Re:“Twitter is the greatest invention in marketing history” ...
by Maven911 on Saturday December 10, 2011 @03:28PM
(#3338418)
And you have to remember that they rake in millions in ticket sales and more importantly pay per view deals, yet they keep salaries naturally depressed for people who are risking serious short-term and long-term injuries.
There is good reason why all major sports have a players association to negotiate he collective bargaining agreements with the owners
I don't know who gets a cut of the PPV -- I suspect GSP and Silva and not many others. For the rest, their disclosed pay is in usually in the low 6-figures.
In the past there were a ton of stories about tactics used by Dana and the Fertitta's to keep overall fighter pay down. E.g. they wouldn't bring in fighters who were making big money at other promotions (such as Fedor and Overeem), for fear of setting precedents. They do seem more open to that now, though, as Overeem is in the UFC and Fedor might be soon.
Edit: Some examples from the last event (copied from Wikipedia):
Henderson - 250,000
Rua - 165,000
Wanderlei Silva - 200,000
Cung Le - 350,000 (total WTF)
Faber - 64,000 (including win bonus, plus Faber is a huge draw, another WTF)
Bowles - 19,000