The fight is red with payment – Sport – Kommersant

Dana White, president of the UFC, the premier mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, said that under no circumstances does he intend to raise the salaries of fighters. The existing system of remuneration for athletes has long become the most acute topic for the structure and is often criticized. The UFC pays its athletes less than 20% of their annual income, while other major American leagues – basketball (NBA), football (NFL) and hockey (NHL) – give players much more, about 50%. Eight years ago, an antitrust lawsuit was filed against the promotion, but the ongoing litigation since then has so far not led to anything.

The fact that the UFC has not changed its position regarding the remuneration of fighters, the head of the promotion Dana White said in an interview with GQ Sport. “These guys get what they should. And as long as I hold this position, everything will remain so, ”he said.

The question of how much of the UFC’s income goes to athletes and whether such a distribution is fair has been constantly raised for over a decade. It is known that the promotion gives the fighters about 20% of annual revenue, while the largest North American sports leagues – the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB) – share with the players half of their income. It should be noted that this was not always the case, however, the athletes managed to achieve an increase in fees due to the existence of trade unions and associations acting as intermediaries in negotiations with the management.

Even top fighters talked about low salaries, including, for example, former lightweight champion (up to 70 kg) Tony Ferguson and current heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. Their complaints are well illustrated by statistics: in 2021, only 256 fighters, which is 42% of the promotion’s roster, earned six figures, and 116 fighters (19%) received less than $25,000, which is below the national average. “We all want $30 million, but on what basis?” White responded to all claims.

Some mixed martial arts fighters, wanting to earn extra money, made an attempt to start boxing fights: MMA is unable to compete with boxing in terms of numbers.

Combat Sports journalist Andreas Hale noted at the beginning of the year that the total amount of payments to the fighters of the UFC 270 tournament was 25 times less than WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and his rival Deontay Wilder generated for their third fight. Fury received $30 million for the fight, Wilder $20 million, while the athletes who participated in UFC 270 earned a total of $1.8 million.

The fight for higher wages began in 2014. Then former Strikeforce MMA middleweight champion Kung Le, Jon Fitch and Nate Quarry filed a lawsuit against the UFC. They argued that the promotion was behaving like a monopoly and infringing on the rights of its workers, eliminating competitors and artificially lowering the potential income of fighters by limiting them to rigid contractual obligations.

In 2020, Judge Richard Bulweir said that he would likely recognize the lawsuit against the main MMA promotion as a class action. In this case, more than 1,200 athletes could claim compensation. But Bulveir did not do this, and the matter, in fact, still has not moved from the dead point.

Ekaterina Remizova