Report | UFC was able to cut fighter expenses by 32.8 million in 2022 from 2021

The UFC reportedly managed to cut the money paid out to fighters by over 30 million dollars last year, despite the company’s profits going up.

One of the hot topics of the last few years in the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been fighter pay. Some feel they aren’t getting enough, whereas others are just happy to be in the big dance. UFC president Dana White, as you can imagine, isn’t a big fan of the debate.

It’s the kind of issue that has led to a handful of fighters leaving the promotion. Most notably, Francis Ngannou is now part of the PFL roster as opposed to the UFC.

RELATED: JON JONES SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT STATE OF UFC FIGHTER PAY: “THIS MAY SOUND A LITTLE COLD, BUT IN LIFE YOU GET WHAT YOU EARN”

During a recent podcast appearance, John Nash detailed some of the recent findings he’s made regarding fighter pay.

How we calculated current UFC fighter pay. pic.twitter.com/842HkP52nx

— John S. Nash (@heynottheface) June 25, 2023

“Last year, they had an earnings call. In that earnings call, they detailed how much the fighters made (and) how much growth we’ve seen in fighter pay from 2005 to 2021,” Nash said. “I calculated that, and that came out to $178.8 million fighter pay in 2021. That might not be exact, but based on the figures they gave, that’s the amount they should have paid the fighters, which is about 17.5 percent of revenue in 2021. Interestingly enough, they note in this filing that they were able to cut fighter expenses by 32.8 million in 2022 from 2021.

UFC’s fighter pay issue

“That means, in 2022, if my calculations are right about 2021, they paid $146 million to the fighters. Total pay to fighters out of $1 billion, ($146) million. 13 percent of the revenue,” Nash continued. “That might not include the other stuff the UFC includes in compensation, like drug testing and the insurance policy; all these other things… But that would add about another 1.5 percent to their pay. So if it’s not including that, they went from 13 percent to 14.5 percent… It’s a pretty massive (decrease), especially in a year when the revenue went up $110 million from the year before, and the net income, the profits, went up almost $120 million.”

Quotes via MMA News

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