Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFCUFC President Dana White promised before ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported on fighter pay that the UFC would release a video of Lorenzo Fertitta’s full, uncut interview with ESPN. But what the UFC actually posted online…
UFC President Dana White promised before ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported on fighter pay that the UFC would release a video of Lorenzo Fertitta’s full, uncut interview with ESPN. But what the UFC actually posted online on Monday was something more than that — it was a full-on rebuttal of the Outside the Lines report that featured not only Fertitta’s comments but also comments from White and some of the UFC’s fighters.
White introduced the UFC’s video by referring to the Outside the Lines report as a “piece of trash” and “one-sided.” And while Outside the Lines is generally well-respected for producing high-quality sports journalism, White also said he doesn’t respect the kind of journalism that ESPN does.
“They’re dirty, they lie, and they never really give you all the facts,” White said.
The UFC’s response makes the case that the pay scale in the UFC is better than the ESPN report would have had viewers believe, noting that many UFC fighters have become rich for what they did inside the Octagon. However, the Outside the Lines report didn’t dispute that — Outside the Lines acknowledged that the UFC’s best draws are doing well financially. Outside the Lines was more concerned with how much the entry-level fighters are making.
Where the UFC’s rebuttal report is lacking is in offering any specifics about how much money the low-tiered fighters are making. Fighters like Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Matt Serra are featured saying they’re satisfied with their pay, but those three guys are popular former champions. There still isn’t a lot of information available about how much entry-level fighters are making. Fertitta says specific payroll numbers are not something the UFC is interested in revealing.
“We’re not hiding anything from anybody, it’s just that we don’t publish it for everybody to see,” Fertitta says. “We’re not a public company. There’s no reason for us to do that.”
The strongest part of the UFC’s response comes at the very end, where Ken Shamrock is shown after his final UFC fight talking about how much money he made in the UFC. Shamrock was featured on ESPN talking about how fighters don’t get paid enough by the UFC, so that quote from Shamrock is a strong rebuttal.
But featuring Shamrock is something of a distraction from the real issue at hand. The issue isn’t whether well-known fighters like Shamrock are making good money, it’s whether the undercard fighters are making good money.
The UFC has also chosen not to release information about how much fighters are making from sources like sponsorships and pay-per-view bonuses. For some fighters, those sources of income represent more than what they make in their purses. But we don’t know for sure which fighters are getting those kinds of bonuses because the UFC has chosen to keep that information private.
Ultimately, Outside the Lines and the ESPN response offered two sides of a story. And neither side has told the whole story.
UPDATE: Later on Monday the UFC posted the entire 47-minute interview with Fertitta on YouTube. That video is below.
Hours after ESPN’s Outside the Lines aired an investigation of the way the UFC pays its fighters, the UFC released its own video of a portion of UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta’s interview with ESPN — a portion that di…
Hours after ESPN’s Outside the Lines aired an investigation of the way the UFC pays its fighters, the UFC released its own video of a portion of UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta’s interview with ESPN — a portion that didn’t make it on the air, in which Fertitta said UFC fighters make better money than boxers who fight on ESPN.
In that interview, Fertitta points out that ESPN is in a better financial position than the UFC, and yet boxers who appear on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights make less money than fighters who appear on basic cable fight cards in the UFC.
“ESPN’s gonna make $2.8 billion,” Fertitta said. “ESPN — do you know what fighters make on ESPN fights? There was a guy who walked away in this last fight here in Vegas. … He walked away with $275 for a four-round fight.”
Fertitta said that compared with what those boxers make, the UFC’s typical entry-level fighter pay of $6,000 to show and another $6,000 if they win is a good contract.
“I think six and six is pretty good compared to that,” Fertitta said. “There’s multiple guys on those ESPN cards that make in the hundreds of dollars. I can tell you that our fights that we put on cable, on Spike TV or on Versus, we pay ten times to the fighters what ESPN pays to their fighters. Ten times. And we don’t make $2.8 billion. I can tell you that right now.”
ESPN and the UFC aren’t completely comparable, as the UFC is a promoter, while ESPN is a broadcaster that pays a license fee to boxing promoters. And ESPN reporter John Barr acknowledged in the Outside the Lines piece that entry-level UFC pay is “far in excess of the paydays for many boxers who, at the lowest levels, fight for hundreds of dollars a night.”
But Fertitta makes a fair point: Will Outside the Lines also investigate how much the boxing promoters who do business with ESPN are paying their boxers?
Fighter pay is an important issue that should be tackled by journalists. But it’s an issue in both boxing and MMA, and ESPN’s report could have been strengthened by providing more context by contrasting the pay of UFC fighters with the pay of boxers.
UFC President Dana White said that his company taped Fertitta’s entire interview. It remains to be seen whether the full, uncut interview will be made available to the public, either by the UFC or by ESPN.
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.
The first international season of The Ultimate Fighter will be available on American television.
UFC President Dana White said on ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas that although the UFC isn’t ready to make an official announcement yet, the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil is slated to air on Fuel TV, which White hailed as one example of why the UFC’s new television deal with fights on Fox, FX and Fuel is a major plus for UFC fans.
“The UFC has so much content that even Spike, if you look at what a huge percentage of their content we used to be, we still needed more,” White said. “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil will air on Fuel TV. All this unique content that we’re doing in other parts of the world, Fuel TV is going to take. I’ve been saying for the last six months, if you’re a UFC fan and you really love the UFC, it’s impossible not to have Fuel.”
It’s not yet known whether the Brazilian season of the UFC’s reality show will be taped in advance, as past seasons have been, or whether fights will be shown live, as the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter on FX will be.
The UFC has announced that Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort will coach against each other on the Brazilian reality show and then fight against each other at the end of the season, and the Brazilian season will conclude with a live Ultimate Fighter Finale, just as the American show always has. And American fans will be able to watch it all, if they’re in the minority of households that have Fuel TV.
Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFC, Bellator, NewsSpike TV announced on Tuesday that beginning Friday, March 2, from 9:00 p.m. to midnight ET/PT it will air highlights from the past fourteen seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays…
Spike TV announced on Tuesday that beginning Friday, March 2, from 9:00 p.m. to midnight ET/PT it will air highlights from the past fourteen seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays,” as they are calling it, will be televised at the same time as TUF 15 live on FX, which debuts March 9.
The move comes as no surprise as Spike aired UFC programming on its network at the same time as the UFC’s debut on FOX and has already announced that it will do the same during the UFC’s second show on FOX on Jan. 28.
Interestingly enough, though, Bellator Fighting Championships, which is owned by Spike TV’s parent company, Viacom, will debut its sixth season on MTV2 on March 2, as well. However, according to David Schwarz, Spike TV’s Vice President of Communications, MTV2 has not decided which time slot it will use to air Bellator events. That could very well be based on the time slot FX uses to air TUF 15 next year.
“We have to monetize the library,” Schwarz said when asked about Spike’s decision to counter UFC programming on FOX. “The UFC prefers that we keep the library and run the library.”
Spike has the right to air old UFC programming for one more year before its contract with the promotion expires. The UFC could buy back the library to prohibit this from happening, but UFC president Dana White has already stated publicly that he is not interested in doing so.
Spike announced recently that Bellator will move to its airwaves come 2013.
Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFC, StrikeforceShowtime and Strikeforce have agreed to a new deal for more fights on the premium cable network, an announcement that comes as something of a surprise following months of speculation that the UFC would comp…
Showtime and Strikeforce have agreed to a new deal for more fights on the premium cable network, an announcement that comes as something of a surprise following months of speculation that the UFC would completely absorb the promotion it purchased early this year.
That news will have a wide-ranging impact on the mixed martial arts world, including the fighters, the promoters, the networks and the fans. We examine who the winners and losers are in the new Strikeforce-Showtime deal below.
Winner: Strikeforce women’s champions Cris Cyborg and Miesha Tate It was a little jarring to hear UFC President Dana White, who’s far from the biggest supporter of women’s MMA, talk on the conference call announcing the new Strikeforce-Showtime deal about how great this will be for female fighters. But he’s right: Showtime made a specific point in this announcement of singling out Cyborg and Tate as champions who would be involved in big events going forward. The UFC isn’t ready to feature women’s MMA, but Strikeforce and Showtime are.
Loser: Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez White insisted that Melendez is excited about the opportunities he has ahead of him to continue defending his Strikeforce belt, starting on Saturday night against Jorge Masvidal. That may be true, but it’s also true that Melendez is a great competitor who craves top-level competition, and he’s just not going to get that outside the Octagon. If Melendez beats Masvidal, he’d be very worthy of the next UFC lightweight title shot, against the winner of the upcoming Frankie Edgar-Ben Henderson fight. Instead, Melendez will remain in Strikeforce, no doubt putting on solid performances — but not getting the opportunity to do what he really wants to do, which is prove that he’s the best lightweight in the world.
Winner: Showtime Even though the new Strikeforce won’t be quite as good as the old Strikeforce (the UFC has, after all, already taken away some of the biggest stars, like Alistair Overeem, Dan Henderson, Cung Le, Jake Shields and Nick Diaz), this deal still means that Showtime will be the home of the biggest names in MMA outside the UFC. As a subscriber-based business, Showtime is less interested in attracting broad audiences than in attracting the kinds of loyal viewers who are willing to pay for content. That perfectly describes hard-core MMA fans: The people who love the sport really love the sport and are willing to show that love on their cable bills. Keeping Strikeforce means keeping tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of MMA fans who only subscribe to Showtime to watch Strikeforce.
Loser: MTV2, Spike, HDNet and any other network airing MMA It’s already tough to get attention in the MMA media world if you’re not with the UFC, and for MTV2 (current home of Bellator), Spike (future home of Bellator), HDNet (home of several smaller and international promotions) and any other channel that’s thinking about getting into the MMA business, keeping Strikeforce alive on Showtime makes it tougher.
Winner: Strikeforce heavyweights Strikeforce will conclude its heavyweight tournament with Daniel Cormier vs. Josh Barnett, then give one more fight to the winner of that, and then move all the heavyweights remaining on the roster over to the UFC. That’s big news for the biggest guys getting to fight in the biggest show, and it’s the logical conclusion of a movement that is already underway: Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is already in the UFC, set to fight Brock Lesnar, and the last man Overeem beat, Fabricio Werdum, is headed for the UFC now. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva is surely set to fight in the Octagon soon, and promising heavyweights like Shane Del Rosario, Chad Griggs, Lavar Johnson and Shawn Jordan will have great opportunities to prove themselves on a big stage.
Loser: Strikeforce light heavyweights Although Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson has already vacated his belt and returned to the UFC, it appears that the other Strikeforce light heavyweights will stay where they are. That means good Strikeforce 205-pounders like King Mo Lawal, Rafael Cavalcante, Gegard Mousasi, Ovince St Preux and Lorenz Larkin — all of whom could have a place in the UFC light heavyweight division — will be denied that opportunity.
Winner: MMA fans With Zuffa planning 40 live events (32 UFC, eight Strikeforce) plus the new live Ultimate Fighter on Friday nights, Bellator looking at a couple dozen events spread over two seasons, HDNet airing a couple shows a month and your random one-off events from other promotions, it’s going to be a rare weekend night when MMA isn’t on TV. If you’re an MMA fan, you’ve already got plans for almost every weekend.
Loser: Spouses/significant others of MMA fans With Zuffa planning 40 live events (32 UFC, eight Strikeforce) plus the new live Ultimate Fighter on Friday nights, Bellator looking at a couple dozen events spread over two seasons, HDNet airing a couple shows a month and your random one-off events from other promotions, it’s going to be a rare weekend night when MMA isn’t on TV. If you’re married to an MMA fan, you’re not going to be able to make plans for many weekends.
UFC President Dana White promised before ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported on fighter pay that the UFC would release a video of Lorenzo Fertitta’s full, uncut interview with ESPN. But what the UFC actually posted online on Monday was something more than that — it was a full-on rebuttal of the Outside the Lines report that featured not only Fertitta’s comments but also comments from White and some of the UFC’s fighters.
Sunday morning marked the airing of an Outside the Lines segment on ESPN that was denounced by 
The first international season of The Ultimate Fighter will be available on American television.
Spike TV announced on Tuesday that beginning Friday, March 2, from 9:00 p.m. to midnight ET/PT it will air highlights from the past fourteen seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays,” as they are calling it, will be televised at the same time as TUF 15 live on FX, which debuts March 9. 
Showtime and