WEC 35 Payroll Released
by Chris Nelson on Aug 4, 2008 6:03 PM EDT
in MMA News
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PrintMMAJunkie got the not-quite-Afflictionesque numbers from the NSAC:
Carlos Condit: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Hiromitsu Miura: $5,000
Steve Cantwell: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Stann: $11,000
Jamie Varner: $30,000 ($15,000 win bonus)
def. Marcus Hicks: $16,000
Brian Bowles: $8,000 ($4,000 win bonus)
def. Damacio Page: $6,000
Josh Grispi: $8,000 ($4,000 win bonus)
def. Micah Miller: $5,000
Brock Larson: $30,000 ($15,000 win bonus)
def. Carlo Prater: $7,000
Blas Avena: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Dave Terrel: $3,000
Shane Roller: $12,00O ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Todd Moore: $4000
Mike Budnik: $6,000 ($3,000 win bonus)
def. Greg McIntyre: $2,000
Scott Jorgensen: $6,000 ($3,000 win bonus)
def. Kenji Osawa: $5,000
I sure hope they took care of Miura on the back end for giving Condit his toughest test yet.
UPDATE: Bonus figures are out now too, with two "fights of the night."
WEC 35 Fights of the Night:
Carlos Condit vs. Hiromitsu Miura
Jamie Varner vs. Marcus Hicks
WEC 35 Knockout of the Night:
Brock Larson
WEC 35 Submission of the Night:
Brian Bowles
Each fighter earning a bonus received $7,500 in addition to the fight purse in the individual bout agreements.
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Brian Stann got paid less to defend his belt than Marcus Hicks got paid to try to win a belt? I’m a little surprised that Stann got so little … I thought he was sort of a posterboy for them, with the whole Marine angle and all that they play up so much. Heck, Cantwell earned less to become the lhw champion than Hicks.
I like Hicks and all … but that seems like a pretty hefty payday for him in a losing effort—especially because it looks like Varner would have earned less than him, too, except for the win bonus.
In fairness...
Hicks has been fighting a lot longer than Stann, even if he doesn’t have a bulky record to show for it.
You also have to look at which titles they were fighting for, and which divisions the WEC puts a priority on.
tough living
These salaries look paltry. Best case scenario, these guys fight 4 times a year - that’s still not a lot of money when you consider the costs of training. Does anyone know what kind of money the sponsors pay out per fight? Specifically, Tapout has a large stable of fighters - what kind of money are they shilling out?
Stann wanted somewhere around $1,000 for this event. Not exactly crazy money. Tapout sponsorship is like, some free t-shirts and trunks. Seriously.
If...
you’re accepting sponsorship for some free t-shirts and trunks…that is on you. You can get $1,000 from small local businesses to sponsor t-ball teams or even slow pitch softball. Real sponsors give real money…especially if you’re going to be on TV.
I seriously doubt that his sponsors aren’t giving him more than some clothes.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 4, 2008 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Here's a good lesson
I had the pleasure of hanging out with Mario Yamasaki recently. He pointed out an obvious but overlooked fact about sponsors:
The more sponsors a fighter wears, the less each is paying. If one fighter is repping one sponsor (GSP did Affliction in his last fight), then he’s making a TON.
We could all learn a lot from Mario Yamasaki.
by Cannon Jacques on Aug 4, 2008 9:27 PM EDT up reply actions
It is on them because there is no one rushing out to sponsor guys fighting in bar filled with 400-500 drunken lauts and anything is more than nothing. For the local pizza shop, having a team for slow pitch softball (where most everyone brings their own equipment anyhow) shows community involvement and gives the employees something to belong to. Sponsoring a professional cage fighter is a whole different world. I’d love to see these $1000 T-Ball sponsorships though.
Thousand dollar T-Ball
was wrong. You can get a few hundred for T-Ball though (I coached a reletive and ended up having to return money because we had about 200 more than needed) I was thinking more of my time playing on a traveling baseball team in Jr. High. We were traveling every single weekend, playing in tournaments with entry fees…etc. All covered by sponsors.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 5, 2008 9:58 AM EDT up reply actions
A few hundred, yes. Again, there are reasons a pizza place in your local town might be willing to sponsor a local team (for instance, a guarantee that the team eats there after games) that simply are not applicable to a professional cage fighter. Ultimately, you also must deal with the simple fact that there are a huge number of people living in the US who see MMA as being immoral and unconscionable. There is the occasional local sponsor (I seem to remember some New Mexico car dealerships sponsoring guys like Diego Sanchez) but for the most part, its tough for a small business to justify that kind of expenditure, particularly for multiple fighters fighting on nothing cards in Meth Country, USA. Tapout sponsors a billion guys, on the other hand, because t-shirts are cheap.
There is a difference...
between the guys Tapout is sponsoring on small shows…and the guys Tapout is sponsoring who are putting their logo on national TV.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 5, 2008 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Knowing how much Dana and co love fighters that bring it, I am sure that Miura was taken care of.
Luke,
While Mario’s comment may be true to some extent, many fighters are making 50-100k, per fight, in endorsements. A while back, Vera mentioned getting around 90k for a fight.
Joe L was selling space on his shirt for the Florian fight. I totaled it up and the shirt alone was 38k. Joe is hardly a major fighter.
Fighters have the t-shirt they wear to the ring, the shorts, the sweatshirt over the t-shirt, the banner behind them when the intros are done, the hat they wear to the ring, the hat they wear after the fight, the t-shirt they wear after the fight.
A lot of coin is made.
But I would imagine GSP’s Affliciton deal is six figures per fight.
As far as the WEC pay goes, these shows generally draw 1-2k and do smallish ratings. The WEC may be owned by Zuffa, but it is run as a separate company. They are going to pay smaller amounts.
That being said, the pay is comparable with that of Strikeforce and Elite, for the most part.
I heard, and this may or may not be correct, that Faber and Pulver each picked up around 35k as a bonus for the success of the show. That was the biggest show the WEC has ever done and likely won’t be duplicated anytime soon.
Miura Robbed
Not by Condit … by Zuffa. 5K?? My ex-wife was a professional bike racer 12 years ago & she would get more than that from her team just to show up for a race. The fighters have got to start pushing for better paydays than that.
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