More money than meets the eye in UFC

by Kevin Iole on Apr 30, 2008 at 6:22 pm ET

One of my passions in life is technology. I'm obsessed with gizmos and gadgets and am all but in love with my iPhone.

A friend who knows about my obsession had a computer he wanted to sell on eBay and asked me what I felt it was worth. He went to a Web site that showed an estimated street value, one I felt was considerably too high.

He argued that his asking price was justified because this web site was made up of experts and they agreed with him.

True, I said, but something is only worth what someone else will pay for it. And when we went to eBay and looked at completed listings for a computer with specs similar to his, he was shocked. People were only paying about half of what he thought he could get.

And that same analogy is true when it comes to fighter compensation. There is a lot of debate in the mixed martial arts media over what the UFC pays its fighters. It's easy to take the stance that the fighters deserve more pay.

Of course they do. Getting punched in the face or kicked in the head is about as difficult a profession as one could choose. You only get paid when you actually compete, meaning an injury in training — by your or by your opponent — means you've worked two months for free.

So fighters deserve as much as they can get. I have always and will always advocate for the athletes in this sport.

But, when Kalib Starnes split ways with the UFC last week, he called his deal with the UFC an oppressive contract. He complained about his pay.

Clearly, the top UFC fighters don't make nearly the amount that the top boxers make. But there is an incorrect perception that the other UFC fighters are being underpaid compared to boxers of the same level as well as fighters in the mixed martial arts community.

So I called the Nevada Athletic Commission and got the payment verification sheets for the last two major boxing shows (Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe on April 19 and Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez on March 15) as well as for the last major UFC show in the state, UFC 81 on Feb. 2.

According to state records, Hopkins and Calzaghe were each paid $3 million for their work. The next highest-paid fighter on that card was Audley Harrison, who made $20,000. There were nine fighters who made $5,000 or less, including two men, Marcos Mendias and Jermell Charlo, who made but $1,500.

Pacquiao made $3 million and Marquez $1 million for their epic rematch, but there were five fighters of the 14 on that show who made $3,500 or less.

At the UFC show, the lowest base pay for any of the 18 fighters on the card was the $4,000 that Kyle Bradley made.

The UFC also paid out $60,000 bonuses that night for knockout of the night, submission of the night and fight of the night. Plus, most of the fighters had bonuses for winning, so the opportunity was there for them to double their pay, which was not for the boxers.

And several agents, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have said the UFC occasionally pays its fighters bonuses it chooses not to announce to the public. These bonuses apparently go to fighters who perform superbly in a big fight.

Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre reportedly received a $500,000 bonus and a Hummer when he knocked out Matt Hughes at UFC 65 in Sacramento, Calif.

Additionally, fighting in the UFC makes an athlete significantly more attractive to a sponsor. Frank Mir made $85,000 for the logos he wore into the cage for his fight with Brock Lesnar that night. Had he been fighting in another organization, there's zero chance he would have earned half that in sponsorship money and he likely wouldn't have gotten 20 percent as much.

So Mir that night earned a base pay of $40,000, a win bonus of another $40,000, a submission of the night bonus of $60,000 and then hauled in $85,000 in sponsorship dollars.

He's not going to be able to retire after that bout, but bringing in $225,000 for one night's work isn't bad at any time, especially in this economy. A fighter like Chuck Liddell is making around $6 million a year between his salary and his sponsorships and was making at least $9 million little more than a year ago. He was getting $75,000 a month from Xyience and received $1 million for just two weekends of promoting the movie, "300."

"The UFC will pay you if you perform," said fighter agent Dean Albrecht, Mir's agent. "It's like in the NFL. They're not going to rip up your contract after one great game, but if you perform over a period of time, they'll pay you and pay you extremely well. In the UFC, if you go out and fight and put on a great show, believe me, they pay extremely well and they can make some of these kids rich."

Albrecht said another of his clients, Joe Lauzon, earned $8,000 for his bout with Kenny Florian earlier this month on Ultimate Fight Night 13. He would have gotten an $8,000 bonus had he won. Albrecht conceded the pay was low, but it was mitigated by a $20,000 fight of the night bonus and $52,000 in sponsorship money Albrecht negotiated.

He said if Lauzon had been fighting in a regional promotion, he would have made $2,000 to show, gotten $2,000 had he won and may have picked up another $500 in sponsorship. Even in the best case scenario, then, he would have made less than $5,000.

The IFL is bleeding money and likely won't last past its next show. Elite XC in its most recent SEC report also conceded it may not have the funds to last the rest of the year. If it's not able to pull at least a 2.5 rating on CBS for its May 31 show, it may be in jeopardy of failing.

The UFC, on the other hand, continues to thrive. It will provide a place for the fighters to sell their wares long into the future. There is no other North American-based promotion that can say that now other than the UFC.

So while the UFC should bump up the salaries of the fighters up and down the cards, given the rising merchandise sales, gate receipts and pay-per-view revenues, you also have to remember that they're the only ones who are thriving and can pay consistently. It's a two-way street.

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Georges St. Pierre looks for redemption

NEIL DAVIDSON

Canadian Press

April 14, 2008 at 2:59 PM EDT

After Georges St. Pierre beat Josh Koscheck last August at UFC 74, the Montreal mixed martial arts fighter dropped into his opponent's dressing room at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas to see how Koscheck was doing.

St. Pierre offered encouragement, telling Koscheck he would get another shot at him. Keep training, you're going to be a champion, he said.

"There's not many fighters out there that you can honestly say that guy's a class act, he's a good dude and Georges St. Pierre is one of those guys," said Koscheck, who at 30 is four years older than St. Pierre.

"It changed my thoughts and opinions about Georges St. Pierre after I fought him. That shows a lot of respect and a lot of class, to come into my dressing room afterwards when I'm feeling pissed off, knowing that I'm pissed off that the guy that just beat me is coming in. That looks kind of odd.

"But when I heard the encouragement that he gave me after the fight, I have nothing but respect for him now."

St. Pierre is not your average athlete inside or outside the ring. While some star athletes exude arrogance, disdain or a major-league sense of entitlement, St. Pierre is polite, well-mannered and almost ego-free.

He drives a workmanlike SUV, grew up supporting the Oilers, lists his mother's tourtiere as his favourite dish and enjoys going to the movies. He loves fine dining but has a weakness for McDonald's (two cheeseburgers and french fries).

When he dethroned Matt Hughes to win the 170-pound title at UFC 65 in November 2006 in Sacramento, he gave the championship belt to his mother as a thank you for a lifetime of support.

When a busy schedule and unexpected development distracted St. Pierre from a scheduled interview with a reporter recently, the apologetic fighter rushed over to collect the journalist, conducted the interview over a steak dinner — which he paid for — and then drove the reporter to his hotel.

"A heart of gold," says trainer Greg Jackson.

"What's not to like about Georges St. Pierre?" asked UFC president Dana White. "He's the epitome of everything you'd like in a sports figure or a tough guy. He's humble, he trains hard, he's a good-looking kid, he says all the right things."

An elegant five foot 10, St. Pierre looks like he just walked off the pages of GQ. Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Affliction (a sponsor) fill the closet.

In the cage, St. Pierre is a different man. Determined. Measured. Relentless.

"Georges is a very sweet nice guy, very down to earth," said Firas Zahabi, one of St. Pierre's main trainers in Montreal. "But you can't go to war with that mentality. When you go to war, you've got to be ready to put everything on the line and you've got to forget about being nice.

"He can do that."

St. Pierre will be a million miles away from nice when he climbs into the cage Saturday at the soldout Bell Centre in Montreal to face welterweight champion Matt (The Terror) Serra at UFC 83 in the UFC's debut on Canadian soil.

The Montrealer was a 10-1 favourite when he met Serra one year ago at UFC 69 in Houston. St. Pierre, after all, was billed as the future of the sport and was coming off an impressive title win over the division's most dominant champion. Serra was seen as a puffed up lightweight who had to win a reality show ("The Ultimate Fighter") to get a title shot.

Things did not go according to plan. St. Pierre got tagged early on with a blow to the head — it connected with the carotid artery, he said later — and never recovered.

Former champion Hughes was ringside at the Toyota Center to witness the massive upset.

"He's hurt," Hughes, writing in his book "Made in America," recalled thinking. "Wait a minute. He can't be hurt. He's fighting Matt Serra."

Serra stalked a staggered St. Pierre and kept punching, until referee (Big) John McCarthy stepped it in at 3:25 of the first round.

"This is my worst nightmare," St. Pierre said later.

Continued on Page 2…

Page 1 of 3

Serra not afraid to play villain’s role

By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports Apr 14, 2:50 pm EDT

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UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra knows he isn’t going to be the fan favorite when he steps into the octagon at Bell Centre in Montreal in front of the expected largest crowd in North American mixed martial arts history on Saturday night.

“I’m having my trainers and sparring partners boo me on a regular basis, so I’m getting used to it,” said Serra, who defends the title against hometown hero Georges St. Pierre. “It’s the same cage, it doesn’t matter the city.”

While others are talking about the expected noise level for the main event, Serra is thinking about how quiet the crowd will be if things go as he plans: a knockout or submission win.

But he recognizes they won’t be silent at the start.

“It’s not a problem,” Serra said. “I’m just going to get to feel like Tim Sylvia feels in every city.”

More than 18,000 tickets for UFC 83 were sold through a UFC Fight Club presale, with virtually no tickets made available to the public. Depending on how many new tickets can be sold after the building is set up for television production, the gate could exceed $5 million and end up in second place on the all-time North American list. It is guaranteed the biggest gate outside Las Vegas.

Not only is the largest crowd in UFC history a guarantee, but the expectation, stemming from the nature of sports fans in Montreal and the fact a competitor who lives and trains in the city is challenging for the title, is that it will be the loudest and most enthusiastic crowd in history.

“Montreal has always been a fighting town,” said former champion St. Pierre, 26, who clearly recognizes the possibility of it being a night that goes down in history. “The people love fighting. They love hockey, which is a fighting sport. Boxing has always been popular. Pro wrestling has always been big.”

Over the past few weeks, Serra, 16-4, has been watching DVDs of his favorite movies, “Rocky IV” and “Cinderella Man,” envisioning himself as Rocky Balboa or James Braddock, physically outmanned, having nobody believe you could win, and then scoring the upset of a lifetime.

Except in the Long Island native’s case, it would be two upsets of a lifetime.

“This is like Rocky IV,” said Serra. “I don’t get caught up in the hype, the so-called experts, the Internet; they’re not in there with us. It’s me and Georges. Once that cage shuts, I’m the one in control of my destiny.”

Everything was the same one year ago, except they were in Houston, and St. Pierre was the champion. Many thought he was almost unbeatable. Serra wasn’t even considered a legitimate contender, and most laughed off the idea of the match-up.

Today, well, almost nobody expects him to win. But nobody is laughing at the match.

Serra, 33, got his title shot by beating Chris Lytle in the finals of a tournament on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show. It promised a title shot to the winner of a tournament of fighters being given a second chance after being dropped from UFC competition. Serra won a decision after a dull fight.

The difference between winning and losing was a $100,000 contract and a title shot vs. $10,000. As someone about to get married and purchase his first home, Serra’s mindset was to not make a mistake and to get his hand raised.

“Chris I consider one of my best friends in the UFC,” said Serra, explaining why it was a mentally difficult fight. “He’s a great person. We spent six weeks in the (Ultimate Fighter) house together. We were main training partners. We had great sparring sessions and we knew each others’ moves.”

St. Pierre, on the other hand, had most recently stopped Matt Hughes, one of the most dominant MMA champions in history, with a kick to the head. A match with Serra, who had previously fought at lightweight, was criticized as being a joke, and Serra was listed as an eight-to-one underdog. He looked tiny in the ring next to St. Pierre. But a minute into the fight, he connected with an overhand right and St. Pierre was stunned.

Serra kept punching, knocking St. Pierre down. St. Pierre thought takedown, and Serra cracked him with a punch that sent him flying before landing. Some 19 punches later on the ground, and it was stopped just as St. Pierre began to tap.

There were two images that defined that night. One was of St. Pierre helpless for the first time in UFC competition. The other was of Matt Hughes, who was going to face the winner, smiling from ear-to-ear like he had just won the lottery because he was getting a title fight with Serra and not St. Pierre.

Serra’s two jiu-jitsu schools on Long Island did great business off his exposure on the reality show. He got married, had a honeymoon, moved into a new house, and went to Las Vegas to coach on the Ultimate Fighter to build to a grudge match with Hughes, all in a few-week period.

But nobody’s luck lasts forever, and in training for the fight with Hughes, he suffered two herniated discs in his lower back and had to bow out of the Hughes fight.

UFC created an interim title, not knowing for sure how quickly Serra would recover. St. Pierre stepped in for him, and like a year earlier, he dismantled Hughes.

“I’m 110 percent,” said Serra after finishing a five-mile run in his final week of hard training. “I feel great.”

“I judge how I’m going to fight by how I’m fighting in the gym, and that’s how I’m going to perform,” he said. “I’ve been fighting three or four times a week with multiple partners who are bigger and stronger. I’ve got some great stuff. What I pull off in sparring I should be able to pull off in a fight.”

Serra notes his strength, heavy hands and a great jiu-jitsu bottom game, stylistically makes him a tough opponent for St. Pierre, whose strengths are great technical stand-up and even better takedowns.

“I’m not saying I’m a better fighter than (Josh) Koscheck (whom St. Pierre beat in August) or Hughes, but I’m a harder match-up for GSP. If he takes me to the floor, he’s got long arms and I’ll latch onto them. If he makes a mistake, I’ll catch him.”

But Serra says he’s completely relaxed, feeling all the pressure is on his opponent.

“The worst thing that can happen for me when the match is over is that after two fights, we end up even.”

Dave Meltzer covers mixed martial arts for Yahoo! Sports. Meltzer, who has published the pro wrestling trade industry publication the Wrestling Observer Newsletter since 1982, began covering MMA with UFC 1 in 1993. He is a graduate of San Jose State University, and has written for the Oakland Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and The National. Send Dave a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

ELITEXC RE-SIGNS
KIMBO SLICE,
GINA CARANO,
ROBBIE LAWLER
TO LONG-TERM CONTRACTS

MMA Standouts Will Appear On Landmark May 31 “CBS ELITEXC SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS’’

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LOS ANGELES (April 14, 2008) – Fans can continue to expect to see mixed martial arts standouts and fan favorites Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano and Robbie Lawler fighting for Los Angeles-based ProElite, Inc.’s live fight division, EliteXC, for a long, long time.

“I am proud and very excited to announce that Kimbo, Gina and Robbie have all re-signed with us,’’ EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw said today. Terms of the long-term, multi-year agreements were not disclosed.

Kimbo, Carano and Lawler are three of EliteXC’s most popular, talented and exciting fighters and all will be featured Saturday, May 31, in the first of four prime time events on the CBS Television Network in 2008.

Kimbo (2-0) of Perrine, Fla., and Carano (5-0) of Las Vegas will face fighters to be announced while the exciting Lawler (15-4) of St. Louis will defend his EliteXC middleweight title against hard-hitting Scott “Hands Of Steel’’ Smith (15-4) of Sacramento, Calif., in a slugfest that figures to be non-stop, toe-to-toe action.

The official lineup for the historic MMA card, the first on network television, will formally be announced in the next few days. The highly anticipated event will emanate from the PrudentialCenter in Newark, N.J.

“We’re extremely happy to get these deals done with Kimbo, Gina and Robbie,’’ Shaw said. “Fighters know EliteXC is the place to be and the organization to fight for, which is why we’ve always been able to sign or re-sign almost each and every one of our fighters.

“You don’t see our guys leaving. With us, it’s family and all about the fighters. Every fighter who has fought on an EliteXC card has come away being ambassadors for EliteXC.

“Kimbo has already become an MMA star due to his incredible popularity on YouTube. His backyard street fights are legendary. No question Kimbo has made a successful transition from Street to Elite and is on his way to becoming a superstar and world champion.

“Gina became an instant star after her first fight for EliteXC and has gone on to gain even more national prominence. She truly is the face of women’s MMA, an inspiration to many up-and-coming athletes and is a perfect illustration as to why women do indeed have a place in this sport and with EliteXC.

“Robbie’s nicknamed ‘Ruthless’ – what more you need to know? He’s tough, hard-nosed and always been highly regarded. EliteXC is extremely proud to have Robbie as its world middleweight champion. Robbie has shown time and again that he’s one of the most thrilling fighters in any weight class in MMA.

“For sheer action and power, it doesn’t get better than ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler versus Scott ‘Hands Of Steel’ Smith.’’

For more information on EliteXC and other MMA-related stories, including bios, video-on-demand, photos, stats, Fantasy Fight Game TM and more, please visit ProElite.com and EliteXC.com.


Sylvia says he wants Fedor

By Damon Martin/MMAWeekly.com Apr 1, 5:30 pm EDT

The news came late last week that former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia was leaving the organization he’s called home for the majority of the last six years. He was granted his release and immediately signed with Adrenaline MMA, the promotion formerly known as M-1 Global.