For many years, the UFC has been regarded as one of the fastest-growing sports entities in the world. With mixed martial arts still in its infancy, the promotion has been able to reap the rewards of MMA’s rise as the sport’s leading organization.
But although the entity, the majority stake of which was acquired by Endeavor (formerly known as WME-IMG) in 2016 for $4 billion, has known little but growth and development in recent times, the same can’t be said for those who provide the entertainment inside the Octagon.
The topic of fighter pay in the UFC has long existed, with numerous high-profile names throughout its history speaking out against the contractual terms they were under.
The discourse has remained as close to the surface as ever in recent years courtesy of many prominent names speaking out, from former fighters like ex-UFC champions Francis Ngannou and Luke Rockhold to personalities such as YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
And although the discussion is still somewhat polarizing, with the UFC boasting its fair share of supporters in the fanbase and even on its roster, those who call out the promotion’s treatment of fighters received some hefty new ammunition thanks to a troubling report.
UFC Boasted Green Arrows For 2022 In All Areas — Except Fighter Pay
During an earnings report call this past February, Endeavor broke down its revenue during the fourth quarter of last year and 2022 as a whole. It was revealed that the UFC made up north of $1 billion of the total revenue brought in by Endeavor’s sporting ventures. That figure marked a large 20 percent rise from the previous year, with $224.1 million extra generated.
But while it can be said that business is booming for the UFC, the fighters don’t appear to have felt the benefit of it. In fact, things are seemingly getting worse. A recent report from journalist John Nash broke down the UFC’s latest financial filings, outlining its implications for the athletes who put their bodies on the line each and every week. Despite its overall financial growth, Nash noted that the UFC paid out $32.8 million less in fighter expenses last year compared to 2021.
And given that overall revenue increased across the same period, the UFC’s revenue sharing with its fighters was down to just 13.5 percent (a maximum of 14.5 percent should the figure include other compensations) in 2022 compared to 17 percent in the previous year.
“Last year, they had an earnings call. In that earnings call, they detailed how much the fighters made (and) how much growth we’ve seen in fighter pay from 2005 to 2021,” Nash said during a Bloody Elbow podcast. "I calculated that, and that came out to $178.8 million fighter pay in 2021. That might not be exact, but based on the figures they gave, that’s the amount they should have paid the fighters, which is about 17.5 percent of revenue in 2021. Interestingly enough, they note in this filing that they were able to cut fighter expenses by 32.8 million in 2022 from 2021.
“That means, in 2022 , if my calculations are right about 2021, they paid $146 million to the fighters. Total pay to fighters out of $1 billion, ($146) million. 13 percent of the revenue ,” Nash continued. “That might not include the other stuff the UFC includes in compensation, like drug testing and the insurance policy; all these other things… But that would add about another 1.5 percent to their pay. So if it’s not including that, they went from 13 percent to 14.5 percent… It’s a pretty massive (decrease), especially in a year when the revenue went up $110 million from the year before, and the net income, the profits, went up almost $120 million.”
While some sought to point out that the absence of former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor in 2022 could be to blame for the diminished overall pay figure, Nash clarified in a tweet that the theory would oppose the level of remuneration often claimed with regards to the Irish star.
Perhaps adding to the context of the recent filings and what they mean for fighter pay are the historical figures from past years.
Incredibly, per another report from Nash, the amount of revenue distributed to fighters has actually decreased since 2016. While $146 million was handed down to the athletes last year, the tally was actually $2 million more six years prior.
That means the Endeavor ownership has not only failed to enhance fighter pay but has actually reduced it, despite overall revenue growing from $695 million in 2016 to $1.14 billion in 2022.
With that in mind, the UFC’s overall revenue sharing with its fighters was reportedly down 7.3 percent last year compared to the 21.3 percent number in 2016. Given that reports in 2019 put the figure at 17.4 percent (just under $150 million of $860 million revenue), the overall level of revenue sharing has steadily decreased since Endeavor acquired a majority stake in the UFC.
Dana and WME are ruining the sport. At this point, selling the sport to Saudi Arabia and letting fighters self promote would be better than where the sport is at now. At least the Saudi’s would pay the fighters stupid money. Bring back sponsor flags and shorts.
UFC does pay less for sure… But you can’t compare revenue %s across different business models. UFC has multiple revenue streams that are included in those other sports because of the way they’re structured.
Why do so many people pine for these weird billboard poster days? Fuck they were annoying.
The money is there, they can just fucking pay them. Going back to clusterfuck tire barn flags and post fight interviews reading off sponsor lists is not an answer.
Ticket revenue is a good example… Most team sports the owner of the team owns the stadium but the stadium is sitting in another holding company and none of that revenue is included in those revenue splits.
For UFC, they own one stadium the other stadiums aren’t owned, but all of that revenue is included in that calculation that person did.
Just one examples, there are more but just to show how dishonest those comparisons are.
I understand your point and it should be the UFC’s burden, but it’s not that stupid. In fact, I think most fighters would be happy if they could bring back sponsors in any way.
Not sure who this Nash guy is or how trustworthy his math and guesstimations are but this is how public companies work.
Said it a million times before and it’s not going to change.
The goal of a public company is always to drive up stock price. That is it and that is all.
Paying out higher percentages of your revenue is not how you get to bigger EBITDA numbers. This is why they will proudly and un-ironically brag about reducing fighter costs on investor calls.
I work for a pretty massive financial institution and they do the same shit to me and my peers.
Fuck investors and fuck public companies catering to them.
Also, Ari and Dana and the rest most certainly have massive $ stakes in the company through stock bonus structures and whatnot and every penny they can squeeze to raise the price of the stock will raise their own wealth as well.
Dana mentioned in one of his press conferences earlier this year that being a fighter is not a career, it’s an opportunity. They are also building more facilities. These numbers confirm!
I looked at their financial reports before too there is a lot of manipulation in there… they don’t have good cash flow. Most of their profits and revenues are from line items that aren’t real. Just made up finance shit. That’s so normal like you said just creative accounting to get stock price up.
It’s not stupid in the sense that it is good for the fighters as a nice extra revenue source. I don’t deny that.
It’s stupid in the sense that it’s amateur and takes the sport back. No fan can honestly say they enjoy that stuff. At best they’re indifferent.
So yes it would help fighters financially but it’s not the answer here. It’s like western tipping culture. Employees shouldn’t be underpaid with the expectation that patrons or other companies will subsidize them through tips and sponsorships.
No way do the companies deserve to be let off the hook like that, but they always are.
We live in a system where we’re ok with organizational wealth hoarding for the benefit of “investors” and it seems to be worsening at an accelerating pace.
UFC is the way everything works in North America. It’s odd people get so passionate about UFC while being ok with their own situation or maybe they don’t understand that they most likely live under the same mistreatment conditions themselves.
That’s why the smarts started going after revenue share versus profit share.
You can make profits look however the fuck you want to really.
“Hey, sorry Peter Jackson but after deducting marketing and miscellaneous expenses we actually lost money on Lord of the Rings. Can you believe it? So if you could just write us a cheque to cover your share of the losses that’d be great. Thanks!”
