Boxing promoters, $$, UFC and corruption.

[Sambisti]

The highest paid UFC fighter is "The Iceman" who reportedly made over a million on his third fight against Couture. Tito has been mentioned a lot makes about $ 200.000+. I can't think of any other fighter who gets paid more, so it's fair to say that the rest of the top fighters make less than $200,000 per fight.
On the other hand Boxings premier fighters make way more money. Fighters like Maywether Jr, Gatti, Mosley, Barreira, Mayorga, Morales, Paquia, De la Hoya, Baldomir, Klitchko, Trinidad, Hopkins, Tarver, and I am sure few others get paid more than 2 million per fight.
Trinidad got paid $13 million when he fought Mayorga on his come back two yers ago and $ 7 million when he fought Mayorga last year. On the Hopkins - De la Hoya fight they made $ 17 million and $ 23 million respectivly. Bob Arum(One of the biggest promoters) just recently offered Mayweather Jr $ 8 million to fight Margarito, but Mayweather declined. De la Hoya is in talks with Trinidad to set a rematch and Trinidad Won't fight for less than $ 20 million. De la HOya could offer $ 10 million to Mayweather for a fight but he is saying he is not sure if Maywether is worth it. There are many more simillar examples and you can look it up.
As you can see there is a big gap between purses Boxers and UFC fighters.
If you are wandering about the profits of respective promotions none of the recent(going back 5 years) boxing PPV buys exceeds Couture-Ledell III PPV buys which at about 800.000 buys is the highest ever; If you look at most boxings live arenas you can see more empty seats than at UFC events.
So numbers speak for itself and they make my point. UFC robbs their fighters while boxing promoters are way more generous when it comes to paying them making way less profits for themselves. We are talking about promoters like Don KIng and Bob Arum who for last 30 years have been talked about as corrupt, robbing their fighters, fight fixing and all the bad names. Obviosly UFC have a tighter grip controlling their fighters which makes me think that fighters can be more vulnerable to Dana's offers for a fixed fight when promised the right amount of money. We all know that Dana is a genious when it comes to making money.
I pay equally for boxing fights and UFC fights and I really enjoy the UFC events so I want to make it clear that I am not taking boxing's side against UFC(As a show I find UFC way more entertaining than boxing events even though HBO has some superior commentators). These are honest observetians and I would appreciate your thoughts.

[Sambisti]

Sorry. Trinidad's second fight was against Winky Wright.

[Bohica]

First of all, it is none of our business what fighters make.

But there are two big reasons I think UFC fighters get paid less.

1. The UFC solely absorbs all of the costs of the events. They pay for all of the production, marketing, insurance, etc. And the UFC has more fighters than any other organization in the world, and they put on more fights than any other organization in the world including a lot of free fights where they really aren't making near PPV $$$

2. The UFC is on a run right now. Their success is still in it's infancy. For years, the UFC has been on life support, and was literally LOSING money. Right now, I think they are making money hand over fist. But they aren't just building houses out of stacks of $100 bills. They are reinvesting in the sport. They are continuing to grow and spread worldwide. Right now, the UFC gaining in strength exponentially. And the longer they can keep this going, the stronger they will be in the long run, and the bigger advantage they will have over the competition. Right now, Pride is their biggest competitor. Pride has been more successful up until a year or so ago, and every day that goes by, the UFC is putting space between them and Pride.

But at some point, the purses will be much much larger. It really wouldn't surprise me to see the UFC make a big move in the next year or so to acquire some big names from other organizations, and in order to do that, it will cost big money.

I think right now, they are just focusing on building their organization grass roots style. And once it gets to an enormous strength (which it is approaching) then it will make a move to eliminate the competition.

[X-Vids]

You forgot the fact there are 2 fighters in a boxing PPV and there are like 16 fighters in a MMA event or even 24 fighters if it's a Bushido GP.

So if there are 10X more fighters in it, it's reasonable to be paid 10X less.

[JordanLUFC]

It's hardly like $200,000 isn't enough to get by on now is it.

[HotBox]

Boxing ppv cost like $60 and tickets sell for more than UFC

[GrapplingDummy**]

I think its time for keyboard warriors who don't have a dime in their pockets to quit crying about those who are robbed by making a million a fight.

I have never dived into Boxing nor the UFC accounting books and never knew how much each make but I am sure Don King is much richer than Dana White. There must be a reason for that, maybe they make more money in boxing? Or maybe he gets his cut from the sports betting on fixed fights. Or maybe Boxing sales are much higher than MMA. I don't know to be able to tell.

I think $200,000 - $1M a fight is a good compensation. It makes all top fighters millionaires in a two year time frame. I am not sorry for them what so ever.

[Forstain]

Why does eveybody want the MMA orgs to pay mega bucks to fighters? It won't make the fights any better. I am interested in good match ups rather that how much they are getting paid.

[WaR6986]

Originally Posted by Forstain

Why does eveybody want the MMA orgs to pay mega bucks to fighters? It won't make the fights any better. I am interested in good match ups rather that how much they are getting paid.

majority of the best athletes in the world choose to train for sports other than MMA (soccer, basketball, football, even boxing) because that's where the money is. better pay=better athletes which will eventually lead to better fighters

[Forstain]

ok, lets all pay four times as much for the PPV so that they can earn what they deserve