NFL players won’t go back to the negotiating table for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) until 2030 but rumors have already started swirling about many of the issues the league might bring up including a new 18 game season as well as financial compensation packages with broadcast rights deals only continuing to balloon higher and higher with each passing year.
Because every athlete in the NFL is represented by the Player’s Association, there are plenty of guaranteed rights made as part of that CBA, which even includes league minimum for salaries (currently $840,000 per season). It’s not that different from other major sports leagues like the NBA or Major League Baseball but MMA fighters exist and compete under a much different model, especially when it comes to pay.
That subject has become an even hotter topic lately, especially with ex-UFC fighters like Ronda Rousey taking direct aim at her former promotion and some athletes even going as far as announcing “I’m broke” just moments after a knockout win. But for all the talk about how much fighters are making in MMA, ex-NFL player and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark just doesn’t see any massive improvements coming any time soon.
“I don’t think it changes as long as there’s no governing bodies,” Clark told MMA Fighting. “In each organization, there’s a small group of individuals that make a large amount of the decisions. Whether it’s the matches that are made, where the fights take place and the amount of money that is given to the individual fighters. Normally, that has to do with how much that fighter can make them.
“So until that part of the process changes, I think it’s going to be very difficult for fighters to change the payscale and winning and winning in big ways is still going to be paramount to their ability to feed their families.”
In a kill or be killed sport like MMA, fighters are often scratching and clawing for every dollar earned with the highest profile athletes earning much bigger paychecks than athletes who are just signing with a promotion like the UFC or the PFL for the first time.
That’s not unusual — a similar model is employed in the sport of boxing — but it’s vastly different from other professional sports. Clark points specifically to the standards NFL teams are required to follow as well as a revenue share split in the CBA that guarantees players at least get at least 50 percent paid back to them.
“It doesn’t [exist in MMA] and it’s also hard because whether you are the Cincinnati Bengals or you’re the Kansas City Chiefs, when it comes to the CBA or it comes to negotiations, you’re all seen the same,” Clark explained. “Let me use another analogy — there’s a difference between the way the [Bengals owners] the Brown [family] spends money and the way the [Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry] Jones spends money. There’s a difference but when it comes to the CBA, when it comes to the revenue share, those teams are seen the same.
“When it comes to the salary cap, the Cincinnati Bengals have all the opportunity and all the space to pay Joe Burrow the way that the Dallas Cowboys have the ability and space to pay Dak Prescott. Because they want that parity. That’s not what mixed martial arts is.”
While winning is always what matters most, a fighter’s ability to draw interest, sell tickets and get people to tune into their fights makes a difference when it comes to their overall value to a promotion.
Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in the history of the sport and he’s a former two-division UFC champion but he hasn’t competed in five years with his last win coming all the way back in 2020 but that won’t stop him from commanding a massive payday when he finally returns to action.
Clark says the current model for how fighters achieve true success is going to breed even more competition among the athletes to grab onto that top spot rather than necessarily battling for everybody else underneath them.
“As much as we call ourselves individual contractors, you truly are in mixed martial arts,” Clark said. “Whether it be the PFL or ONE Championship, whether it be the UFC so we’ve had conversations about unions but you have to understand, if you go into that business, that’s the business model, which I think creates — if we talk about the UFC for a little bit — it creates the Conor’s and it creates the Sean O’Malley’s seeing the Conor’s and saying ‘I have to add that to my game.’ I have to be that sort of person in order to make the amount of money, to have the level of success I want to have.’”
That said, Clark acknowledges that fighters in general deserve better pay because the demands for that sport — not to mention a short shelf life much like NFL players — are so great.
“I played a game that’s physical,” Clark said. “I’m in awe of what mixed martial artists can do. I’m in awe of their ability to be dedicated to a sport, not knowing what the end result can be. That sort of physical toll, emotional toll, mental toll on your body, knowing in their arena [that] not having my left up when I throw a jab and getting a head kick to the temple can change the trajectory of my career.
“I commend those guys and those women but I also understand why they would be fighting for a better pay scale based on what they have to sacrifice in order to be part of this sport.”
Competition also helps to fuel better wages and that’s becoming more and more evident as fighters find options outside the UFC.
On Saturday, PFL Pittsburgh goes down with former middleweight champion Johnny Eblen taking on ex-UFC fighter Bryan Battle in the main event. Eblen just recently inked a new deal to stay with PFL because the company stepped up to show him how much he was worth to them and ultimately he said “it just made sense” to stay there.
Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions has also shaken things up with the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card on May 16 where several athletes have praised the financial offers being paid to join that event. In other words, the more options, the better for the fighters.
“Clearly right now PFL is No. 2 to UFC but there has to be a breeding ground for other champions,” Clark said. “I think what the PFL is doing and trying to take that next step, in trying to become that rival and become that organization that is seen in somewhat the same way is huge.”
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