The contradiction isn’t delicate. Whereas the UFC pulls in over a billion {dollars} yearly and Dana White personally oversees a billion-dollar enterprise empire, fighters competing on the sport’s highest stage earn a pittance. The disconnect isn’t unintentional, it’s baked into how White frames your complete enterprise, and it’s significantly evident when inspecting his reasoning for why fighter pay will primarily by no means meaningfully improve underneath his watch.
Dana White’s Hole Promise: Why UFC Fighter Pay Stays Frozen Whereas the Promotion Thrives
In interviews, White has been refreshingly clear about his stance, if not his logic. When pressed on fighter compensation, he laid out his place with the readability of somebody solely unbothered by the contradiction between his organisation’s success and its fighters’ battle. He said:
“This isn’t a job. This isn’t a profession. This is a chance so that you can change into as well-known as you possibly can presumably be. Many individuals all over the world see the good issues that you simply’ve achieved and make as a lot cash as you possibly can doable make.”
There’s a particular sleight of hand here. White deliberately conflates two completely different things, opportunity and compensation. The implication is clear: the honour of fighting in the UFC, the publicity, the potential for sponsorships and media appearances, these are supposedly cost sufficient. The precise cash? That’s secondary, one thing fighters ought to think about a bonus to the privilege of being in White’s promotion.
The fact, nevertheless, tells a special story solely. UFC fighters obtain roughly 16 to twenty p.c of total revenue, a determine that’s remained stubbornly constant for over a decade. Evaluate that to the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, the place unionised athletes collectively negotiate for round 50 p.c of income. Even fighters who win matches typically discover themselves in monetary straits. Entry-level fighters begin at $12,000 to indicate and $12,000 to win, quantities that hardly cowl coaching camp prices, journey, medical bills, and training charges, not to mention taxes.
White’s second justification for frozen pay is equally revealing, he continued:
“These fighters, even the decrease stage guys that make much less cash, they’ll struggle after which they’ll go and do unbelievable issues for the subsequent 3 months and blow all their cash. After which they’ll return into camp and begin coaching once more.”[User query]
The implication right here is that fighters are financially irresponsible, that in the event that they merely managed their cash higher, the issue would evaporate. It’s a handy narrative that shifts blame from the promotion’s wage construction to particular person fighters’ spending habits.
By no means thoughts that fighters are liable for funding their very own coaching camps, generally spending $8,000 to $12,000 per camp, plus extra prices for journey, nook workers, vitamin, and dietary supplements. The suggestion that fighters “blow all their cash” conveniently ignores that their earnings are instantly consumed by the infrastructure required to stay aggressive.
Prize Combating Minus the Prize: How Dana White Justifies UFC Underpayment
The systemic benefit White maintains over fighters stems from a vital structural factor: fighters are categorized as unbiased contractors fairly than staff. This prevents unionisation, eliminates collective bargaining energy, and strips fighters of advantages afforded to common staff – medical insurance, retirement contributions, staff’ compensation. The UFC actively lobbies in opposition to any coverage changes which may threaten this association.
Critics of this mannequin have articulated the exploitation concisely. Fight sports activities regulatory lawyer Erik Magraken framed it bluntly:
“Hear child, We can pay you with publicity. We, however, shall be paid with large baggage of money cash. Deal?”
Jonathan Snowden, the MMA historian and journalist who has lined the game’s enterprise aspect extensively, has equally sharp observations concerning the basic dishonesty of how White frames fighter compensation:
“It’s actually referred to as prize preventing. It’s not a actuality present that permits you to begin at Tik Tok or no matter. It’s nonetheless prize preventing in fact…it’s simply this man and his handlers wish to maintain all of the prizes for themselves.”
Ben Davis supplied captures the core logic:
“Prize preventing minus the prize.”
UFC Fighter Compensation Frozen as Promotion Surpasses $1 Billion in Income
The numbers validate this critique. In 2022, the UFC generated $1.14 billion with a revenue of $387 million, but solely two fighters, Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski, earned six figures that 12 months regardless of competing a number of instances. In the meantime, analysis signifies that 43 p.c of UFC fighters earned lower than $45,000 in 2024, whereas the median annual wage sits round $51,370. For fighters who lose, the arithmetic change into grim. Former fighter John Makdessi leaked a cost assertion displaying gross earnings of $58,000, which after medical bills, airfare, and federal tax deductions totalled simply $28,461.
Antitrust Settlement Exposes Systemic Fighter Underpayment in $375 Million UFC Case
The antitrust lawsuit compelling proof of how calculated this underpayment truly is. In 2024, a Nevada federal choose lastly accredited a $375 million settlement for about 1,200 fighters who competed between 2010 and 2017, the courtroom ruling that the UFC had engaged in anticompetitive practices that artificially suppressed fighter compensation. Even then, the settlement got here solely after over a decade of litigation, with one fighter describing the association with brutal readability:
“He creates a billion greenback enterprise off of the sacrifices of underpaid athletes and justifies it by saying he’s creating alternative for them to earn cash elsewhere. All whereas making that each one however inconceivable with insanely predatory contracts. Jesus.”
The predatory nature of UFC contracts is especially important. Non-compete clauses prevent fighters from working for various promotions, makes an attempt at unionisation have been systematically crushed, and sponsorship rights stay managed by the UFC fairly than the fighters themselves. This creates a scenario the place fighters can’t leverage their very own marketability to enhance their financial place.
Fighter pay under White’s leadership will stay frozen not as a result of he lacks the assets to extend it, however as a result of your complete structure of his wealth will depend on fighters having inadequate leverage to demand higher. The chance he speaks of, in actuality, is a chance for the promotion to extract most worth from athletes working underneath circumstances of financial desperation – all whereas calling it a privilege.
