When the UFC announced their exclusive fight apparel deal with Reebok they received mixed reviews of criticism and praise. When the exact figures of the deal and how much fighters would be paid was released, it seems like the deal was universally panned by fighters, media and fans.
There are a lot of fighters who will lose money on the UFC Reebok deal, but there are also plenty of fighters who will benefit from a guaranteed pay-check and by the way the pay scale is structured.
Top 3 Fighters Who Benefit From the Reebok Deal
3. Ronda Rousey
This is one that can be argued, but for the superstars of the sport, this deal will make them a good amount of money. Rousey, Jones, Silva and GSP have shown that there are ways to make money through sponsorships outside of the cage. GSP never once wore Under Armour inside of a UFC cage, but still promoted the brand through commercials and social media. Rousey has commercial appeal, and has already worn exclusive UFC clothing inside of the cage without representing her commercial sponsors like Metro PCS.
The fighters who’s likeness surpasses that of the MMA fan-base will continue to make good money outside of the octagon from sponsors. They will also make $40,000 a fight from Reebok if they are champion, will most likely have exclusive deals with Reebok, and earn a percentage of merchandise sales. Right now, Rousey is doing all of those things, and will most likely make a good chunk of change from Reebok. She’ll be the face of the brand and compensated well for it.
2. Gleison Tibau
There are only four MMA fighters with 25 or more UFC fights. Three of these fighters, Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes and Tito Ortiz, are well known both inside and outside of the UFC, have had legendary careers, or at least title shots, and are polarizing figures in the MMA community.
The fourth man, Gleison Tibau, is none of those things. Tibau is not well known, or known at all, outside of the sport, he has never come close to earning a title shot, he is not a man who sells his image and he does not put on the most exciting fights.
With the new deal, Tibau will be making $20,000 in sponsorship money for each fight. In his last fight, Tibau lost and still earned $50,000. For a lightweight fighter outside of the Top 15 who does little to market himself or put on exciting fights, making $70,000 for losing a fight seems like a pretty good payday.
You could argue that someone like Michael Bisping would benefit from the deal as well, as he falls into the same pay-scale as Tibau with 21 UFC fights. The big difference is that Bisping is a very well known fighter, and does everything possible to promote his own fights. I’m sure Bisping would have no problem in getting sponsors to put out big bucks for his fights, so this deal doesn’t benefit, but shouldn’t put too much of a hole in his potential earnings.
1. Undeserving/Under-Promoted Title Challengers
Fighting for a UFC Championship is a big deal, and fighters should expect a bigger payday from sponsors when they go toe-to-toe against a champion on a big stage. That’s true for someone challenging for the UFC Middleweight Championship, but not for the unknown fighters in the UFC’s weakest divisions.
Demetrious Johnson’s last three opponents would have a tough time selling cheese to a mouse, let alone their own title fights. A sponsor would be out of their mind to pay Ali Bagautinov $30,000 for his title fight at UFC 174. He did nothing to promote the fight, was a relative unknown name, a huge underdog in the fight and was fighting on a card that would go on to sell 155,000 PPV’s
Nonetheless, Bagautinov would have received a $30,000 paycheck by Reebok, three times his reported fight salary of $10,000. It’s only a one-time payday, but for the heavy underdog fighters in the UFC’s weakest divisions, this sponsorship money will most likely be the most they’ll ever make for one fight.
There are still plenty, and one could argue the majority, of fighters who will be hurt financially from this deal, so check out who suffers from the UFC/Reebok deal.
