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As far as working for Peanuts goes: Roger Huerta, not including sponsor money, made 131k in 2007. Please tell me you think that is poverty money. And knowing what some fighters make in endorsements (and this comes from fighters who know I respect them), it is very likely that Huerta ended up with close to 250k for the year.

Furthermore, I do show fighters RESPECT. Find me one time that I have ever belitted a fighter.

My point is, and I will say it again so you actually understand it, is that Roger Huerta is making a decent living. I also said that Roger deserves every penny he can get.

Turn down the hysteria a notch and read what it written.

Zuffa is hardly an evil empire that makes hundreds of millions per card. Could more be done? Sure, but then most other companies could pay more.

A ppv that does 500k and sells out at 3 million gives the UFC 12 million total. That is before all expenses. Is the UFC making millions? Sure, but they are also employing around 100 people (not including the fighters) and paying them as well.

The UFC’s profit margin is likely not all that far off from what many successful companies are at.

Roger and Zuffa will continue to negotiate. If they can’t come to terms, Roger will have the oppurtunity to test his worth in the free market.

I hope he re-signs, but if not, there certainly are a fair amount of options between Japan and the U.S. If he does not sign, I will not think less of him. He needs to do what is best for him.

One last note: If you believe everything Tito is saying, you are being misled. This is a guy that said, on Howard Stern, that he only made 225k in his last fight (Not true since his contract gives him the same ppv percentage as Randy and Chuck and thus will end up with at least 700k) and that his opponent only made 25k. It is a matter of public record that Machida made 100k.

Tito spins things to his own benefit. Is he wrong in everything? No, but he has say untrue things MANY times.

It would be nice if much of this could be talked about without the hysterics (both for and against a fighter) that often arise.

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Where are all those people who try and tell us that UFC fighters are fairly compensated and that all of us people railing against fighter pay are just sensationalist internet turds? Huh?

Yeah, because for every UFC fighter who complains about their pay there are about more than 10 who aren’t.

Like I said before, don’t like the contract, don’t sign. Don’t like your current contract, fulfill your current contract and renegotiate or don’t re-sign.

That’s how Liddell and Franklin did it and they’re getting paid well. Why don’t fighters learn by example?

Eric said:

Why don’t you guys who are criticizing Huerta for speaking out against the company that you’re so stupidly loyal toward jump in the cage and fight for the money the UFC is paying. Let’s see how long you can survive.

Why don’t you go and publicly bash the company you work for and see how long you still have a job?

It isn’t about loyalty (hell, I want Affliction to succeed because competition is good for the sport), it’s about handling situations like this the proper way. The Tito Ortiz way doesn’t work.

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The UFC is 1 BILLION $ company i’m pretty sure they can afford paying their fighters alot more.
Sure they still get decent pay you can argue but the UFC is the one who’s making the big bucks here not the fighters. And what the hell Jeremy you say the fighters hardly working for peanuts??? They are in the gym every single day working their ass off, These guys are proffessional athlethes it’s not like some regular dude who never trained in his life could step in that cage and put a good show on. Show the fighters some damn respect.

I think that there are alot of other fighters that are unhappy with their contracts but if they speak up they could just be released from the UFC and they have to pay their bills like everyone else. I don’t like Tito but he’s right in what he’s saying and i think there will be more fighters to join Roger,Tito and Randy in speaking up against the UFC.

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If you were to ask ten fighters exactly how much they make, I am sure most would decline to answer.

Should Zuffa, Affliction and others have to report every penny the fighters make?

Anderson Silva currently gets a percentage of the ppvs. I don’t hear him telling reporters what he got.

While Roger is talking about money, he is not actually talking about what he makes or what he wants to make. He wants more money, but I don’t think he wants everyone to know what he makes. If he did, he would have been specific.

I may be wrong, but from what I understand, Roger is looking for money that would put him in the same place as Lyoto Machida, far more than top ten fighters like Kos, Sanchez and Fitch.

None of this has been discussed because neither Zuffa nor Roger have chosen to be specific.

Zuffa is not the only company to pay undisclosed money. Pride did it for both of it’s U.S. shows. Elite does not disclose anything on shows that don’t require it.

Affliction has some contracts that contain undisclosed bonus money. It has come out that Fedor’s deal paid a lot up front and contains several clauses that pay him extra money.

At no point will fighter pay be completely disclosed and, honestly, I don’t think Chuck Liddell wants Brandon Vera knowing his total earnings.

I would like to see the UFC pay out a small percentage of ppv revenue to fighters. That way, guys would get extra money based on how the show did.
The top guys (Liddell, Franklin, Silva, GSP) all get a ppv cut right now.

Maybe have 5% go to the fighters as bonuses. For a card like UFC 86 which is believed to have done around 525k buys, it would be another 500-600k for the fighters.

I also don’t have a problem with companies paying extra money to guys that had great fights. Keith Jardine did make a lot of extra money for his win over Chuck.

GSP picked up a very nice six figure bonus when he beat Serra.

Right now, fighter pay is regularly going up. For UFC 84, only four of twenty-two fighters made less than ten. Eleven made 20k or more.

There are more MMA companies (Strikeforce, Elite, Affliction, WVR, Dream) out there today than ever before. Because of this, fighters will get more because the market demands it.

Roger deserves every penny he can get, but he is hardly at the bottom of the MMA food chain. 2007 saw him take home a disclosed 131k, not including endorsement money. Unless his manager is a total clown, Roger made over 200k (likely over 250k) last year.

Does this mean he has no right to complain? No, but it is worth keeping in mind that he is hardly working for peanuts.

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It’s bad that he likely tanked any chance he had at fighting BJ after the Florian fight. On the bright side, BJ is the only top-notch lightweight that the UFC has, so other than a shot at BJ, Huerta has plenty of great opportunities elsewhere if he leaves.

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Furthermore, and this is something that rarely comes up, these guys have a lot of overhead when they fight. Managers, lawyers, promotional and license fees all add up. I’m not saying we should feel too bad for them, and let me be clear even with that they make a very solid living, but that living comes at a very high price financial and also the physical toll they put on their bodies. Combine that with relatively low up front and assured money and the lack of steady definite fights and that all adds up a very solid case for the average fighter in the UFC to make.

There needs to be more open accounting practices going on with the UFC but until we see a real challenger to their reign as top dog I doubt we will see that any time soon. Which is unfortunate.

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Dave Meltzer also reported that negotiations have not gone well and that both sides are far apart on numbers.

Is Huerta currently worth 40+40 or more? I don’t see it right now. If he decisively beats Florian, maybe.

But to pay him more than Kos, Sanchez and others seems a bit much.

Tony,
Perhaps you did not hear the Affliction VP just say that fighters will have to work with him and that they should not look at him as a cash cow.

Hex,
Yes, Jardine’s disclosed purse was 10k. Dana was asked if Jardine made 10k and he said no. I know full well what the disclose pay was for that card. I also know that most of the main card fighters made a lot more.

I know, for a fact, that Sherk made a hell of a lot more than 35k for UFC 84, so did BJ, Wandy and others.

Speaking to somebody from New Mexico, I was told that Keith ended up making “between 70-90k” for the fight. Jardine made well over 100k for his win over Liddell.

The UFC has to disclose the contracted pay, but quite often pays bonuses to fighters in the main bouts. By paying bonuses instead of simply signing huge contracts, they can pay less for less successful shows.

Couple of examples: After beating Josh Burkeman, Karo openly said that Dana gave him a very nice check, even though Karo did not get fight of the night.

Kalib Starnes said that he got an extra 25k for beating Leben. This was outside of his other bonuses.

Leonard Garcia was paid a bonus check when he lost to Huerta.

Randy Couture, in his new bio, talked about getting a very large check after losing to Chuck the second time.

Of course the problem with these bonuses is that you can’t count on getting them.

Roger needs to do what is best for him. But he is hardly getting screwed. As I said in another post, he made a reported 53k for his win over Guida. His reported pay for his last three bouts is a total of $111k.

Again, he deserves whatever he can get somebody to pay him, but I am not worried about him paying the bills.

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