Though I’m personally disturbed that so many people support low wages for fighters. This isn’t about all fighters getting paid mega-bucks, rather I think all fans of the sport should support a pay scale that allows most fighters to make an honest living by focusing on their MMA career until they lack marketyability or simply can’t compete. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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Organizing a union for MMA fighters will require an alliance between multiple forces, including regular athletes, celebrity athletes (Tito, Randy), experts (Big John), journalists/bloggers and fans. Their combined forces will be able to pressure promotions (primarily the UFC) to balance against the control promotions currently hold over fighters. Well-established fighters who can afford to must speak out on behalf of powerless fighters who are intimidated or contractually bound into silence by their employers.

It’s a waste of time to appeal to morality or reason to convince those who will oppose these efforts. The only thing to do is to build power by organizing.

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Sam, you’ve always done a good job as a reporter at examining both sides and keeping your own opinion close to the middle. I understand that given your wife’s goal of fighting professionally, its now impossible for you to not lean more strongly towards one side.

I have no problems with fighter’s unionizing. I just find it strange that fans think they need to be so vocal about it. Ultimately, its between the fighters and promotions. Why do fans need to represent fighters on the matter? Fighters should represent themselves.

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I am pretty appalled at so-called MMA “fans” who are OK with fighters getting paid poorly. The people who are making comments like “nobody is forcing them to fight” are incredibly narrow-sighted and selfish. I’m sure a lot of you have a good job, an air-conditioned office and a nice hi-def flat-screen TV to watch your pay-per-views and yet you begrudge men and women who are willing to sacrifice their health and physical well-being so you can rewind their knockouts and blood being spilled on your DVR with your drinking buddies. These so-called fans just hate to see others have a bigger payday, especially when it’s a fighter they’ve never heard of.

The UFC is like the Walmart of MMA – it’s an omnipotent juggernaut with all the power, all the money and all the press. There’s no “market forces” at work here, except for fighters like Chuck Liddell with name recognition who could command much bigger salaries elsewhere. But for the lesser known fighter? The UFC offers them opportunities no other promotion can, and the UFC knows it which is why it can get away with its negotiating tactics.

I agree with what Sam is saying 100% – just because a promotion can get away with shockingly low salaries for athletes on the lower rungs, why shouldn’t the playing field be leveled? That’s all unionisation is. You can joke about Commies and the Soviets all you like, but the bottom line is that MMA promotions need athletes and athletes need MMA promotions. Since the need for both is equal, why should there not be equal bargaining power at the negotiating table?

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The truth is, a fighter is NOT paid for the 9 – 12 months they spent training. They are paid for the fight, and the fight alone. The 9 – 12 months spent training are an investment made by the fighter that they may or may not recoup monetarily.

I don’t remember anyone suggesting that these fighters fight for free for the good of the sport when Zuffa was putting in their investment of time and money, which at the time, was pretty uncertain whether or not they would recoup. Nobody demanded Tito Ortiz cut his asking price in half when the Fertitta’s were paying him out of their own pocket and losing millions on the shows he would headline.

I think the problem a lot of people have when talking about money in MMA is that they want to put the cart before the horse. We all want this to be a mainstream sport so badly that we forget how young a sport it truly is. Zuffa is still paying off debts, and has undertaken new debts that make that initial $40 million they lost seem insignificant. They took out nearly $300 million in debts so that they could reinvest in the sport and their company to grow MMA even bigger. That will take them years of profits to pay off, but nobody seems concerned about their finances.

One day, when MMA is a mainstream sport, perhaps the stars will make tens of millions, and the average UFC fighter will make a good living. But right now, our instant gratification society thinks those things should happen BEFORE the sport has proven to be a long-term money maker. We are only 3 YEARS into the time when Zuffa has actually proven profitable. Only three years! And no other organization has yet done the same.

Maybe we would get better fighters if they paid more, but that doesn’t matter yet if the sport isn’t big enough to maintain those salaries. This is a period of sacrifice for a lot of people – athletes, promoters, trainers, investors, etc. – and most probably won’t be able to be successful. It is their risk, and they willingly assume that risk.

And comparisons to league minimums in other sports don’t fly. First, MMA is not as big as these other sports. Second, MMA is an individual sport, not a team sport. If Peyton Manning wins the Super Bowl and makes millions, he was also helped by the rest of his team, who may go unnoticed, but still deserve a cut of the money created by that success. However, if Forrest Griffin wins a fight, it isn’t like some guy fighting on the undercard helped him in any way.

The salaries will come as the sport grows, but we don’t base salaries just on how hard someone worked – especially if it is just hard work in support of their own dream, without any real external benefit to anyone else. There are plenty of Olympians who will never make a dime, and have probably sacrificed more than many MMA athletes will ever know. But that is their choice, and their dream, and it doesn’t mean we should pay them if nobody wants to watch whatever it is that they do.

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I think it is great that these fighters (and your wife) are all pursuing their dreams. But anyone that has the dream of becoming a professional athlete has to know that pursuing that dream comes with tremendous sacrifices and a high chance of outright failure. If just anyone could become a professional athlete then we wouldn’t have such a strong desire to watch these sports. We watch professional sports to see something extraordinary, and the most extraordinary athletes get paid the most because they are who we want to see the most. We don’t pay high ticket prices to go see the 30-and-over co-ed softball leagues down at the local field.

The same goes with MMA fighters. They aren’t paid as much because we aren’t necessarily paying to watch them. As their recognition grows, their pay will increase. However, there is a high degree of failure, and most should be prepared to never get much financial reward for their efforts.

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