The contradiction isn’t refined. Whereas the UFC rakes in additional than $1 billion a yr in income and Dana White personally oversees a billion-dollar enterprise empire, fighters who compete on the sport’s highest ranges earn a pittance. This disconnect is not any accident, it’s constructed into how White frames the whole enterprise, and is particularly evident when contemplating his causes for why combatants’ pay has not basically elevated meaningfully on his watch.
Dana White’s empty guarantees: Why UFC fighters’ paychecks stay frozen regardless of the promotion’s pleasure
In interviews, White is refreshingly clear about his stance, if not logical. When pressed about reparations for combatants, he articulated his place like somebody who was fully unconcerned by the contradiction between the group’s success and the combatants’ wrestle. he stated:
“This isn’t a job. This isn’t a profession. This is a chance to be as well-known as you could be. Many individuals all over the world will see the nice issues you have got achieved and make as a lot cash as potential.”
There is a particular talent right here. White intentionally confuses two very various things: alternative and reward. The which means is evident. The glory of preventing within the UFC, the publicity, the potential for sponsorship and media appearances, are most likely sufficient compensation. What about precise cash? That needs to be secondary and fighters ought to contemplate it a bonus to the privilege of being a part of White’s promotion.
Nonetheless, actuality tells a very completely different story. UFC fighters obtain about 16 to twenty % of their whole income, a quantity that has remained stubbornly constant for over a decade. Examine this to the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Within the NFL, unionized athletes collectively negotiate about 50% of their revenues. Even fighters who win fights typically run into monetary difficulties. Entry-level fighters begin at $12,000 for a present and $12,000 for a win, an quantity that hardly covers coaching camp prices, journey, medical and training prices, to not point out taxes.
White’s second justification for the pay freeze is equally clear, he continued.
“These fighters, even when they’re lower-level fighters with much less revenue, will battle after which do unbelievable issues for the following three months and spend all their cash. Then they return to camp and begin coaching once more.” (Person Query)
The implication right here is that fighters are financially irresponsible and that in the event that they merely managed their cash higher, the issue would disappear. This can be a handy narrative that shifts the blame from the promotional division’s pay construction to the spending habits of particular person fighters.
Fighters are answerable for funding their very own coaching camps, which might price wherever from $8,000 to $12,000 per camp, by no means thoughts the extra prices of journey, nook employees, vitamin, dietary supplements, and so forth. Strategies that combatants “go all out” conveniently ignore that their earnings are instantly consumed by the infrastructure wanted to stay aggressive.
Cash battle minus prize cash: How Dana White justifies UFC non-payment
The organizational benefit White maintains over his combatants stems from essential structural components. Meaning combatants are categorised as unbiased contractors slightly than workers. This prevents union formation, eliminates the suitable to collective bargaining, and deprives combatants of advantages comparable to medical health insurance, retirement advantages, and employees’ compensation which might be granted to common workers. The UFC is actively lobbying for coverage modifications that might threaten this settlement.
Critics of this mannequin have succinctly described its abuses. Eric McGracken, a martial arts regulation legal professional, put it bluntly:
“Pay attention, we pay you based mostly on publicity. We, then again, receives a commission huge bucks. Deal?”
Jonathan Snowden, a combined martial arts historian and journalist who has extensively lined the enterprise facet of combined martial arts, made equally astute observations concerning the elementary dishonesty of the best way White’s participant compensation is structured.
“That is actually what we name a prize battle. It isn’t a actuality present that you could begin on Tik Tok or one thing. After all, it is nonetheless a prize battle… It is simply that this man and his handlers need all of the prizes to be theirs.”
Ben Davis supplied seize of the core logic.
“The prize battle minus the prize cash.”
UFC fighters’ pay frozen as promotion income exceeds $1 billion
The numbers assist this criticism. In 2022, the UFC generated $1.14 billion with a revenue of $387 million, however solely two fighters, Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski, made six-figure earnings that yr regardless of a number of appearances. In the meantime, the research discovered that 43 % of UFC fighters will earn lower than $45,000 in 2024, with a median annual wage of about $51,370. For dropping fighters, the mathematics could be powerful. Former fighter John Makdessi leaked pay statements displaying his gross revenue was $58,000, however after medical bills, airfare and federal tax credit, his whole was solely $28,461.
$375M Antitrust Settlement in UFC Lawsuit Reveals Systemic Underpayments to Fighters
Antitrust litigation gives robust proof of how this underpayment is definitely calculated. In 2024, a federal choose in Nevada lastly authorized a $375 million settlement for roughly 1,200 fighters who competed from 2010 to 2017, with the court docket ruling that the UFC engaged in anticompetitive practices that artificially suppressed fighters’ pay. Nonetheless, the settlement lastly got here after greater than a decade of litigation, and one combatant described the take care of brutal readability:
“He is created a billion-dollar enterprise out of the sacrifices of underpaid athletes and justifies it by saying he is creating alternatives for them to earn a living elsewhere, whereas making it practically unattainable with insane, predatory contracts. Sure.”
The predatory nature of UFC contracts is especially important. Non-compete clauses stop fighters from working for different promotions, makes an attempt to unionize are systematically crushed, and sponsorship rights stay managed by the UFC slightly than the fighters themselves. This creates a state of affairs by which combatants are unable to use their marketability to enhance their financial standing.
Participant salaries are frozen beneath White’s management not as a result of he would not have the sources to extend them, however as a result of his total wealth construction depends on gamers who haven’t got sufficient affect to demand higher. The alternatives he talks about are literally development alternatives that extract most worth from athletes working beneath economically determined circumstances, despite the fact that he says it is all a privilege.
