier against the fence and kept kicking and stomping him when he tried to get up.
Seeing that this scenario would not change, Rosier’s cornerman threw in the towel.
6. In the second semifinal, Royce Gracie beat Ken Shamrock by submission.
The announcers were drooling over the matchup and wishing it were the finals. Shamrock sprawled nicely out of Gracie’s takedown attempt and tried to get a leglock.
However, Gracie floated to the back and put Shamrock out with a rear naked choke.
Before the main event, Rorion Gracie presented an award to his father, Helio Gracie, for paving the way for the UFC with his development of Brazilian (Gracie) jiu-jitsu.
7. In the finals, Royce Gracie beat Gerard Gordeau by submission.
Gracie tried to take the bigger man down, but Gordeau refused and hung onto the fence. Gracie finally got the takedown and floated to the back.
The fans booed like crazy because they didn’t understand what was going on. Gracie secured the rear naked choke for the tapout, the tournament win and the giant $50,000 check.
After the fight, Gracie explained his fighting philosophy, “I don’t want to give him a chance to hit me. I want to win without getting hit.”
Jason Delucia beat Trent Jenkins by rear naked choke in an alternate bout that didn’t air.
Filed under: UFCIt probably tells us something that UFC president Dana White knew he hated ESPN’s Outside the Lines segment on fighter pay well before he saw it. One gets the sense that he hated the topic more than the source or the approach, and the U…
It probably tells us something that UFC president Dana White knew he hated ESPN’s Outside the Lines segment on fighter pay well before he saw it. One gets the sense that he hated the topic more than the source or the approach, and the UFC’s heavy-handed response to the story only confirms that this is a conversation the UFC would probably rather stop before it starts.
ESPN tells us that many UFC fighters are practically despondent about their pay, even if it can’t name any of them or produce any meaningful, verifiable financial figures that make the case. The piece questions Lorenzo Fertitta’s claim that the UFC pays somewhere “in the neighborhood” of half its revenue to fighters, as most major sports leagues do, but it can’t disprove it. And when ESPN’s John Barr says he’s spoken with “more than 20 current, former, and potential UFC fighters,” the savvy viewer is right to stop and ask just what he means by “potential” UFC fighters, and how many of the former fighters are guys like Ken Shamrock, who is the only fighter quoted in the piece, and who is, shall we say, not the most reliable or unbiased of sources on the topic.
In response, the UFC crafted a clever little piece of propaganda featuring interviews with fighters Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell, and Matt Serra, all of whom have nothing but positive things to say about how the UFC compensates its fighters. Shocking right? And here I thought that when the UFC showed up at Griffin’s house with a camera he’d have used the opportunity to unload on his employers with one bitter complaint after another. And who could have guessed that Liddell, who was given a cushy, do-nothing corporate gig with the UFC once his fighting days were finished, would be so supportive? Never saw that one coming, I tell you.
The UFC loves to tout its post-fight bonuses, all that off-the-books money that it gives away out of sheer generosity and appreciation, and it does so again in its video rebuttal. It’s true that the UFC literally gives away money that it doesn’t have to. I’ve talked to dozens of fighters who have told me stories of White writing them a check that they didn’t earn, contractually speaking. I’ve also talked to fighters who thought they went out of their way to hype a fight or put on a great show, only to have the UFC pat them on the back and send them on their way without the extra monetary appreciation they were expecting.
The current bonus system keeps fighters in a constant state of financial anticipation. They know the big money is out there somewhere, but unlike in most employer/employee relationships, it isn’t laid out in print anywhere exactly what they need to do to get their hands on it. In that sense, fighters are like a primitive tribe of people worshipping inscrutable gods. They keep putting different offerings on the altar, trying different dances to make it rain. Sometimes it rains, and sometimes it doesn’t. Some guys are thirstier than others. Some guys are better dancers.
One thing the ESPN piece and the UFC response have in common is a lack of detailed financial information. For a conversation entirely about money, there aren’t a lot of numbers being thrown around here. ESPN would probably blame the UFC for that, arguing that because it doesn’t release information about how much it makes and how much it pays out, we can’t really know whether Fertitta’s claims are accurate. That’s true, but as Fertitta points out, the UFC doesn’t have to release any of that information, and it’s definitely not going to invite a closer scrutiny of its books if it doesn’t have to. What company would?
But this argument gets us nowhere. ESPN says fighters want more money, which isn’t at all hard to believe. So do NFL and NBA players. The difference is how they go about getting it.
It’s easy to swat the UFC upside the head about fighter pay and ask why it isn’t sharing a bigger slice of the revenue pie with fighters, but it’s also naive. Why should the UFC be the lone company in this capitalist dogfight of ours to simply decide, out of sheer altruism, to give more and take less? If fighters are really unhappy with the deal they’re getting from the UFC, they need to do what athletes in every other major pro sport have done: form a union.
What would it take to form a fighter union? The same thing it takes in any industry: a willingness to stand together, and the participation of a few key people. If Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, and Anderson Silva banded together with a few of the lower-tier fighters, the UFC would have little choice but to recognize their union. If it didn’t — if it decided instead to cut its top three champions for daring to organize — it would bring such an avalanche of bad publicity down upon itself that it would wish it had signed a blank check instead. A mess like that could easily end in congressional hearings and a sponsor exodus, and no one at the UFC wants either.
Then again, what do GSP, Jones, and Silva need a union for? They’re doing fine as it is. They’re rich and well taken care of by the UFC, so why speak up and potentially cost themselves money? Why should they care what Octagon newbies are getting paid?
In other words, the people who are most capable of creating a union and addressing issues like fighter pay and general transparency are the people who need it least. It’s pointless to address these complaints to the UFC, which isn’t going to simply decide to give away more money just to keep reporters away. Instead, bring it up with GSP. Bring it up with Dan Henderson and Frankie Edgar. Ask them if they’re willing to do what’s necessary to secure a better future for the fighters of tomorrow, even if it means angering the UFC brass today.
That might be a harder sell in the fight business than it is among pro baseball or football players. Those guys are used to working together against a common foe, and maybe that makes it easier to unite them against greedy owners. MMA fighters, on the other hand, are more accustomed to a certain brand of self-reliance. They’re used to a world where there’s only one champ in each division, one man sitting at the head of the table and eating his fill for as long as he can hold on to the chair. They’re all certain that they’ll be that man some day, so none are eager to complain that he’s the only one getting a decent meal. You come into that world and tell them to unite in service of the fighters they either don’t know or don’t care about, and you might not get such a warm reception.
But this is how it’s gone in every pro sport. The NFL players of today might enjoy great salaries, solid pension plans, and health care for their later years when the bill for all they’ve done to their bodies comes due — all things that UFC fighters need and deserve — but they didn’t get it by waiting around for the owners to give it up voluntarily. It never works that way. Not in any business.
If fighters want to do something about their pay and their treatment in the UFC, it’s up to them to join together and make it happen. For that, they need powerful leaders who don’t need them. If those leaders decide it’s not worth it, that they’re doing just fine on their own, then at least we’ll have our answer. But asking the UFC when it’s going to fork over more money to fighters is like asking a CEO when he’s going to give himself a pay cut so factory workers can get a raise. Change won’t come on its own, via some self-imposed sense of fairness. It’s going to take a struggle, and that struggle is going to have to begin with the fighters.
Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFCSunday morning marked the airing of an Outside the Lines segment on ESPN that was denounced by UFC President Dana White before he had even seen it — a show that presented the UFC’s pay model as one that richly rewards …
Sunday morning marked the airing of an Outside the Lines segment on ESPN that was denounced by UFC President Dana White before he had even seen it — a show that presented the UFC’s pay model as one that richly rewards a handful of favorite stars while paying the majority of fighters as interchangeable drones.
White has already promised a response, and he’ll surely say that ESPN’s report contained incomplete information about how much the company pays its fighters. And he’ll surely be right, for the simple reason that the UFC, like many private businesses, keeps what it pays its workers confidential. ESPN deserves credit for attempting to uncover the closely guarded secret of how much UFC fighters actually make, but specific dollar amounts were lacking in this report.
For all the work that went into the Outside the Lines report, we still don’t know how much the UFC really pays its fighters.
“Outside the Lines has spoken with more than 20 current, former and potential UFC fighters, as well as agents and promoters,” ESPN’s John Barr said as he strolled around a cage in the televised segment. “To a person, they say UFC fighters have not received their fair share of the company’s rapidly increasing revenue. Nearly all of them also refused to speak on camera, for fear the UFC would blackball them.”
But the fact that ESPN couldn’t get any active fighters to speak — and especially to reveal specific dollar amounts — was the biggest flaw in the report. The report did make a strong case that highly paid UFC fighters make far more than low-level fighters make. In that respect the UFC follows a pay model similar to that of Hollywood studios, where a handful of stars make the bulk of the money, and the bit players are left with much less.
And while UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta claimed that the UFC pays its fighters in the neighborhood of 50 percent of all the promotion’s revenues, ESPN’s investigation made a convincing case that the UFC actually pays less than that.
However, there were also some weaknesses of ESPN’s reporting, which pegged the actual amount the UFC pays its fighters as “roughly 10 percent of the revenue.”
ESPN.com initially reported that the median annual income for UFC fighters was $17,000 to $23,000 a year, citing figures compiled by Rob Maysey of the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association. ESPN later corrected that report and said the $17,000 to $23,000 figure was actually the median pay per fight, not per year. However, even those corrected numbers do not appear to include sponsorships, bonuses and other forms of income that UFC fighters make.
And median pay per fight isn’t necessarily a particularly telling statistic. Consider a low-level UFC newcomer who signs a contract that guarantees him $6,000 to show, and another $6,000 to win for his first fight, then $8,000 for his second fight and $10,000 for his third. If that fighter fights three times, wins all three fights and earns a $75,000 Knockout of the Night bonus in his third fight, his median pay per fight would only be $16,000. But his total pay for the three fights would be $123,000, for an average of $41,000 a fight.
For an example of an entry-level fighter who has cashed in big time with bonuses, look at Edson Barboza, who signed with the UFC in 2010 after having six pro fights in small regional promotions. Barboza’s “show money” is reportedly just $6,000 a fight. But Barboza has won all four of his fights, meaning he also got a $6,000 win bonus for all four fights, and Barboza has received three Fight of the Night bonuses and one Knockout of the Night bonus (including both Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night on Saturday at UFC 142). Thanks to the UFC’s bonus-heavy pay structure, Barboza’s total take for his first four UFC fights is at least $348,000, even before any sponsorships or other sources of income.
Even without bonuses, entry-level fighters aren’t necessarily doing too badly. One such fighter is UFC featherweight Jim Hettes. Hettes was an unknown in MMA circles, fighting on the regional scene, until he caught a break in August and signed with the UFC on a deal that paid him $6,000 to show and $6,000 to win on his first fight, and then $8,000 to show and $8,000 to win on his second fight. Hettes won both fights, for a total take of $28,000, and is now looking like one of the brightest young prospects in the featherweight division.
For a 24-year-old like Hettes, making $28,000 in five months while fighting in the UFC, with a good chance of making a lot more than that in the future, is a dream come true. ESPN didn’t quote any active fighters complaining about their pay on the record and indicated that the inability to find such fighters was a sign that fighters were scared to speak out. But maybe the reality is most UFC fighters are OK with what they make.
In fact, when low-level fighters are released from the UFC because of losses they suffer in the Octagon, they almost universally express a desire to win enough fights in other promotions to earn the right to return to the UFC — which strongly suggests that they don’t view the contracts they’ve just been released from as onerous.
The handful of mid-level fighters who have been released from the UFC for reasons having to do with issues outside the Octagon (fighters like Jon Fitch, Nate Marquardt and Miguel Torres) also generally apologize for their transgressions and ask to return to the UFC. Again, that suggests that the contracts they were released from were better than the contracts they could earn in other promotions.
And the few prominent fighters who have become free agents, like Tito Ortiz, have generally decided when the dust settled that the grass was greener inside the Octagon than out of it. UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock appeared in the Outside the Lines report, and it may not have been clear to viewers who aren’t MMA fans that Shamrock made millions of dollars in the UFC, or that Shamrock left the promotion because he wasn’t good enough to win inside the Octagon anymore, not because he objected to the terms of his contract. That was clarified, however, in the panel discussion that took place after Barr’s taped Outside the Lines report.
It is true that a handful of well-known fighters have been able to leave the UFC and make more money elsewhere. That includes former heavyweight champions Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia, who both left the UFC to sign with Affliction in 2008. But Affliction fell apart after putting on just two fight cards, which suggests that its higher-paying business model didn’t work.
ESPN’s report would have been strengthened by addressing other promotions’ business models, including not only Affliction but also Bellator and other smaller American MMA organizations. The UFC is by far the biggest MMA promotion and therefore deserves to have by far the greatest scrutiny, but a comparison of the UFC’s pay scale with other promotions’ pay scales would have provided some valuable context.
Ultimately, as former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez said on Outside the Lines, “The UFC gives you the best opportunity.” It would be great to see more opportunities for more fighters, but at the moment, even if UFC pay is lacking, it beats the alternatives in MMA.
Although the UFC has only been around since 1993, it has undergone some major changes since its early days.Before Anderson Silva became the top fighter in the world, before Jon Jones became one of the most talked-about fighters in the world and before …
Although the UFC has only been around since 1993, it has undergone some major changes since its early days.
Before Anderson Silva became the top fighter in the world, before Jon Jones became one of the most talked-about fighters in the world and before Dana White and Zuffa became the owners to the now powerhouse organization, the UFC was a tournament where fighters of different martial arts disciplines fought to see who was the best.
Although the UFC would soon move out of the tournament style, it was still a much different product than what we’re used to seeing today.
As much as the UFC and MMA as a whole have changed, we should not forget its early fighters because they laid out the groundwork for what it has become today.
Here’s a look at the top 10 fighters from the pre-Zuffa UFC.
(Severn and Shamrock: They were like the Michael Jackson and Prince of big, white grapplers who competed in early ’90s no-holds-barred matches.)
Happy Movember, everybody! In honor of the hairiest month of the year, we convinced UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn to write a weekly column for CagePotato.com. For the first installment, he plucked some topics from our Facebook page, but he’s up for answering anything about his life, career, and moustache, so drop your own suggestions in the comments section. Visit DanSevern.com and Dan’s Facebook page for more Beast-related updates, and join the CagePotato Movember team if you want to help support a good cause!
Matthew Poulin asks: How many fights do you still want?
Dan Severn: It’s not so much how many fights I want to have. I want specific fights right now. I’ve had some verbal offers but haven’t had the opportunity to bring some of these matches to life. Two particular matches I’m still interested are ones with Mark Coleman and Ken Shamrock. Realistically, I think that 2012 will be my final year as an MMA competitor. So whatever gets done gets done; whatever doesn’t, I’ll have to learn to live with I guess.
(Severn and Shamrock: They were like the Michael Jackson and Prince of big, white grapplers who competed in early ’90s no-holds-barred matches.)
Happy Movember, everybody! In honor of the hairiest month of the year, we convinced UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn to write a weekly column for CagePotato.com. For the first installment, he plucked some topics from our Facebook page, but he’s up for answering anything about his life, career, and moustache, so drop your own suggestions in the comments section. Visit DanSevern.com and Dan’s Facebook page for more Beast-related updates, and join the CagePotato Movember team if you want to help support a good cause!
Matthew Poulin asks: How many fights do you still want?
Dan Severn: It’s not so much how many fights I want to have. I want specific fights right now. I’ve had some verbal offers but haven’t had the opportunity to bring some of these matches to life. Two particular matches I’m still interested are ones with Mark Coleman and Ken Shamrock. Realistically, I think that 2012 will be my final year as an MMA competitor. So whatever gets done gets done; whatever doesn’t, I’ll have to learn to live with I guess.
Matthew Gingerfunky Hoggart asks: Do you regret taking your last fight?
I can’t regret taking the fight but it didn’t happen at the best time in my career. What the fans see is one aspect but they don’t have a clue as to what I endured for 3 ½ to 4 months before the fight in terms of taking care of my father. Prior to my last fight, my siblings and I were providing home hospice-type care for my father and since I have the most flexible schedule, I was the primary caregiver during the normal working day times. On weekends I would leave late Friday and would be back late Sunday to resume my duties. And I would not change that for the world.
Todd Levin asks: How did you come up with “The Severn”? It’s a very useful wrestling move that is not widely known.
Todd, I don’t even know what you’re asking me. If it’s a technique that you think I created, I’m not sure what you’re referring to specifically. I apologize. I do so many seminars and people are blown away by the mechanics of what I show. The unfortunate thing about a lot of the things I do is it’s not fan friendly because the spectators cannot see my opponent’s pain. But trust me; most people are blown away by the amount of pain that I can inflict. And there will come a day when they will realize what a 53 year old guy can really do.
Ben Silverfox Latham asks: I’d like to know what you think about the way the UFC has changed since you were in it all those years ago, and while you were in it did you ever think it could become so huge?
Okay well Ben, it had to change or else we would be thinking about it in past tense. There was a lot pressure that was coming down from athletic commissions, legislators and politicians who were looking to change the “No Holds Barred” style. The concessions that were made have created the byproduct that is mixed martial arts. As far as the excitement level and the potential for greatness…after watching the first two UFCs on VHS, as I watched other friends inside my living room react to what they were watching, I knew that there was something there. In some ways our society has advanced, but when it boils right down to it, there is a primal, prehistoric captivation about violent acts for people. For example, why does everybody slow down when they see an accident? Nobody admits that they want to see anything – even to themselves — but they do.
When I was watching in the beginning, I was able to view the pain. So as I was watching, I wasn’t watching as a fan to see what kind of outfit the fighters were coming out in or what their walkout music was. I was looking at the actual mechanics. What were the competitors actually bringing to the table…are they strikers? Are they grapplers? I think that fighters see things totally different. You study weakness and strengths of the competitors compared to your own set of skills.
Mike Skytte asks: What do you think of the development of today’s fighters?
Fighters will always develop according to the rules. For example, if they were to make any rule change – regardless of what it may be – you would see the athletes evolve in a different direction. Take the example of time limits. If there was unlimited time or if there were stalemates, that would change how athletes would prepare. The rules really dictate what the fighters are able to do and train for. Certain things that I teach right now are that you are able to exploit some of the rules in the way that you attack or counter-attack in the heat of the action, if the way that you apply the attack is disguised. There is black and white in the sport but there is also a lot of gray.
UFC 1 is still an entertaining show to watch nearly two decades after the mixed martial arts competition debuted on pay-per-view in Denver on Nov. 12, 1993.
It probably tells us something that UFC president Dana White knew he hated 
Sunday morning marked the airing of an Outside the Lines segment on ESPN that was denounced by 