Filed under: UFC, NewsAtlanta’s UFC 145 has rapidly taken shape over the last 24 hours, with most of the fights originally scheduled for Montreal shifted to the April 21 card.
But it also has some additions. Among the newest bouts signed is a bantamw…
Atlanta’s UFC 145 has rapidly taken shape over the last 24 hours, with most of the fights originally scheduled for Montreal shifted to the April 21 card.
But it also has some additions. Among the newest bouts signed is a bantamweight tilt with rising star Michael McDonald taking on former WEC champ Miguel Torres. The UFC confirmed the matchup on Friday afternoon.
Just 21 years, McDonald (14-1) is considered one of MMA‘s brightest lighter weight prospects, and he’s won all three of his octagon bouts so far, most recently knocking out Alex Soto in just 56 seconds at UFC 139.
Torres (39-4) is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Nick Pace on the same card. Shortly thereafter, Torres was released from the UFC after making offensive comments on Twitter. Within three weeks, however, Torres had met with company president Dana White, who decided that Torres had shown remorse for his mistake and he was re-signed.
In addition to Torres-McDonald, eight bouts that were supposed to take place on the canceled Montreal show were moved over.
All told, 10 fights have been announced for the show, which is quite conspicuously missing a main event. With light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones recently telling UFC brass he’s ready to step back into training, a Jones title defense is a distinct possibility, though the UFC has given no indication of that happening.
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.
Ariel Helwani caught up with Dana White ahead of tonight’s UFC 141 event and he asked the UFC president where about the growing opinion that Jon Fitch is being overlooked in the UFC welterweight title picture. According to White, who says he’s in the mix, regardless of Fitch’s current streak and the fact that he only has one loss and one draw in his past 20 fights, unless he makes some drastic changes to his game, he likely won’t main event on a pay-per-view let alone fight for the welterweight strap any time soon.
“You hear the same thing from everybody about Jon Fitch: ‘If I want to get to sleep and I can’t get to sleep at night, I’ll put in a Jon Fitch fight.’ Whatever you think, Jon Fitch is one of the best 170-pounders in the world. And yes, he’s in the hunt for a title again, but everybody… find one person that will tell you they love a Jon Fitch fight, it’s the most exciting thing they’ve ever seen and they just get so excited for it. So when you say that you have a fight like Cerrone and Diaz on the card and a guy with a record like his is on and people aren’t jumping out of their seats for that fight, I think Jon needs to have a little bit of a… he’s got to be a little honest with himself and have a little bit of a reality check when he talks about stuff like [fighters talking their way into title fights.”
(The Interweb never lies.)
Ariel Helwani caught up with Dana White ahead of tonight’s UFC 141 event and he asked the UFC president where about the growing opinion that Jon Fitch is being overlooked in the UFC welterweight title picture. According to White, who says he’s in the mix, regardless of Fitch’s current streak and the fact that he only has one loss and one draw in his past 20 fights, unless he makes some drastic changes to his game, he likely won’t main event on a pay-per-view let alone fight for the welterweight strap any time soon.
“You hear the same thing from everybody about Jon Fitch: ‘If I want to get to sleep and I can’t get to sleep at night, I’ll put in a Jon Fitch fight.’ Whatever you think, Jon Fitch is one of the best 170-pounders in the world. And yes, he’s in the hunt for a title again, but everybody… find one person that will tell you they love a Jon Fitch fight, it’s the most exciting thing they’ve ever seen and they just get so excited for it. So when you say that you have a fight like Cerrone and Diaz on the card and a guy with a record like his is on and people aren’t jumping out of their seats for that fight, I think Jon needs to have a little bit of a… he’s got to be a little honest with himself and have a little bit of a reality check when he talks about stuff like [fighters talking their way into title fights.”
Check out the entire interview that includes Dana’s explanation of what led to Miguel Torres being re-hired and his thoughts on the top two fights on tonight’s card, after the jump.
“Dana says Torres is back. Torres has donated money to local rape centers, visited them. Dana says Torres was very remorseful…Dana says Torres handled his business like a man and no one told him to do it. Torres very emotional.”
In the latest example of Dana White releasing fighters in a fit of anger before changing his mind (see also: Jon Fitch, Karo Parisyan), the UFC president confirmed at today’s “Lesnar vs. Overeem” press conference that Miguel Torres‘s tweet-related firing was more like a three-week suspension. Torres apparently did enough to get back in White’s good graces after his rape-joke-gone-awry, and can now return to his rightful place in the UFC bantamweight division.
We’re glad this story got a happy ending. Now can Gerald Harris and Natasha Wicks get some love or what?
“Dana says Torres is back. Torres has donated money to local rape centers, visited them. Dana says Torres was very remorseful…Dana says Torres handled his business like a man and no one told him to do it. Torres very emotional.”
In the latest example of Dana White releasing fighters in a fit of anger before changing his mind (see also: Jon Fitch, Karo Parisyan), the UFC president confirmed at today’s “Lesnar vs. Overeem” press conference that Miguel Torres‘s tweet-related firing was more like a three-week suspension. Torres apparently did enough to get back in White’s good graces after his rape-joke-gone-awry, and can now return to his rightful place in the UFC bantamweight division.
We’re glad this story got a happy ending. Now can Gerald Harris and Natasha Wicks get some love or what?
LAS VEGAS — Watch below as Miguel Torres and his manager Glenn Robinson discuss how Torres was rehired by the UFC, what he has been up to since he was fired earlier this month, and his future with the company.
After the jump, watch as UFC president Dana White announces to the media that Torres has been brought back to the company. White and Torres then discuss the incident at length.
LAS VEGAS — Watch below as Miguel Torres and his manager Glenn Robinson discuss how Torres was rehired by the UFC, what he has been up to since he was fired earlier this month, and his future with the company.
After the jump, watch as UFC president Dana White announces to the media that Torres has been brought back to the company. White and Torres then discuss the incident at length.
LAS VEGAS — Miguel Torres has paid his price, served his penance, and his sins are now forgiven. Just 20 days after being fired from the UFC for an offensive tweet, UFC president Dana White appeared alongside Torres following Wednesday’s UFC 141 pre-fight press conference to announce that the former WEC bantamweight champ is officially back in the organization.
“I was on vacation the last ten days, and his manager texted me and asked if they could come meet with me today,” White told reporters. “So I said yes — none of this was planned or anything — I said yes, and he came in this morning and sat me down and basically said, since the incident happened, he’s gone and reached out to every rape crisis center in Chicago and met with the people who run it and sat down and talked to them. He’s donated money to all the rape crisis centers. He’s been taking rape sensitivity classes, etcetera, etcetera.”
A soft-spoken Torres said he visited five different rape crisis centers in the Chicago area, donating money and talking with the people there about the power his words have, even in an off-hand attempt at humor on Twitter, he said.
“I got educated, basically,” said Torres. “I got put to school.”
White said that Torres undertook that endeavor entirely on his own, and with no prompting or promises from the UFC.
“He wasn’t told to do it,” White said. “He wasn’t told, if you do this, we’ll think about bringing you back or if you do this, you’ll come back. He wasn’t told anything, because we never talked.”
Torres again apologized to the people he’d offended with his tweet about a “rape van,” and thanked the supporters who stood behind him. As for what he would have done had the UFC not taken him back, he said, there was no back-up plan.
“When I got cut, it showed me that what I say on Twitter, what I say on social media is very powerful. I took a lot of heat for what I said. I manned up and I took it on the chin. I realized that words are very powerful, and I’m very sorry. I know what I say can hurt people.”
If anyone could sympathize with a man tormented by the swift retribution for controversial public remarks, it’s White. He made repeated reference to a video blog he put out in 2009 where he used homosexual epithets to describe anonymous sources in an article by reporter Loretta Hunt, and said that experience still lingers with him long after he issued a public apology.
“It’s hard to explain what you go through when something like this happens,” said White. “I’ve been there and done it. And then you get labeled. I’m labeled as a homophobe. They still come after me for that. It’s the furthest thing from the truth. And if I was, I’d tell you, trust me.”
But now that Torres has made peace with the UFC and gotten himself back on the roster, what is White planning to ensure these incidents don’t happen again? Not much, as it turns out. At least, not officially. If seeing one of their own get cut for such a questionable use of social media didn’t make enough of an impact, fighters might have to find out for themselves on a case-by-case basis, White suggested.
When fighters are trying to figure out what will and won’t get them in trouble, he said, “It’s common sense. And listen, sometimes we’ve got to go through stuff like this to realize it.”
In other words, no formal policy for UFC fighters on matters like these is in the works. And why not?
“Because I don’t want to,” White said.
“I was criticized for cutting him. Now I’ll be criticized for bringing him back,” said the UFC president. “The bottom line is I don’t give a [expletive] what anybody thinks or what anybody says. I don’t give a [expletive] what your opinion is, I’m going to do this the way I want to do it.”
LAS VEGAS — Miguel Torres has paid his price, served his penance, and his sins are now forgiven. Just 20 days after being fired from the UFC for an offensive tweet, UFC president Dana White appeared alongside Torres following Wednesday’s UFC 141 pre-fight press conference to announce that the former WEC bantamweight champ is officially back in the organization.
“I was on vacation the last ten days, and his manager texted me and asked if they could come meet with me today,” White told reporters. “So I said yes — none of this was planned or anything — I said yes, and he came in this morning and sat me down and basically said, since the incident happened, he’s gone and reached out to every rape crisis center in Chicago and met with the people who run it and sat down and talked to them. He’s donated money to all the rape crisis centers. He’s been taking rape sensitivity classes, etcetera, etcetera.”
A soft-spoken Torres said he visited five different rape crisis centers in the Chicago area, donating money and talking with the people there about the power his words have, even in an off-hand attempt at humor on Twitter, he said.
“I got educated, basically,” said Torres. “I got put to school.”
White said that Torres undertook that endeavor entirely on his own, and with no prompting or promises from the UFC.
“He wasn’t told to do it,” White said. “He wasn’t told, if you do this, we’ll think about bringing you back or if you do this, you’ll come back. He wasn’t told anything, because we never talked.”
Torres again apologized to the people he’d offended with his tweet about a “rape van,” and thanked the supporters who stood behind him. As for what he would have done had the UFC not taken him back, he said, there was no back-up plan.
“When I got cut, it showed me that what I say on Twitter, what I say on social media is very powerful. I took a lot of heat for what I said. I manned up and I took it on the chin. I realized that words are very powerful, and I’m very sorry. I know what I say can hurt people.”
If anyone could sympathize with a man tormented by the swift retribution for controversial public remarks, it’s White. He made repeated reference to a video blog he put out in 2009 where he used homosexual epithets to describe anonymous sources in an article by reporter Loretta Hunt, and said that experience still lingers with him long after he issued a public apology.
“It’s hard to explain what you go through when something like this happens,” said White. “I’ve been there and done it. And then you get labeled. I’m labeled as a homophobe. They still come after me for that. It’s the furthest thing from the truth. And if I was, I’d tell you, trust me.”
But now that Torres has made peace with the UFC and gotten himself back on the roster, what is White planning to ensure these incidents don’t happen again? Not much, as it turns out. At least, not officially. If seeing one of their own get cut for such a questionable use of social media didn’t make enough of an impact, fighters might have to find out for themselves on a case-by-case basis, White suggested.
When fighters are trying to figure out what will and won’t get them in trouble, he said, “It’s common sense. And listen, sometimes we’ve got to go through stuff like this to realize it.”
In other words, no formal policy for UFC fighters on matters like these is in the works. And why not?
“Because I don’t want to,” White said.
“I was criticized for cutting him. Now I’ll be criticized for bringing him back,” said the UFC president. “The bottom line is I don’t give a [expletive] what anybody thinks or what anybody says. I don’t give a [expletive] what your opinion is, I’m going to do this the way I want to do it.”
Atlanta’s UFC 145 has rapidly taken shape over the last 24 hours, with most of the fights originally scheduled for Montreal shifted to the April 21 card. 
Sunday morning marked the airing of an Outside the Lines segment on ESPN that was denounced by 
LAS VEGAS —