Fertitta defends UFC's pay scale

LAS VEGAS – The subject of how much the UFC pays its fighters has always been a sore spot among media and many of the most diehard mixed martial arts fans.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. earned a $25 million guarantee to fight Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, the type of news that inevitably creates a backlash in the MMA community about why its top stars aren't paid comparably.

ESPN brought the issue to light on its "Outside the Lines" series on ESPN2 on Sunday.

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said his company's fighters are paid handsomely, and said there are several fighters on his roster who make eight figures in purse and bonus money a year.

But Fertitta, angered by what he felt was an unfair representation of his pay structure by ESPN, told Yahoo! Sports that the reason his elite talent isn't making what the top boxers do is because the revenues are vastly different between the sports.

Though there is a public perception that the UFC has far outpaced boxing in terms of pay-per-view sales, Fertitta said it's not the case, at least not in terms of pay-per-view sales and revenue per fight. There are only a handful of major boxing pay-per-view cards each year, while the UFC puts on 14-16. Inevitably, though, the largest pay-per-view results are from boxing cards.

As a result, Fertitta pointed out, those fighters make more.

In September, Mayweather-Ortiz sold 1.25 million pay-per-view units and generated $78.44 million in revenue. In November, the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez bout did 1.5 million pay-per-view buys. Though no official revenue number was announced, it was well over $70 million.

Such numbers are vastly larger than those for the UFC, which also charges $10 to $25 less for its pay-per-view cards than big-time boxing events. The UFC charges $44.95 for pay-per-view. Major boxing events go for up to $70, but change according to the card.

In addition, major boxing events draw a significantly higher paid gate. Pacquiao-Marquez did an $11.6 million gate, while Mayweather-Ortiz did $9 million. The largest-ever UFC gate was $12 million for UFC 129, but the next biggest was UFC 66 at $5.397 million.

"The numbers that a Pacquiao or Mayweather fight will do, relative to ours, are not even close," Fertitta said. "When you talk about it, first of all, their [pay-per-view] price point is higher. You're talking about them doing 1.2, 1.5 million buys. The reality is, we've done that one time. Beyond that, we have a tremendous success story, but a lot of our fights are doing 300,000, 400,000. Our gates aren't $12 million. You see what our gates are: Sometimes, they're $2 million. Sometimes, they're $3 million, but the revenue equations aren't even close."

Fertitta declined to give specifics, but estimates for the UFC 100 pay-per-view results range between 1.5 million and 1.6 million.

Another difference: The UFC has more than 500 employees based in offices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Beijing. Boxing, by comparison, is run by a series of independent promoters, many of whom only have one or two employees. And, unlike the NFL or the NBA, the UFC bears all of its television production costs. That cuts revenue significantly.

Much of ESPN's story, though, focused on what low-end boxers make. Entry-level UFC fighters make $6,000 to show and another $6,000 if they win. In addition, they can earn performance bonuses for getting Fight of the Night, Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night. Beyond that, Fertitta said, the UFC pays the fighters discretionary bonuses which aren't reported to the public. Those can range from a few thousand dollars to, in some cases, more than $1 million.

According to information obtained from the Nevada Athletic Commission, the entry-level salary on the Mayweather-Ortiz card was $1,500. On the Pacquiao-Marquez undercard, which was 2011's biggest bout in terms of gate and pay-per-view sales, four fighters made $4,000 or less, with the lowest being $1,200.

Without question, entry-level UFC fighters make more than their boxing counterparts, even those on the biggest cards, and they have the potential to make exceptionally more. None of those boxers will make more that night, no matter how well they perform.

Fertitta defended the UFC's pay record for fighters and said he was proud of what it has done in that regard. Since the company became profitable in 2005, Fertitta said the growth in fighter pay year-over-year has doubled the growth of revenue year-over-year.

But the UFC doesn't make most of what it pays its athletes public and, as a result, there is much speculation.

Since "Outside the Lines" aired, ex-UFC fighter Sean McCorkle defended the UFC pay in a post on the forums at mixedmartialarts.com. McCorkle wrote that the UFC paid him 150 percent of what it was obligated in his three bouts with the company.

"I am currently unaware of any pro sports franchise that pays any player more money than they are obligated to do so," McCorkle wrote.

Fertitta blasted ESPN for what he called "disingenuous" and "agenda-driven reporting" on the piece. ESPN.com reporter Josh Gross and ESPN.com MMA editor Darius Ortiz declined to comment.

Kevin Ota, the director of communications for digital media at ESPN, issued a brief statement in which he said, "We stand by our story and our reporting and see no further need to comment. Our reporting speaks for itself."

Fertitta said he is proud of what the UFC has accomplished since he and his brother, Frank, bought it along with Dana White. And although no one is making Mayweather money, Fertitta said the UFC has made 44 fighters millionaires (up from 39 at the time of the filming of his interview with ESPN several months ago).

Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre has said in interviews he makes around $5 million a fight.

"When you hear about a guy who is getting a back-end on the pay-per-view and he is making $3-$4-plus million a fight and he's fighting two or three times a year, it's kind of tough to criticize," Fertitta said. "If a guy is walking away with $10-$12 million a year plus sponsorships and is making $15-$16 million, is he really being damaged that much?"

The bottom line is that MMA is still a developing business and has only been run like a business since Zuffa bought the UFC in 2001. The growth in pay has been good and should continue to rise.

The UFC-ESPN feud isn't healthy for the sport, since MMA needs all the mainstream media coverage it can get.

But until or unless the fighters form a union, the issue of compensation is always going to be a matter of public debate. The UFC could end the debate simply by releasing what it pays its fighters in full, but Fertitta said, "We choose not to do that and most of the fighters tell us they don't want anyone knowing what they make."

Perhaps, but as long as it is secret, the issue is going to resurface and will be debated endlessly.

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