Dana White Throws Verbal Jabs at Oscar De La Hoya

[AntonTheMeh]

Couture and Liddell, being far and away the two marquee names in the history of organization, have managed to get themselves cuts of the PPV revenue in the past (almost unheard of for a UFC fighter), so they don't tend to fall into the same class as the remainder.

just about everybody knows them.

[Doc Holliday]

Yes but how much are those "good" fighters getting paid on the undercards???

See in todays boxing, a solid main-event caliber fighter will ask for alot of money, money that he deserves and the promoter might not pay him. So that fighter would have to wait for another card and be the main event himself in order to get paid.

In the UFC, like the WWE you're part of a stable. You have a contract with them and you get what you get. No negotiating. In other words, they can put the UFC heavyweight champion on the undercard while giving the main event slot to old ass Ken Shamrock and paying him the most.

Whatever they think will get them more PPV buys. At the end of the day, the more PPV they sell, the more Dana White gets paid. The fighter only gets what he is guaranteed in the contract for being part of the stable. And perhaps a bonus if he wins.

Yeah, the fighters don't get paid enough, I said that too.

[MOREBASS]

and you don't think that half a mill is abysmal considering the current popularity,the ppv numbers, and the live gate? half a mill?for one of the faces and the heavyweight champion of the world?

Compared to boxing, most definitely !

But until another promotional company has some success, the UFC can pay their fighters what they feel is fair. Then again, the UFC also has bonuses and perks that we don't often get to see publicly.

But I think one thing thats hurt boxing is the ridiculous amount of money main card fighters recieve. Its the reason why boxing will hardly ever have a full card of quality fights.

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Exactly: Top fighters, the 1% I left out. Not even necessarily meaning the best, but the most marketable. And if he's lucky he can tie them up in non-negotiable long-term contracts (like Rich Franklin) before they become champion so as to continue to pay them peanuts. The gap between the rank and file and the top stars (of which there are only a handful receiving top pay) is massive. There really is almost no middle ground, though lately several of the top fighters coming over from Pride managed to negotiate well before starting to fight in the organization.

Additionally the UFC can end a fighter's contract at any time on a whim for doing anything they dislike (see Lindland the t-shirt incident). At least when a name boxer loses he isn't at a huge risk of never being allowed to fight on a serious stage ever again. The monopolistic tendencies of the UFC are neither good for the fighters nor MMA in general.

There is a massive gap between boxers starting out and top stars. There are boxers making a few hundred per fight out there and contenders making 5 grand a fight if they are lucky.

And HBO and Showtime control if a fighter lives or dies. If a fighter cant get on HBO or Showtime, his career is dead. Fighters are then forced to take certain chances they may not be ready for to satisfy the cable network or they end up getting blackballed.

[Ravens Fan]

Dana White is partly Correct

Dana White is only partly correct in his assessment of the problems within boxing. What I am saying is that to blame Del la Hoya alone is ridiculous. The reason being is that you have so many different alphabet boys dictating who can fight who and when. In reality Oscar has little to no control over these boxing organizations that control boxing.

Also, there is no comparing boxing to the UFC because the UFC is the big dog in that show. With boxing you have many old established big dogs such as Bob Arum and Don King to Main Events and the new one on the block Golden Boy himself and that is just a hand full of them. So, obviously it would be much easier to stack the under card for White because he controls just about every facet of the UFC. And because White controls everything there is one other impotent aspect to look at. And that is what does White pay his fighters? And the answer is, not much.

When Lesnar beat Randy Couture both of them made basically chump change in taking home $250,000 a piece. I may be mistaken but I think Oscar made triple that just walking to the limo that took him to the venue when he fought Mayweather. I mean even Ricky Hatton made $2.5 million to fight the Magic Man and all White can manage to pay his his fighters in a heavyweight championship fight is a measly $250,000? Even Marciano made more then that in his heavyweight title fights more then fifty years ago. To me it is a matter of simple economics. Because it is much easier to put together stacked shows when your making millions and your only paying your fighters pennies. And the question is, what do you think will happen to White's stacked UFC under cards when his fighters demand to be paid a living wage?

I will tell you what will happen to them, they will go the way of the dinosaur because he will not pay out all the money that will be needed to maintain them. And sooner or later the UFC will have viable competition so the fighters will have options to negotiate with other organizations such as the WEC. When that happens, and it will happen, the UFC will develop growing pains and experience some of the same problems now seen in boxing.

By the way I like to watch the UFC but it just doesn't compare to a great old fashion slug fest of a boxing match and the UFC will certainly never ever have the rich history that boxing enjoys, it will just never happen. Enough of my rants and have a safe and happy new years!!

[Vasyl’s dad]

What makes boxing so troubled again?

I've enjoyed many great fights this decade.

[MOREBASS]

I agree that the fighters, when compared to top level boxers, aren't making nearly as much. But while the fighters may not be the highest beneficiaries financially of having a stacked card, guess who wins..?

Us, the fans.

We as fans get our moneys worth, and in turn the sport grows.


The fighter's salaries have gradually gotten higher as the sport has grown. I hope that trend will continue. But really without another viable MMA promotion, there is really not much UFC fighters can do, unless they form some sort of fighter's union.

[Miburo]

There is a massive gap between boxers starting out and top stars. There are boxers making a few hundred per fight out there and contenders making 5 grand a fight if they are lucky.

And HBO and Showtime control if a fighter lives or dies. If a fighter cant get on HBO or Showtime, his career is dead. Fighters are then forced to take certain chances they may not be ready for to satisfy the cable network or they end up getting blackballed.

And promoters interacting and bargaining with those networks creates a degree of parity, something which doesn't exist in the UFC since they are one and the same entity.

You may need to acquaint yourself with several of the ridiculous reasons for which fighters have been cut in the past. In regards to salary, you missed my point entirely. In boxing there are plenty of "middle ground" champions, not stars but not unknown who pull in six-figure fight purses of varying degrees. This type of fighter basically does not exist in the UFC. Many fan favorites can scarcely pay for their camps with their fight purses. Simple fact: virtually all UFC fighters make far and away the bulk of their livelihood from sponsors, and all such sponsors have to be personally approved by the UFC (leading to the extreme repetition and lack of variety). No UFC, no sponsors, no earning a living through fighting. The UFC holds all the cards regardless of how one performs in the ring, and dominate salary negotiations even for the marquee names. Only Couture and Liddell (perhaps Lesnar now) ever managed to partially break this pattern, and even Couture sparked a huge lawsuit with the organization largely weak fight purse conditions in his contract in proportion to his drawing power.

This is one of the reasons why top talent flocked to Pride FC, the fight purses were always proportionate to a fighter's status.

[Doc Holliday]

The monopolistic tendencies of the UFC are neither good for the fighters nor MMA in general.

Exactly. The UFC has a monopoly on MMA in the US. They currently have no real competition, so they will continue to grow.

Also, White is lucky McCain didn't win the presidency, that guy was on a crusade to shut them down.

[MOREBASS]

And promoters interacting and bargaining with those networks creates a degree of parity, something which doesn't exist in the UFC since they are one and the same entity.

You may need to acquaint yourself with several of the ridiculous reasons for which fighters have been cut in the past. In regards to salary, you missed my point entirely. In boxing there are plenty of "middle ground" champions, not stars but not unknown who pull in six-figure fight purposes of varying degrees. This type of fighters basically does not exist in the UFC. Many fan favorites can scarcely pay for their camps with their fight purses. Simple fact: virtually all UFC fighters make far and away the bulk of their livelihood from sponsors, and all such sponsors have to be personally approved by the UFC (leading to the extreme repetition and lack of variety). No UFC, no sponsors, no earning a living through fighting. The UFC holds all the cards regardless of how one performs in the ring, and dominate salary negotiations even for the marquee names. Only Couture and Liddell (perhaps Lesnar now) ever managed to partially break this pattern, and even Couture sparked a huge lawsuit with the organization largely weak fight purse conditions in his contract in proportion to his drawing power.

This is one of the reasons why top talent flocked to Pride FC, the fight purses were always proportionate to a fighter's status.

Great post. But unfortunately, until the UFC's monopoly is put to a halt, or they get some legit competition, its not going to change much.