Amid pay controversy, wisest course of action for UFC fighters is to share salary information

In 2006, I received a phone call from a very prominent UFC fighter. He was in the midst of final preparations for a big fight, but was also in the midst of marital turmoil.

The fighter begged and pleaded with me not to include his purse in the story I was working on. He didn’t want his spouse to know what he was making. Left unsaid but patently clear is that he’d told her — or her attorney — that he was making considerably less for this fight than he did.

And so, his purse was not included in my story.

Was that a mistake on my part? Probably, though it can be debated. But it was a mistake on the fighter’s part, particularly in light of the ever-increasing complaints from UFC fighters about their salaries and benefits.

In 1913, three years before he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis famously said, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.” But there is very little sunshine with regard to fighter salaries in the UFC, and even when we hear of it, it’s never the complete picture.

A little over a year ago, the Nevada Athletic Commission capitulated to boxing and MMA promoters and allowed fighter salaries and gate information to be kept private. That was a big-time loss for the fighters.

This has become the norm in states around the country.

The California State Athletic Commission still releases the salaries, and so last week MMA Junkie dutifully reported them following UFC San Diego. The site included a disclaimer that is telling just before it listed all of the salaries released by the CSAC: “It’s important to note the figures are disclosed payouts only, and do not include performance bonuses, discretionary bonuses, or sponsor pay.”

The only figures we’ve ever known are base pay, the amount of a check a fighter is given on fight night, and any performance bonuses they receive. The UFC releases the bonus figures, which are usually $50,000, at the end of each card.

But never do we know what a fighter made in pay-per-view points. If a fighter is given a discretionary bonus, a check that is above and beyond his or her contracted amount, that rarely leaks because it comes well after the bout and when the fighter isn’t regularly in front of the media.

It’s not in the UFC’s best interests to release that information, so it won’t. But the fighters themselves, or their managers could. And if enough of them do so, a picture will emerge of whether they’re being paid similarly to their peers.

Middleweight Luke Rockhold, who fights Paulo Costa on Saturday in the co-main of UFC 278 at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, shook up a news conference on Wednesday when he lambasted the UFC over not only the way it pays its fighters but the side benefits they receive. Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou responded to Rockhold’s comments on Twitter and noted that he’d lost a $1 million endorsement because of the UFC’s sponsorship rules.

That’s difficult to swallow for people with careers that are as short as fighters’ are.

I’ve contended for years, though, that the fighters who are getting hurt the most by the UFC’s salary policies aren’t the rookies or the middle class, but the elites. As an example, in the antitrust trial a group of fighters have going against the UFC, it came out that in 2021 the company’s gross revenue was just over $1 billion. The NFL’s in 2021 was just over $11 billion, or 11 times as much.

In 2022, the minimum NFL salary is $705,000, or $41,470 per game. The UFC’s minimum is $12,000 per fight, with a win bonus of another $12,000. So a first-time UFC fighter who wins his or her debut will make at least $24,000 for that fight. And if he receives a post-fight bonus, it could go to $75,000.

But let’s assume that rookie UFC fighter competes three times in a year and wins two of their three fights but gets no bonuses. That’s a yearly fighting income of $60,000. If we multiply that by 11 — the amount the NFL’s revenues exceeded the UFC’s — that fighter would make $660,000.

So it’s not quite to the NFL level but comparable on a proportional basis.

But where the UFC fighters come up short is at the top end. Conor McGregor was No. 1 on Forbes’ highest-paid athletes’ list in 2021 with $180 million. He made $22 million in competition and $158 million out of the Octagon. McGregor’s athletic earnings paled in comparison to the others on the list, though.

No. 2 Lionel Messi made $97 million on the field, according to Forbes. Cristiano Ronaldo made $70 million on the field. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott made $97.5 million on the field and No. 5 LeBron James made $31.5 million. No. 7 Roger Federer was the only one who made less than McGregor in competition on that list, and it was because he was injured and missed most of the year.

UFC fighters have shown no inclination to unionize because there are so few of them in like situations. In baseball, which has by far the strongest union in sports, there are 14 players making $30 million a season or more, and 52 making $20 million or more. The UFC will have zero in either category in 2022.

But the MLB players stick together far better because as a team sport, they need each other.

Fighting is an individual sport and so far, the top athletes haven’t been willing to band together and hold out in order to (a) form a union and (b) satisfactorily complete a collective bargaining agreement.

That’s really the only way to effect significant change. And unions have hardly hurt the Big 3 sports of NFL, NBA and MLB.

But given that history shows that it’s unlikely high-level UFC fighters would consider a lengthy work stoppage, the best thing the fighters and their managers can do is make public their compensation.

Brandeis was right in 1913 and it holds true today. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.