Set To Lose 80 to 90 Percent Of Sponsorship Money, Miesha Tate Says Reebok Deal ‘Hurts’

Ever since the UFC announced the fighter payout numbers for their official uniform sponsorship deal with Reebok set to go into effect this July, several fighters have spoke up to voice their displeasure at the massive perceived amounts of money they’re going to be losing as a result.

But not many of those fighters have come from the still-growing women’s side of the sport; that is, until now. Top-ranked women’s bantamweight contender Miesha Tate recently revealed to Bloody Elbow that, as a popular face with not that many fights under Zuffa, she’ll be taking quite the hit when it come to sponsorship money:

“Honestly, I’m not that excited about the numbers. I’m taking a big loss on my sponsorship dollars, so I’m definitely going to be making nowhere near as much.”

According to ‘Cupcake, who will take on no. 6-ranked Jessica Eye for quite possibly the next title shot at July 25’s UFC on FOX 15 from Chicago, the women’s side of the sport simply hasn’t had enough time to grow and prosper as a Zuffa property, and with a tier system based on fight tenure, that just isn’t fair to their female fighters:

“I think it’s a little bit unfair for Women’s Mixed Martial Arts because we’ve barely been in the UFC very long. We don’t have the same number of fights as the guys do, because they wouldn’t let us in forever, you know?

“The UFC has been around a long time, but Women’s MMA in the UFC has been there for a little over two years so it’s not fair. There are guys like Clay Guida and Cowboy Cerrone, they’ve been fighting for the UFC for a long time so they’re going to have more fights because they’re men and they’re allowed to fight in the UFC for a long time. The women have not had the same opportunity.”

Tate moved on to discuss just how hard the Reebok sponsorship will hurt her pocketbook, and it promises to be quite the substantial sum:

“”I probably have the most fights (among the female fighters) because of Strikeforce, and I’m still only on the second tier, so I get 5000 dollars,” she exclaimed. “So I’m losing probably 90% or like 80% of what I make in sponsorships, so that hurts.”

As a longtime competitor who got her televised start under Strikeforce, Tate does have many more Zuffa bouts than her unfortunate counterparts. But if that’s still going to result in her losing up to 90 percent of her overall sponsorship dollars, then perhaps all the critics crying foul on the Reebok deal may have some good points.