Lorenzo Fertitta On Fighter Pay: We Pay Way More Than Anybody Else
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was asked on Tuesday during the UFC groundbreaking event for their new headquarters whether he is concerned that there will be more people complaining about fighter salary as they’re starting another massive project for the company.
“That’s always going to be an issue,” Fertitta told the assembled media. “If we distributed 200% of our revenues, people would be complaining about fighter pay. The fact of the matter is, fighter pay has continued to increase every single year that we’ve owned the company.”
Fertitta then explained that the UFC pays more than any other promotion in the world, and that includes Bellator MMA, which is owned by Viacom.
“We pay way more than anybody else in the space, that’s a factor. You do have some fighters that maybe aren’t happy with what they get, but at the end of the day, the fighters that achieve great things in this sport and get to the level of actually making a career of it, you don’t see many of those athletes complaining. That’s the fact of the matter.”
According to Fertitta, those who rise to the top of the fight game will be making the big money.
“The guys who are rising to the top are making the majority of the money.”
“Relative to this, we’re making an investment in the future, so that the company can continue to go on and achieve bigger things so that the revenue will continue to grow. Obviously that will continue to flow down to the fighters, so this is no different than any other business.”
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