UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

[Qb]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

I was shocked at how easily he was rocked by that head butt in the Serra fight.

It did look like somewhat of a glancing blow, but that's easy for me to think while sitting at a bar!

98 was the first UFC PPV I watched since the mid-to-late 90s when my friend's descrambler box got a lot of use. I really enjoyed it, got out of the house for a bit, had a few beers, and will likely keep going...

[Azamien]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

Matt Serra — $75,000

I'm surprised a former champion is making that little.

[goh]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

+ the bonuses.

I forgot to quote it earlier but I saw it come up again today so it reminded me. Whoever said someone should piss in Machida's ceral and blame it on Silva,apprently Machida pisses in his own ceral so that's not going to work.

[DTX3]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

Hughes made 200 grand? Really? Wow.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

Hughes made 200 grand? Really? Wow.

I need to get into the "lay and pray" business.

[whoady4shoady]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

I laughed at the youtube clip of her on Dana's blog. It's great to see someone with such a big mouth when her husband is winning get thrown into chaos mode and see how she wigs out when someone teaches him a lesson in respect.

Funny how things work out sometimes.

[Acedeck]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

It's amazing how little these UFC guys make. Boxers make 10-50x as much per fight.

[Azamien]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

It's amazing how little these UFC guys make. Boxers make 10-50x as much per fight.

Only the headliners make that much in boxing. Undercard fighters are woefully underpaid there, too.

That aside, you're comparing apples to bricks. There's more revenue coming into big boxing events. Saying that MMA fighters should make as much as boxers is like saying that professional lacrosse players should make as much as NHL players. You're only looking at the similarities of the sports involved and not the real differences.

[MC Fatigue]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

I just had to defend Evans on another site, and now I think I'm going to be sick because of it.

[IStillDoWhatIDo]

well, the differences justify UFC fighters making more. MMA is a much more violent sport. you're not just subjected to punching. also, boxing as a whole is on the decline in popularity. what was once America's most popular sport (next to baseball at the time) is now a shadow of what it once was. MMA conversely appears to be on the rise. I'm a new fan, thanks to the video game, the free dvd that came with it, and other matches I saw before both; and I am converting more fans.

[aholbert32]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

well, the differences justify UFC fighters making more. MMA is a much more violent sport. you're not just subjected to punching. also, boxing as a whole is on the decline in popularity. what was once America's most popular sport (next to baseball at the time) is now a shadow of what it once was. MMA conversely appears to be on the rise. I'm a new fan, thanks to the video game, the free dvd that came with it, and other matches I saw before both; and I am converting more fans.

I disagree. The average MMA fight goes about 2 rounds. Thats the equvielant of 3 boxing rounds. Boxers subject themselves to punishment for longer periods during a fight (especially if a fight goes 12 rounds). Also, Boxing permits a fighter to get back up if they can answer a count of ten and MMA refs are generally quicker to stop a fight than Boxing refs.

Top boxing PPV still draws more than MMA. For example the De la Hoya/Pacman fight was the top selling ppv last year. Oscar/Mayweather and Mayweather/Hatton both outsold every MMA ppv in 2007. This year, Pacman/Hatton has outsold every MMA PPV this year.

[Qb]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

Yep, it all comes down to the revenue generated by the sport. If/when MMA starts bringing in more money, the fighters will likely make more. It has happened in every professional sport, usually tied to fat TV-rights contracts between the league and networks. I think MMA has a lot of potential for growth, but it could be hindered by its perception by mainstream media and its natural gravitation towards PPV event as opposed to regular TV programming.

Hell, over a decade ago John McCain called it "human cockfighting" and the fallout from that led to several major companies pulling it from PPV. Now it's on cable TV several nights a week...

[Heelfan71]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

saw a video of Dana White and he said Machida gets hit one time every 2 1/2 rounds on average.

[Wet Bandit]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

I'm surprised a former champion is making that little.

Yeah, but he could have made another $75,000 for winning. And he could have made another $60,000 for the KO of the night or submission of the night or being involved in fight of the night. Dana is very smart to tie so much money to performance.

Besides that, UFC fighters have a couple more sources of revenue for their fights. First, they're allowed to have sponsors on their shorts, shirts, caps, etc. They're even allowed to have a big banner behind them during introductions with more sponsors on it. Granted, they're not making millions off that stuff, but I'd imagine someone like Matt Serra probably took home as much from those sponsors as he did from the UFC.

Something much larger, though, is that a number of fighters get a cut of the PPV revenue. Dana knows that the UFC brand is stronger than almost every fighter he's got. But there are a few guys that are strong PPV draws, guys like Liddell, Couture, etc., and Dana gives them a cut of the PPV. Guys have reportedly earned one or two million dollars from that cut. And that money doesn't have to be reported by the UFC, so it doesn't show up in these fighter salaries after each PPV.

To put a long story short, you only get a very incomplete picture by looking at the reported fighter salaries. There's a lot more that goes on.

[whoady4shoady]

Re: UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

I just had to defend Evans on another site, and now I think I'm going to be sick because of it.

LOL. Why, what happened?