Pat Giles - Is that not a lot? I remember in high school one of my math teachers said he had just made a million dollars from teaching, he had been there over 30 years. I guess I'm missing the point.
It doesn't matter if it seems like a lot to you or I. When you compare his earnings to other professional athletes both inside and outside of MMA, his pay is extremely low. He headlined PPV's and was featured on national TV and fought for the UFC for nearly a decade.
Not really that different though, because you have teams that have the same value of a company as Zuffa, and have to pay far less athletes. Hell, lets take the Clippers, who just sold for around the same price Zuffa is valued at, their payroll last year was 82 million for 18 players. Which makes an average salary of 4.5 million dollars a year (Actually salaries varied from 20 million to $507,000). If you turned that same salary # it would average out to around $182,000/year per fighter or at an average of 3 fights per year. $60,000 per fighter per fight. Which if you applied it to UFC 178 would add approxamatley $20,000 overall to the overall pay of the card. And the discrepency between the top and bottom actually is smaller than it is in the NBA.
I think the best idea is to probably trim the roster by about 150 fighters and then you can easily up the pay by about 10-15%
Rhasaan Orange Fan - He was in the UFC for 8 years. That is 175K per year. How is that a bad salary to have for a mid level fighter?
Leben doesnt get to reitre at 65 like 99 percent of the population...
Brandon rios, the boxing equivalent of leben got 925k just to show in his last fight... i know i know, comparing boxing to mma is bs and what not. But really, its its not like rios is a monster draw... fact is 90 percent of ufc fighters are underpaid
Pat Giles - Is that not a lot? I remember in high school one of my math teachers said he had just made a million dollars from teaching, he had been there over 30 years. I guess I'm missing the point.
There's thousands of math teachers, and they don't get beat up. There's one Chris Leban. And he was a crowd pleaser, sold a fuck load of tickets and went toe to toe with the toughest guys out there. He deserved a couple million.
Great career choice for Leben, that guy would be making $25k tops working anywhere else that would have hired him. Hopefully he's been able to parlay all of the popularity and marketing that the UFC put behind him into a decent post-fight career revenue stream.
Pat Giles - Is that not a lot? I remember in high school one of my math teachers said he had just made a million dollars from teaching, he had been there over 30 years. I guess I'm missing the point.
It doesn't matter if it seems like a lot to you or I. When you compare his earnings to other professional athletes both inside and outside of MMA, his pay is extremely low. He headlined PPV's and was featured on national TV and fought for the UFC for nearly a decade.
Not really that different though, because you have teams that have the same value of a company as Zuffa, and have to pay far less athletes. Hell, lets take the Clippers, who just sold for around the same price Zuffa is valued at, their payroll last year was 82 million for 18 players. Which makes an average salary of 4.5 million dollars a year (Actually salaries varied from 20 million to $507,000). If you turned that same salary # it would average out to around $182,000/year per fighter or at an average of 3 fights per year. $60,000 per fighter per fight. Which if you applied it to UFC 178 would add approxamatley $20,000 overall to the overall pay of the card. And the discrepency between the top and bottom actually is smaller than it is in the NBA.
I think the best idea is to probably trim the roster by about 150 fighters and then you can easily up the pay by about 10-15%
UFC has more then 18 "players"
No shit, that's why I divided their numbers by 450, which is the average # of roster fighters lately. That is the biggest issue between comparing them to a lot of other sports. They are worth an average sports team, but have to pay out to a massive amount more employees. There are too many fighters on the roster for sure, they have the amount of fighters on the UFC roster as the entire NBA has. And if the NBA was balled up into one giant entity encompassing all the teams and players, it would probably be worth somewhere in the range of $40 billion.
Pat Giles - Is that not a lot? I remember in high school one of my math teachers said he had just made a million dollars from teaching, he had been there over 30 years. I guess I'm missing the point.
It doesn't matter if it seems like a lot to you or I. When you compare his earnings to other professional athletes both inside and outside of MMA, his pay is extremely low. He headlined PPV's and was featured on national TV and fought for the UFC for nearly a decade.
Say what you want about the guy, but if Chris Leben is fighting, I'm watching. He's matched with the right guy and I'm paying (and have a bunch of times).
That said, If I can't pay my mortgage, Chris Leben isn't going to give a fuck.
12th men on NBA rosters, DH's on MLB rosters, goons on NHL rosters, and 3rd string QB's on NFL rosters will make more in one year, than Leben made in 8. Some of you all can shill until your blue in the face, but something ain't right with that equation. Leben wasn't the most professional fighter ever, but he still trained his ass off, dieted, cut weight, and got clubbed in the head for years to entertain us. And the blood he spilled, the head trauma he took, and the asses he put in seats bought Dana and Lorenzo another vacation home somewhere.
jack_wilshere - Shut the fuck up you fucking shills.
Don't act like Chris Leben did not put asses in seats throughout his UFC career. Everyone knows that crazy, red haired nutter who peed on someone's pillow. My apologies, he only spritzed it.
Anyway, since fighters' pay is based on popularity it's apparent that Leben must have had shite management because clearly he deserved to have made much more.
I'm not about to shit myself over Chris leben "only" making over a million dollars for fighting in a cage. I"m a fight fan and all but the guys famous for his ability to get punched in the face and walk forward.
I'll always watch his fights but his earnings are appropriate for where he stands in the sport IMO
Again. I don't complain about salaries usually but Vanderlei reportedly made around 10 million. Yes Vanderlei is big in Brazil but thay discrepancy seems not right.
Why does that no seem right?
You're aware of the ENORMOUS fanbase difference in Chris Leben and Wanderlei right?
No. I'm not aware. Have you run a atudy on this enormous difference? Also wanderlei had less than 1/2 of chis fights in the ufc.
It's presumptious to stick firm on the $1.4 million career-earnings figure. But we already know that, right?
Let's pretend it was double that. A nice, comfy margin of error.
Even $2.8 million is subject to plenty of criticism if you follow the "athletes in other sports made so much more" line of thinking.
The sports that UFC is always compared to have been in business for up to 100 years or more (baseball and boxing). Those sports have had plenty of time to establish a business model and build a rock solid fanbase in which generations have passed along their love for their team to their children.
By comparison, UFC was a start-up with loads of debt on the books, and a questionable future when Leben came along.
Do I need to remind everyone of how quickly we'd all rush back here to start a thread about how MMA was merely mentioned on Friends or some other mainstream entertainment outlet?
TUF 1 was sort of the UFC's all-in gamble, and the success has been credited with kickstarting the interest in MMA and subsequent TV deals to come.
The pioneers of the sport were not the guys who fought in November, 1993. They were the guys who fought from 1993 through 2006.
It's presumptious to stick firm on the $1.4 million career-earnings figure. But we already know that, right?
Let's pretend it was double that. A nice, comfy margin of error.
Even $2.8 million is subject to plenty of criticism if you follow the "athletes in other sports made so much more" line of thinking.
The sports that UFC is always compared to have been in business for up to 100 years or more (baseball and boxing). Those sports have had plenty of time to establish a business model and build a rock solid fanbase in which generations have passed along their love for their team to their children.
By comparison, UFC was a start-up with loads of debt on the books, and a questionable future when Leben came along.
Do I need to remind everyone of how quickly we'd all rush back here to start a thread about how MMA was merely mentioned on Friends or some other mainstream entertainment outlet?
TUF 1 was sort of the UFC's all-in gamble, and the success has been credited with kickstarting the interest in MMA and subsequent TV deals to come.
The pioneers of the sport were not the guys who fought in November, 1993. They were the guys who fought from 1993 through 2006.
It's presumptious to stick firm on the $1.4 million career-earnings figure. But we already know that, right?
Let's pretend it was double that. A nice, comfy margin of error.
Even $2.8 million is subject to plenty of criticism if you follow the "athletes in other sports made so much more" line of thinking.
The sports that UFC is always compared to have been in business for up to 100 years or more (baseball and boxing). Those sports have had plenty of time to establish a business model and build a rock solid fanbase in which generations have passed along their love for their team to their children.
By comparison, UFC was a start-up with loads of debt on the books, and a questionable future when Leben came along.
Do I need to remind everyone of how quickly we'd all rush back here to start a thread about how MMA was merely mentioned on Friends or some other mainstream entertainment outlet?
TUF 1 was sort of the UFC's all-in gamble, and the success has been credited with kickstarting the interest in MMA and subsequent TV deals to come.
The pioneers of the sport were not the guys who fought in November, 1993. They were the guys who fought from 1993 through 2006.
Why presumptuous? Wouldn't chris know?
because this thread doesn't cite a source.
also, you've missed the entire point of my post if you stopped there.
