The recent post about Nam Phan apparently suffering from CTE was heartbreaking to see. It becomes straight up disturbing when you consider this:
Unlike the vast majority of sports leagues and organizations, where athletes receive anywhere between 47-50% of the sport’s revenue, the UFC has historically paid out between 16-19% of revenues to its fighters. In 2019, the promotion reported $900m in revenue, but only 16% was paid out to the UFC’s approximately 600 fighters. Source: NBA players are making a fortune from NFTs. UFC fighters may not be so lucky | UFC | The Guardian
The UFC will be remembered as one of the most egregious examples of unchecked corporate greed in modern American history. Fighters are taking serious, irreversible brain damage while businessmen take the lion’s share of the revenue without taking a single punch. People are going to look back decades later and wonder how the hell something like this was allowed to happen.
Is this the historical legacy that Dana White and the owners of the UFC want to leave for themselves?
Nam had 8 of his 38 pro fights in the ufc (not counting tuf) and fought for 18 other organizations. Why is it that the UFC always gets blamed for every fighter’s monetary and health problems? Bellator, One fc, wsof and every other organization gets a pass on pay, weight cutting, fighter support, etc. And i dont even want to start about Gary Goodridge. 46 mma fights and 35 boxing matches and only 8 fights were in the UFC. We all know Gary took most of his damage in Japan, but its the ufc’s legacy? Smh.
Karyn Bryant in that interview with Nam back in 2012 that is posted above literally says at 00:52 seconds in “One would maybe advise you Nam to keep your hands up a little more” as she shows clear concern for his health way back then
I feel bad for Nam and hope he stops getting hit and finds some kind of treatment or alternative medicine that will help.
But one thing I don’t like is as pointed out above is 1) when only one organization takes the blame when a whole career is spent in other disciplines and organizations, boxing etc… especially in some cases when they only have a couple UFC fights then a whole career outside or before it or another career with CTE like football then blame the UFC. That said they are the biggest one and should step up to do more but they are not 100% responsible for the choices and fight tactics fighters use.
And the other issue is when people complain that the NFL or something like the UFC is slavery… it’s an entirely voluntary journey when someone in the USA picks up a football or laces gloves up and takes a risk to earn more than any normal citizen would dream of. That is not slavery that is a calculated risk and those who take it are or should be well aware before they take it.
Whole lot of well off fighters today because of the UFC. I know many more fighters who turned their experience and income from MMA into a successful life than I do boxers. Boxers rarely end up with a nest egg and business career when it’s all over. Even guys I know from my home state who at best are considered journeymen have successful gyms and training careers after it all was done. A few are multi. Millionaires. The two guys I know who boxed for belts, well one is in prison and the other only recovered his life in the last decade.
This sport helps men turn an otherwise useless
Skill set in modern civilization into a career that enriches them and those they train along the way. I’m thankful for that. They are a credit to our community. The UFC‘s investment made the sport what it is and these opportunities would barely exist without them. Today there’s a regular influx of young fighters who feel that The call to fight in the UFC for 10 and 10 is the greatest thing that ever happened to them. Only people I hear complaining about UFC fighter pay are fighters trying to renegotiate a contract (good for them trying to get more money and find out their worth) and edgelords trying to get some attention from attacking an organization they aren’t good enough to be a part of.
The pay is fair. Lets be honest, people have a problem because they feel like once you make it to the ufc then you shouldn’t have to struggle in real life and be able to live the life of a professional athlete. The truth is nobody pays to see the majority of the ufc roster. The people that actually sell tickets and ppvs are getting the money they deserve. Sorry if random unknown fighter from Peru with 1 ufc fight isnt happy because he’s not getting 100k but you get what you have earned.
There is no reason why they shouldn’t have health care when the sport itself isn’t doing anything positive towards it. If anything, one could argue MMA is possibly one of the worst, only behind boxing and football.
Companies not paying employees enough or offering them healthcare isn’t unique to just the UFC. Almost
Every large corp does the same thing if not worse. If you look at worker pay vs ceo/exec pay…one has increased substantially while the other has not.
Ufc is just in the spotlight because it’s on TV and it has more eyes on it that your typical worker that no one gives a shit about.
