Jon also signed a contract with a certain number of fights on it, I’m fairly sure he knew how many fights he signed for.
any fighter who would like to can disclose his pay
Yes, we all know both of those things. 
Do the math on how much the UFC has a potential to earn from that fight and there is your answer.
Most likely the total income from that fight is under 150mil.
So they pay Jones 30 mil. They pay Francis 30 mil. Then running costs, they promote the event, they hire the venue, pay all the staff. They walk away making less than half the money they pay the fighters.
It’s legit just a money issue. I run a business, if a customer wanted a discount because it would be super cool id say no. My profit margin is my profit margin. I’m not getting less because it would be cool for the fans.
Is a fighter supposed to contact all the news outlets and have them report his contract amounts? No, nobody is going to bother doing that because they dont see how it would help them. Dana knows that and its exactly why he does it.
You know why other sports dont dontae same? Because they’re required by the league to reveal them due to salary caps and luxury tax rules which also require public knowledge of the athletes’ salaries.
People wonder why the fighters are getting screwed over on pay and how the UFC is ae to do this. This thread shows why. I give some simple reasons and automatically people start repeating the Dana Whitr talking points. “Its for their protection” and “they can tell anyone they want how much they make”. You guys dont even realize that you’ve been programmed by Dana after years or him creating a narrative. The funny thing is even though I’ve said all this, you will dismiss it and say I’m paranoid and overthinking it. Then a few weeks later you’ll ask “why dont they pay the fighters more” and “why wont they make the Jon/Francis fight” Lol. Dana is a a shrewd businessman and a master puppeteer.
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If you pay Jom and Francis 30mil the. Stupe wants the same, all the champions, Nate Diaz, etc. Even the women would be wanting at least 20 million.
Imagine having 500 children and one of them wants an ice cream cone at the store? If they get it what do think happens next? How much extra money are you paying for 500 ice cream cones? On top of that the next time you go to that store they’re going to expect ice cream cones. Its really that simple.
Some of you are looking at this fight saying “it will be huge and they’ll make money off a megafight” and just thinking of the one night. Zuffa is looking at long term and how much that will end up costing them.
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I misread something you said and thought it meant something else. My bad man.
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100% this. Dana knows full well that if he concedes even one time, that the floodgates will open for all of his stars to basically hold him hostage every time they want to “renegotiate” and it would be suicidal for them. This is completely a negotiating strategy for him, as he knows it’s an existential threat to his/UFC’s way of doing business and the control that they exercise over their “independent contractors”.
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I’m not dismissing anything you’ve said, I feel that if Jones revealed his full pay for fighting he would lose fan support for him making more. Georges just revealed a much higher pay than people expected.
Jones appears to be making a very good living fighting once a year on average? He still is fine waiting another year to fight.
I think anyone should get whatever they can, and relative to the company’s income Jones has created more expense than any other fighter. Maybe 10 million is what he can get.
I would like to see guys on this level sign a contract for a base amount plus a percentage of PPV, then if he sells like he claims he gets rewarded.
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What makes you think they’ll pay either guy $30M? That was a made up number Jon said he never asked for, and Francis is defending his belt for the first time. I think that’s part of Jon’s point, he feels like he should be making more $ than guys with less title defenses that aren’t selling PPVs the way he has.
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The issue is that most people assume guys are making less than they are…so if Jon says “I make $4-6M on average per fight” people will be like “holy shit, that’s Conor McGregor money!!!” because they see Conor’s reported purses, and assume he gets $1 per PPV buy, so he likely makes $3-4M per fight.
I think if EVERYONE’S numbers were out there, Jon’s case would sound a bit better actually…because I do think several fighters have made the kind of $ Jon is. I think people would be surprised to see how much someone like Izzy made for his last fight, how much Diaz made on the same show…on an event that did 600K buys, which is right about what Jon’s average is…and that average includes some of his earlier defenses that didn’t sell well.
As for everyone’s questions about why guys don’t reveal their pay, I think it’s because any time someone does, they lose public support because the public thinks these guys make less than they do…so years ago when Nate Diaz was making like $150K a fight and was bitching, people were saying he was making a ton compared to other 155ers who aren’t champion etc, then pointing to the disclosed pay of other guys at like 50K/50K…but Nate’s disclosed pay was like 25K/25K, so it was pretty obvious the disclosed numbers are all BS.
Unless you’re like Conor and the money is part of your gimmick, talking about $ doesn’t make sense, because if we hear Nick Diaz won’t fight for less then $3M or something, people will think he’s crazy.
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The ufc is a business and intends to be a business long term. You look at these youtuber fights, these are short term money grabs not a business.
Jones is asking for too much for their business model. Of course, they have enough to pay him. But it will trickle down. Every other fighter will demand the raise too. Not as much but will add up.
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I think the only problem with your post is that we don’t know what he asked for, don’t know his current pay, and don’t know what other guys are making.
We have an idea, because Jon said he made about $5M each for the DC fights, and IIRC said he’s making a little more than that now, for his more recent defenses…so I THINK Jon is making like $6M per fight. As for what he wants to make, all we know is that he said $8-10M isn’t enough. Dana said Jon wanted $30M, Jon said he never said anything close to that.
I think this is a very different conversation if Jon is saying that he wants to make $12-$14M for the fight is it does big numbers (1.2-1.5M buys) vs wanting to make $15-$20M if the fight does something like his DC fight did for numbers (800K, 860K PPV buys).
I could be WAY wrong, but I THINK Jon is saying he wants a bigger piece of the pie, so that if the event does big numbers, he’ll make more than his current deal. I’m sure when they talk contracts, they come to him saying “this fight is going to be huge, we think it’ll do X buys, and at those numbers you’ll make $X.” So when he says $8-10M isn’t enough, I THINK he’s talking about if the fight does big PPV numbers, he can expect to make $8-10M…which is what he’d make under his current contract and PPV %. I haven’t heard him say anything about wanting bigger guaranteed money. I’m under the impression that if the PPV sells big, he wants to make more than his current deal, but unfortunately he hasn’t provided what type of increase he wants.
and I do see both sides. Jon is a very solid PPV seller for the UFC, with an average of about 550K per event, and that’s really good when you consider Stipe vs DC 1 was less than 400K, many events are less than 300K, and the last Izzy PPV with Diaz on the card was 600K. Jon did more than 600K with Anthony Smith…so he’s a very solid PPV seller, but he’s never had those huge 1M+ peaks some other stars have had.
So I think the fear from the UFC side is if they give him the additional $ he wants, and he beats Francis, we’re looking at Jon fighting Derrick Lewis next on an event that does 600K, which is still a very good night of business, but Jon will be making a number in that fight that they perceive to be too high…IDK, call it $10M. I think we can all agree that IF Jon makes $6M now, and would make $10M for similar selling PPVs, that’s a substantial increase…and they can’t be paying the guy a ton more than they already are on events that do 500-600K buys. I think that’s the issue, not what he’ll make for Francis.
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Nate Diaz ran into a similar problem after the McGregor fights. He made so much money that it kind of priced him out of a lot of other fights. Hard to go from red panty night to fighting someone like Dos Anjos for mich less. He sat out quite a while until things lined up with Masvidal blowing up fro. The 3 piece and soda plus the Askren KO. This is more of a problem for the fighter than Zuffa though.
Another reason for Zuffa not to give in to Jon is you dont want to set a precedent of fighters saying “I want more money to fight certain opponents”. Csnt allow fighters to dictate terms like that because that would lead to all kinds of problems. Jon screwed himself over by trying to negotiate in public. Saying he wanted Deontay Wilder money, wants more money to fight Francis because he’s a dangerous fighter, wanting more money because it’s a bigger fight. They were ready to give him the next title shot until he started making a these public demands. At that point they had to shut it down and make an example out of him. Once again Jon showed that the only person that can beat him is Jon Jones. He’s his own worst enemy.
I get what you’re saying, but Conor, Dustin, Nate, Nick, Masvidal and many, many others all had public spats with the UFC over contract negotiations. All have held out and refused fights, several have asked for their release, and then something shifts leverage in their favor and they get what they were asking for.
Every case is different, but Nick Diaz sat out for 2 years because he couldn’t get the payday and fight he wanted…and would have sat out forever if Anderson didn’t want that fight…and the only reason the Anderson fight made sense for the UFC is Anderson coming off the two Weidman losses and the broken leg. There were people who thought Anderson was DONE, and Diaz was one of the only guys the UFC could match Anderson with that would sell well, and not be much of a threat to Anderson, who they were hoping had a few money money making PPVs in him.
So without Anderson getting hurt and needing a popular opponent who had no shot of beating him (and Nick didn’t, unless you thought Silva was DONE), Nick doesn’t fight anyone in 2015…and that’s why I say Nick is only back for Masvidal now. He’s not fighting Robbie Lawler on free tv, Nick is back to make millions against a popular guy, he doesn’t give a fuck about legacy, and I don’t blame the guy.
Nate is still holding out and never making any real $ if not for the RDA injury, and after the Conor win, it changed everything for him.
Masvidal was out almost a year, and kept turning down a fight with Colby, and the only reason he got another big fight is because Usman called him out.
So while I agree with you that Jon didn’t play his cards the way I would have recommended, I also don’t think he did anything many of the other UFC stars didn’t do. What would be ideal for him is if Lewis vs Francis gets booked, then Lewis gets hurt 6 weeks before the event…so they need an opponent for Francis, but it’s far enough out that Jon feels he has time to prepare.
The thing jon did different is drop his title, move up and get a verbal agreement to the winner of the title match. Once the winner was announced THEN he started with the money demands. That’s when he got shutout. There is nothing wrong with negotiating for more money, it’s just the way this played out is way different than anyone else. He dropped the title, made the effort to move up in weight and lost all his leverage. I feel like there is something else at play that we dont know about.
If you owned a company , would you pay 30mil for a product just hoping it’s not tainted and works ? Jon made his own bed with all his troubles and now he has to lay in it . Unfortunately just having skills isn’t enough to make the ufc take that big of a risk
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I honestly think the ufc doesn’t want to pay Jon more because they don’t really want that fight to happen at all. There is no upside for the ufc, no matter who wins. If Jon wins he will probably retire, 30 mil+ what me made already… Money will not be a motivation anymore, legacy wise there is nothing more to achive… Unbeaten 2 division champion, something that’s never been done before and probably never would be done again with this number of title defenses. The division would be without champion. Ngannou is a very marketable champion, and a loss to Jones would make him be the new Cormier, people would feel like he’s not really the champ even if he would win the title again after Jones retirement.
If ngannou would win, Jones worth for the ufc would drop brutaly, let’s be honest, people want to see Jones fight because he is still undefeated.
Nobody likes him for his Charakter, he wasn’t exciting in his last couple fights, a loss would keep a lot of people from buying his next ppv.
And the hype ngannou would get from beating Jones is the only upside you could think off, but even that wouldn’t be too big because just with izzy and Jan, it would be this thing where a guy trys to go up a weight class and fails. I don’t think Jan became a much bigger draw throu that win.
Either way the ufc would probably lose a star, that’s the bottom line
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I don’t think you’re remembering that correctly. He was talking about $ before he dropped the title and moved up. He had a very public spat with the UFC about it. It led many people to believe there was some sort of agreement made to negotiate a new deal when the time was right for the fight.
Jon was going to move up and fight Francis before Francis was champ, and the $ didn’t work out. It felt like the UFC said they’d do something for him if he moved up to fight for the belt instead, but it’s tough to say.
You’re right about him giving up his leverage, that’s 100% true…but he’s still a much bigger fight than Lewis, and the UFC needs to figure out if it’s worth giving him the extra $.
I think you’re lookin at this completely wrong. You’re saying either way you lose a star…Jon isn’t actively fighting, and until you figure something out with the guy, you make no $ with him. As for Francis, he COULD be a marketable star, but hasn’t been so far. The first Stipe PPV didn’t sell well, and numbers weren’t reported for the second one. He needs his viral moment. He needs his huge win that ends up on Sportscenter, and all over the internet. It hasn’t happened for him yet, and I don’t think a PPV between him and Lewis sells well at all.
We already saw it once, and nobody cared. They didn’t headline, but the PPV they were on didn’t sell well…and it sucked. So I don’t think anyone is freaking out over seeing that fight again.
However, if Jon moves up and wins…amazing story, he’s still the GOAT and just beat a monster of a man, and there’s a whole new crop of guys for him to fight. If he has a new deal he’s happy with, no chance he walks.
Or if Francis wins, he beat the GOAT, and it’s the biggest story in MMA all year. So yes, one guy will likely take a hit, but the other will be a HUGE star for the company.