UFC Releases Lorenzo Fertitta ESPN Interview Clip, Slams Network's Pay To Boxers

Exactly.

Making them part of the promotion. Maybe that would have been a better comparison?

But Versus also isn’t the one running a piece effectively arguing for higher pay to other fighters. If they did, then they could rightfully be called out for being so strongly associated with that happening.

Take ESPN out of the equation, and these guys are fighting on cable television for hundreds of dollars. It’s still an important fact, regardless of where the fights are airing.

ESPN isn’t the promoter

But it goes some way to showing the slight hypocritical nature of ESPN’s piece.

To paraphrase my thoughts; “The UFC pay some fighters too little, but we [espn] are involved with a boxing promoter who pays some fighters as little as $275”.

They can hardly take the moral high road.

ESPN is a billion dollar industry. They hire promoters for ESPN Friday Nights that pay fighters shit.

It’s no different then if Kmart’s clothing line was made in Chinese Sweatshops. Lorenzo is bringing up the point that ESPN is bringing up a story on fighter pay yet the hire promoters that pay their fighters nothing

You can watch this on ESPN the Ocho.

But I’d be mad at you for your use of logic if it weren’t for that sweet beard.

They come off that way a lot

was Zuffa sent their own PR guy who filmed the entire video, knowing ESPN would edit down the entire interview. That’s not evil on ESPN’s part, it’s a necessary part of journalism.

So what Dana & Co. get to do now, in the wake of the ESPN piece, is release clips from the interview that weren’t used that put Zuffa in the best light. And of course they will piece them out one at a time. There’s no upside to dumping them all at once. Releasing one every two days or so lets them continue the narrative of “See how ESPN screwed us???” for a week or more.

or would you rather a rebuttal be aired before the claim?

It’s both.

#Commence waving of little American flags, and USA chants.#

Which is pretty much what Dana and the Fertittas want, it’s not necessarily the truth but it does make them look better.

but yes I agree mentioning the fact that bellator owners have more money than Zuffa and pay their fighters even less is something that should definitely be brought up

You mention these huge numbers but do you have evidence to back it up? Some teams manage to LOSE money in the NFL each year and yet they STILL pay practice squad, aka guys who never play in games, a minimum of $5,700 per week. These guys never compete, get paid to train and still get paid well more than low level UFC competitors despite the fact that the UFC is infinitely more profitable than, say, the Jaguars, Bengals, Rams, Lions, Cardinals, Seahawks etc.

And maybe pro-wrestling.

Although to be fair, the UFC is close to being represented on the same level of cable/TV presence as the “big four” sports leagues — NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL/Soccer (depending on region) — so the comparison’s going to be made often during the next seven years.

So if you can’t win in the UFC, you shouldn’t fight at all?

They’ve clearly built the sport but are you saying no one else would figure out how to make money off of MMA if not for Zuffa?

The Bernie Fine tapes have nothing to do with this. I mean, i agree that was reprehensible. But it’s also got nothing to do with anything here other than to go “don’t take this seriously because they’ve done things that were wrong in the past”

You’re essentially arguing that low quality regional guys shouldn’t get paid because the alternative to paying them a low amount to fill out undercards is to simply not have the fight take place.

And they don’t have to because Zuffa doesn’t need to defend themselves for making as much as possible. Any business would do the same. I know I try to. But it’s funny to see people dismiss the idea that Zuffa isn’t making obscene profits and that the fighters can’t be unhappy with their share of the pie.

I think UFC fighter pay is basically fair. What are you talking about?

1. It gets brought up in almost every thread
2. Like all the money they get for their video game rights?

This is my problem with the entire thing – with the pay scale so low the UFC will never even sniff the top athletes coming up in the U.S. and to a lesser extent world-wide. I am selfish and want to see thelikes of the next Bo Jackson, Jim Brown, or LeBron James chose MMA (and you’re kidding yourselves if you think GSP or Jon Jones are on that level of once in a generation athletes) and that is far less likely to happen with the current set up