One of Dana White's mission statements when he set out on this UFC journey , was to get the fighters the money they deserved , inter prate that as you will but i don't see that happening , i think your thinking that i don't understand the logic behind the UFC's and Dana's decisions , i understand it full well i just don't agree with it , UFC fighters from top to bottom are not paid enough money when there purse is off set against the revenue generated from the UFC commodity Dana had a vision , but i believe he was overwhelmed and under prepared for just how big MMA and the UFC have got , which has a knock on effect , which is that he has gone back on his promise that he will pay fighters " what they deserve " In BJ Penn's autobiography , he states that Dana White would constantly tell fighters , where just waiting for this thing to take off , then you'll be paid what you deserve , were going to be handing out million dollar paydays to our champions when this thing takes off , Penn states over a period of time these statements became less and less frequent until it was obvious Dana had " lost sight " of what he intended for the fighters when he began and soon enough the fighters had no say what they were paid , and a letter arrived with an offer , which was take it or leave it , and his in opinion it was still too low As the UFC has become bigger Dana White has become a formidable business man running a business , this will please his share holders and Fertitta's but clearly not the fighters , even though the paydays are going up , compared to what that event makes the UFC , its an unfair cut !!! Don't try and hit with me business jargon , because i really couldn't give a **** , thats my stance !!!! I completely agree with your 2nd para on HW's , with every word
Again not trying to hit you with business jargon I just disagree that White has betrayed any initial vision. The fact that your counterargument is largely "what he's doing is wrong" confirms what I've thought. You've confused Dana doing things you don't like with Dana changing his mind. Dana thinks he is paying fighters what they deserve - the UFC never operated a system where they ensure fighter payroll hits a certain percentage of an event gross. If they did they'd be paying a lot more to fighters now but equally they'd have paid a lot less to fighters in 2001 to 2005. And as they've pointed out the pay has gone up since 2005. To me I don't think the UFC have been especially unreasonable in terms of fighter pay - the UFC is still an organisation that is both taking on and paying off debt to fund the expansion. So for example the revenue from some of their bigger events is used to fund events in new markets. Equally when it comes to undercard fighters most people I speak to feel the UFC is probably the best promotion for how it treats prelim fighters. Now could things be improved? Yes. I think in an ideal world there would be a collective bargaining agreement with provisions for a certain percentage of revenue to be spent on fighter salaries and benefits. I personally would focus more on the benefits than increasing the salaries - a pension scheme, support for recently retired fighters to retrain/reskill, some form of hardship fund for former fighters, support for advanced training for fighters outside the super camps, etc. Equally they need proper disciplinary procedures - as the pressure from the media intensifies Dana is becoming unreasonably trigger happy with firing people. There should be proper HR policies and an impartial disciplinary process to determine whether (for example) what King Mo constituted gross misconduct and warranted being fired. But here's the thing. That's what I believe. It'd be wrong of me to say that Dana White has gone back on his word for not doing any of this when nothing suggests that Dana White has ever supported these measures. And to be blunt, if fighters want this then they're going to have to work together in the same way sportsman in other sports did when they founded their players unions.
Oh and Zuffa doesn't have shareholders. Its a private company owned by him, the Fertittas and Abu Dhabi. White and Abu Dhabi own around 10% each and the Fertittas own the rest.
Boxing still generates multiple million dollar paydays off set against the revenue that particular event makes , and the figures keep growing The UFC in short , in comparison gives there fighters a much smaller cut , off set against a " company / corporation " that id bet my bottom dollar is netting more than Top Rank and Golden Boy combined , per financial year Is that fair ???
Firstly the UFC also generates multiple million dollar paydays, unless you're going down the ridiculous argument of taking the base payments reported by the commissions at face value. Its difficult to know whether boxers or fighters get a bigger 'cut' of the action for a number of reasons. Firstly getting accurate figures for either is next to impossible because is so much is kept private and with boxing there is so much bluster from promotions inflating payoffs. Secondly the models are so different. What I think is commonly accepted is that the biggest fighters in boxing earn much more than the biggest fighters in the UFC. But that money comes from somewhere and I think most accpet it comes from the pay packets from the middle-tier and prelim fighters. There is also the fact that the UFC is offering things such as accident insurance that no boxing promoter provides. Again I don't want to be too strident about this because the figures aren't there but my strong, strong suspecision is that the difference between GBP/Top Rank expenditure on boxers and the UFC's on fighters is not large and I wouldn't be confident saying which one is paying more. This is particularly true when you consider Zuffa has over 300 fighters under contract whereas GBP/Top Rank between them don't have 150.
Yes , multiple as in 2 , Micky Ward was paid 2 million dollars for Gatti 3 :deal Ofcourse the models are different , there very different , but they are alike in putting together and structuring how they pay the fighters , and putting together fight cards , are you honestly telling me that short changing the undercard is whats putting the extra money in the upper tier's of boxing's echelon ??? , not in a million years , boxers are receiving a much more generous cut of what the event makes in revenue than the UFC are giving there fighters I fully understand that the UFC has goals and commitments in the continuation of growing the brand , but they have other revenue sources that the " vast majority " of fighters will not see a single dollar from , merchandise being the main one id expect The figures are there , go and search them , look at the gate's , site fee's and PPV numbers , then look at a UFC payroll and do the maths yourself , Elite fighters in the sport of MMA are now equal to elite fighters in the sport of boxing in every aspect , and that includes ticket sales and commercial pulling power , they should be paid like elite level boxer's too !!!
Short changing the entire sport. Boxing runs three to five mega events a year. They make far more money than the vast majority of UFC shows. The headliners take a huge percentage of that revenue. Therefore there simply isn't the money to fund the undercard fighters of those shows OR the headliners of other shows. Partly because of the obsence amount of money the likes of Mayweather/Pacquiao make and partly because the entire promotional efforts of the sport are geared towards their fights at the expense of other events. Actually most fighters benefit from other revenue sources such as sponsorship and merchandise. Particularly sponsorship. The UFC's revenue is almost entirely what they generate through the shows i.e. box office, pay per view and television fees. Gate figures are a nightmare to get for boxing events because for so many of them the site fee is what's funding the show and that's kept private. Pay per view numbers are only part of the issue - you also need to know the cut that the promotions are getting which varies from promotion to promotion and cable provider to cable provider. And FOR **** SAKE how do you not know that the UFC payroll is not publiclly available? This is like the first thing you should realise when you enter into this discussion. Hell one of the complaints of a lot of fighters is that the secrecy undermines their ability to get a fair deal because they don't know what other fighters earn. And of course to be fair you'd need to know the operating profit of these companies and as none of them are PLCs they do not need to publish that information. And if you think its so easy, why don't you give it a go?
Cool, so how much were Vasquez-Marquez paid for their third fight? Exactly. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacqiuao are overpaid.
Agreed. Someone with less workload might've said 'right, this guy is going through ****, he's coming off a very serious injury and has now had the book thrown at him. He's talented, he's skilled, articulate and, most of the time, a well-spoken if OUT SPOKEN character. What should we do? He's ****ed up a few times, and this recent one could be deemed slanderous'. He's in SF for ****s sake. Leave him be, let him sit out his suspension. He's just received a heavy fine, now any glimmering hope of sorting himself out when it's over is gone. Although Lawal was in the wrong, there's no need to kick a man when he's this down IMO. Dana's pissed and he hasn't got time! If you **** up at the mo', you're ****ed essentially Especially as, unlike Chael for instance he isn't going to be bringing in any massive gates any time soon. Torres got busted for tweets, Lawal has got busted for tweets as well as a banned substance. Easy decision for a stressed out Dana to make, I can understand it for sure, but I feel for Mo, who I like as a fighter as well.
I love how EVERY single on of these PRIDE v UFC threads always focus on the fighters and in ring/cage product rather than Dana White.....:roll::-?:tired
And yet the money could be invested in more shows, more consistently well-matched contests and better undercards. It's sport Vs man. Would Floyd and Manny really suffer if they were getting paid five mill' rather than 20+? Of course, if their private lives weren't in financial tatters...but let's fund that because they entertain us.
He owes Vince McMahon a pint or two EDIT That's a incorrect assessment. He'll use Lorenzo's $'s to buy Vince a pint, everyone will give him sole credit for going to the bar and inventing Stella Artios, then he'd get an ego trip and start swearing at the barman (This is just a joke Dana fans)
