While “paydays for top draws like Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre can run into the millions, entry-level fighters who compete under the banner of the UFC do so for as little as $6,000 if they fail to win their first match,” according to Barr & Gross of ESPN.com. A UFC fighter said, "We're basically fighting for crumbs. The top 5 percent (of fighters) are definitely making good money, but you've got to look at the guys at the bottom of the card." Another UFC fighter said, “We're definitely not getting our fair share of the cash. Any opposition, they (expletive) crush it.” He added, "Until somebody starts a union, we're all sort of at their mercy." UFC Chair Lorenzo Fertitta said that “dissent among fighters is not only commonplace but tolerated.” But Barr & Gross note what Fertitta “won't say is how much revenue the UFC currently generates.” When asked what percentage of revenue goes to fighters, Fertitta said it is "not far off what the other sports leagues pay as a percentage of revenue." Revenue-sharing formulas in the NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL “give athletes about 50 percent of revenue.” Fertitta said, "(It's) in that neighborhood, yeah.” MMA Fighters Association Founder Rob Maysey said, “The UFC is in the neighborhood of the major professional sports in terms of payout percentages compared to revenue generated in the same way as I am in the 'neighborhood' of challenging for Anderson Silva's middleweight title.” Fertitta said that fighters “have the potential to substantially boost their earnings through the company's incentive-driven pay model.” However, Maysey said that “even taking the unreported bonuses into consideration … the 50 percent revenue-sharing claim is not accurate” (ESPN.com, 1/13). The subject of pay for UFC fighters will be the focus of Sunday's "Outside The Lines" on ESPN (THE DAILY).
