Why are most MMA fighters poor?

When we think of MMA fighters, we typically think of the best in the game such as Conor McGregor or Jon Jones. These are two fighters that have made millions from the sport and live fairly lavish lifestyles outside of the cage. However, this isn’t the case compared to most MMA fighters who actually live a very different lifestyle.

So, if you thought you would make millions from doing MMA then think again. In fact, the average salary of an MMA fighter is well below that of working a regular job. Coupled with the risk of CTE or life-long injuries, the prospect of doing MMA becomes far less appealing. Here’s why most MMA fighters are poor.

MMA traditionally doesn’t pay well

Conor McGregor aside, even the best MMA fighters aren’t paid particularly well compared to boxing. In boxing, it’s very common for the best to be paid several million dollars per fight. In some cases, this can go well beyond the $10 million figure. This is pretty unheard of in MMA. Even in the UFC which is the pinnacle of MMA, the biggest fight of the year may earn top athletes around $1 million each.

Typically though, these figures are several hundred thousand instead. Although this is still a tempting figure, it points out the lack of money in MMA compared to other sports. Most fans typically assume top fighters are millionaires, whereas a lot of them have far less money. Although fighter pay is generally on the rise, historically it has been much lower too.

Ex-UFC champion Frank Mir has spoken in the past about being a car mechanic until he became the champion. This highlights the lack of finances in the sport, even when someone is fairly well known. Remember, these are the top guys as well. This makes you wonder what a UFC prelims fighter earns then.

Fighting expenses aren’t cheap

Let’s imagine you’re good enough to make it to the UFC without doing anything incredible. Getting this far alone is the highlight of most MMA fighters’ careers and certainly isn’t easy. You may fight three times per year on average and this run may last five years before being dropped or retiring.

On average, you may earn around $20,000 per fight. This means you’d take home a gross of $60,000 per year. Although not bad, this is the gross and isn’t the net (but more on that later). The issue is that this salary will only last 5 years. This income is actually below the US average salary of $69,000 per year. Even worse, this is looking at a fairly successful fighter who is better than 90% of pros out there. Remember, this is during a fighter’s peak years, whereas before and after this their income will drop drastically.

Sadly, it gets worse. Although a fighter may be given $20,000 per fight, it’s not what they take home. There are also taxes, training camp expenses, and agent fees. So, this could easily knock off around $5,000-$10,000 off your earnings. The result is that unless you’re earning hundreds of thousands per fight, then fight expenses will definitely eat into your income and drastically decrease your wages. When you factor in injuries and contract disputes that can delay fights for months or even years, this becomes even grimmer. Often, MMA fans don’t see or think about this side of fighting.

Most MMA fighters are amateur

If you ever go to an MMA gym, you may see a couple of pros but most are amateurs. Some may be hobbyists that do it for fun, whilst many may be trying to go professional. This lifestyle is tough and often means balancing full-time training with a side job. Therefore, even if an amateur has a good 6-0 record or something, it still means they’ve earned zero from fighting. Imagine training half the day, then working a low-wage job the other half of your day.

It certainly isn’t for everyone and is probably why most fighters quit at some point. Often, the lure of a secure career can be too much and many people give up early on. In some ways, you may wonder what they could have achieved, whereas for most people, it’s probably a sensible decision. The reality for many fighters means living a very limited lifestyle on a budget whilst pinning a lot of their future hopes on making it big. Percentage-wise though, the chances of doing this are very slim.

Your average professional fighter doesn’t earn much

So far, we’ve looked at a UFC fighter’s income as well as the amateur lifestyle, but what about everyone else? Again, sadly the outcome isn’t great. Most professional MMA fighters will fight in events that are small and local which typically means a lack of money involved. For example, you could be a mid-level fighter who fights in front of a crowd of a few hundred people on a non-televised event.

The result of this could mean earning as little as $500 per fight, or well under $5,000 at least. In other words, whatever way you look at it – this income isn’t exactly big or exciting. On social media, you may see a fighter have their professional record in their bio. However, their actual earnings from this could be a net of a few thousand dollars. Once again, this is a good example of getting into MMA for passion, rather than for money.

Lack of marketing and hype

Increasingly, MMA fighters are finding new ways to branch out their income and become less dependent on relying on promotions such as the UFC. A good example of this is Darren Till who has successfully built a brand of his natural charisma. He now owns businesses such as a drinks company and other ventures such as selling clothes. Similarly, you may see other fighters create popular Youtube vlogging channels.

Overall, this is a great way to extend your career outside of MMA and is an ideal backup plan. For instance, even though Till has earned more than most MMA fighters, we’ve still seen his career take downwards turns that could lead to financial insecurity.

Unfortunately, this career path isn’t doable for most fighters. Typically, most MMA fighters are good at fighting and lack business or marketing skills to build on their self-promotion. For example, if you’re a fighter in Brazil who can’t speak English then there may not be too many opportunities to sell yourself.

Even if you’re from the USA, you may lack the talking skills to get big fights or you may have a boring style when fighting. Historically, there may have been far better fighters around than Chael Sonnen, yet his natural charm and talking skills earned him big fights and money. For most people though, they lack this and it’s something that can’t be faked. The result is that you can have some pretty talented fighters who lack the talking skills or fighting style to earn them more money.

Is there hope? Some promotions do pay much more than others

So far, the above has made for grim reading if you thought you could earn millions from being a professional fighter. However, there is some good news. In MMA, there are certain promotions that happen to pay more than others. At the moment, the best would probably be ONE FC in Singapore. It’s fair to say that not everyone can get onto ONE FC and the talent level is quite high. Still, it lacks the quality that Bellator and UFC have and you probably won’t become a big star whilst fighting on ONE.

At the same time, it does pay out several $50,000 bonuses per event and its level isn’t the very best in the world. Apparently, the average salary is also pretty high considering this, so it pays for a fighter to be smart and pick the best organizations to deal with. Of course, this should be your agent’s job and is down to their negotiation skills. Remember, that’s what they’re paid for.

A similar example would be the PFL. The PFL grand prix’s guarantees a $1 million prize pool for the winner. Whilst winning this is no easy feat, it’s still something to aim for in a promotion with less talent than the likes of UFC. You would expect there are lesser-known professional organizations like this too that pay more in terms of competition.

In short, sometimes it pays to look around and not always go with the obvious target of the UFC. A good example of this would be Ben Askren whose career lasted a lot longer over in ONE compared to the UFC – whilst also fighting significantly easier opponents.

Summary

If you started this article assuming MMA fighters got paid millions then you’d be wrong. Although it’s a nice income to have as an elite fighter, usually this takes immense sacrifice and even then it may not be enough. For everyone else, trying to earn a full-time income from MMA is very tough and is a real grind.

This industry doesn’t look like it’s set to change anytime soon either, so for now MMA presents a structure where it’s everything or nothing. Interestingly, popularity is still at an all-time high and there are more prospective fighters than ever, which isn’t necessarily a good thing if you want to earn an income from MMA.