Today came the announcement we had all been waiting for, by way of a screenshot of an email sent to UFC bantamweight Cody Gibson. The email detailed what fighters will be paid as part of the UFC’s uniform sponsorship deal with Reebok.
As had been announced previously, pay will be distributed based on the number of fights each fighter has with the company. This will include fights under both the Strikeforce and WEC banners.
THE FACTS
Fighters with between one and five fights will make $2,500 per fight; six to 10 will make $5,000; 11 to 15 will make $10,000; 16 to 20 will make $15,000; 21 fights or more will receive $20,000. In addition title challengers will be awarded $30,000 and champions will receive $40,000 per fight.
The deal comes into effect from July 7 during International Fight Week. As a result fighters will not be allowed to wear any other sponsor’s merchandise inside the octagon or during fight week as part of any UFC event. They are however allowed to have any other sponsors away from UFC-related activities.
The structure and payouts will be reviewed periodically, and these amounts are the minimum that fighters will receive. In addition to their payment per fight, they will receive a percentage (believed to be between 20 and 30%) of the sales of merchandise with their name or likeness.
If that isn’t enough to convince you that this is a sweet deal, fighters will also get to keep all Reebok kit that they are provided with.
Should fighters refuse to wear the kit they will be in violation of the UFC’s code of conduct and fined accordingly.
Those are the facts as we understand them at this time.
The announcement saw a number of fighters take to twitter to voice their concerns. That should come as no surprise. Any form of change whether positive or negative receives resistance from those it is going to effect. It appears in many cases that the fighters have valid points, and sadly at this point not many options.
DEVELOPING DIVISIONS WILL BE HURT
If you’re a UFC middleweight you have had the opportunity to compete for the UFC since day one. For the near 22 years that the company has existed, the UFC has allowed men weighing around 185lbs to compete. For long periods you even had the option to fight in Strikeforce, or WEC and have your fights count towards this new deal.
If you are a 115lb woman then those same opportunities have not existed. The first strawweight fight promoted under any of the three qualifying banners took place on July 16, 2014. The division did not really move into full swing until the end of season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter at the end of the year.
As a result, no current UFC strawweight has more than three qualifying fights to their name. That isn’t because they have chosen to fight away from the UFC. It’s not because they haven’t been committed to the company. Neither WEC, Strikeforce, or the UFC ever promoted their weight class.
Would it not help to level out the playing field if they at least included Invicta FC fights? They might not be owned by Zuffa in the same way WEC or Strikeforce eventually were, but the relationship between the two companies appears to be close. Even if it weren’t, does that even matter?
It would not fix the problem, and it certainly wouldn’t appease the likes of Felice Herrig who have worked hard to build relationships with, and heavily promote, their sponsors over a number of years. For reference, Herrig like most of her division will now receive $2.5k per fight. At least until she has three more octagon appearances under her belt.
It would however be a start. It would move fighters like Jessica Penne and Joanne Calderwood into the $5k bracket and move plenty of others, Herrig included, closer to it.
THOSE RARE TITLE FIGHTS NOW EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Jessica Penne serves to highlight another situation. Were her fight with Joanna Jedrzejczyk taking place three weeks later, after the deal kicks in, Penne would be receiving a $30k payout. The disparity between that and the $2.5k that every other fighter in the division is receiving per fight at this stage is vast.
Suddenly title fights, particularly in those developing divisions take on a whole new significance. At least the fighters at the very top of the division should get in on that action. The problem is that the company has nowhere near enough title fights each year for that to be the case.
In 2014 three UFC titles were defended just once. The Heavyweight title was not defended at all, just an interim title fight at the end of the year. Only the bantamweight title was defended on three separate occasions.
For this deal to really benefit the champions and challengers in divisions like strawweight, that is not enough. More needs to be done to get fighters defending their belts more regularly, and to give title shots to a wider range of challengers.
But then, perhaps the $40k payout offered to Joanna Jedrzejczyk (or whoever goes on to take the belt from her) every time she defends her title will serve as that motivation.
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