One issue that is always sure to cause heated debate, and one that is likely to create a few bad of examples of poor digital citizenship is the issue of fighter pay. So I decided to make a post that addressed fighter pay for my 2nd to last blog that would spur some discussion. I used this quote to base my argument that fighters who complain about fighter pay are whiners, just to stir the pot a little bit :)
"I try to fight three times a year. I'm in the middle tier of fighters. I
make between $20,000 to $28,000 to show and $20,000 to $28,000 to win.
That's terrible pay when you think about how many millions these guys
[UFC ownership] are making.
This was an anonymous fighter quote (as he fears repercussions from speaking out) from a recent MMA article that basically said fighters are underpaid, and the UFC should pay them more. Now, as a disclaimer. I am both a conservative and a capitalist. That last line is particularly annoying to me as it represents an entitlement mentality that you deserve something because your boss makes a lot of money. I personally think a minimum of 60k (that would be losing all 3 fights and winning none, and essentially a poor performance on the job) is quite good and a max of 144k (good performance) is even better. The notion that your boss should pay you more because the makes a lot of money is so backward. Should Bill Gates pay his secretary a million dollars because he makes a ton of money?
After making this post, I got all kinds of responses about how I am an idiot and that the UFC can afford to pay the fighters more so they should pay them more. Well of course they can pay their fighters more. Every profitable company could pay their employees more. The current owners of the UFC bought the company for 2 million dollars. Four years later they were reportedly 44 million dollars in debt and attempting to sell the company for 5 million dollars (they probably wouldn't have been able to sell it anyway) taking about a 40 million dollar loss. The owners are two brothers, who own casinos in Vegas, were on the verge of selling it and one brother convinced the other brother that they shouldn't sell. It was only after taking a huge risk in creating a reality show. They produced the show themselves because no networks had faith in them. that cost them another several million dollars. It was only after the show that they started to make a lot of money and the company is now worth several billion dollars.
Through all of that. Tons of risk, tons of debt. After untold hours of hard work, they are going to give a person an avenue to make a living, and then he complains he should make more because the bosses make more? Something about that is so backward to me. He should feel grateful for a job. If he is a mid tier fighter like he said, he needs the UFC, the UFC does not need him. We are not talking about a wal-mart cashier making 8 bucks an hour and can barely survive. We are talking about a guy complaining that he makes between 60-144k a year, depending on his job performance (he also gets a fair amount in sponsorship money and a potential 50 extra thousand dollars per fight if he has the fight of the night, knockout of the night, or submission of the night). For some reason these guys, and some fans, think that this is the NBA or NFL and all of the fighters should make disgusting amounts of money. I don't see it that way. If they don't like how much they get paid, they can leave. Although a few people (who by the things they type sound like they want communism) went on a few political tirades about all corporations, particularly Wal-Mart, being basically greedy and evil. Most people tended to agree with me, that the fighter pay issue is overblown and the people making very little money are almost worthless to the UFC. They have 250 fighters under contract. Some guys have been fighting for years and have records like 1-2 in the UFC. They should be grateful to have a job, not complaining about their pay. If they were more valuable to the company, they would make more.
*Their recently retired(?) star GSP said on the record that he makes 5 million per fight counting his endorsements, sponsors, etc.
If I have converted any of you in MMA junkies, there is a really good article from ESPN that discusses the issue that has a different take than I do on the issue.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/page/UFCpay/ufc-fighters-say-low-pay-most-painful-hit-all
Wow this blog post of very interesting. I know a little bit more about other sports and the gross amounts of money the NBA and baseball players make but had never thought to think what MMA fighters make. I know people and companies pay top dollar to watch the fights so I imagined the fighters would me getting paid tons of money. I think under any circumstance where ever you might work pay is always going to be an issue, so I understand those whole are making hundreds of thousands of dollars feel entitled to more money, I'm not saying its right but I think everyone could find something to complain about. It's a bummer that it seems you have read some negative digital citizenship from your post, but it reality most of those who have nasty things are bored and narrow minded.
ReplyDeleteErik, nice choice of a controversial issue to post! It seems like you saw some poor digital citizenship in response to your thoughts. It is very interesting that these fighters would put themselves through all that damage to their bodies to be paid what they consider is a very low wage. But I think you made a logical argument, anyone could be paid more, but big companies like UFC owners are out for the profit.
ReplyDeleteErik, I found this post to be very informative. Knowing very little about MMA or UFC fighters, I was amazed to learn that they are being paid so little considering the risk they are taking every time they face an opponent. Though I can understand how your post would be interpreted as being controversial, it is disappointing to hear that forum members demonstrated such poor digital citizenship when responding to your post.
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