The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) offered its fighters a document titled “UFC Promotional Guidelines” on Friday. Within the document, the new standards for fighters’ outfitting pay was included. It would appear that there will be some minor changes to the mixed martial arts promotion’s outfitting policy. As a result, it looks like the UFC fighter payroll will get a nice bump.
As part of the UFC’s uniform deal with Reebok from back in 2015, the sports apparel company compensates octagon competitor’s for their performances. The compensation is dictated by the total number of fights each competitor has achieved in the UFC, during the Zuffa era of the WEC and during the Zuffa era of Strikeforce. As a result the more competitions a fighter has had under these circumstances, the more the fighter will be compensated.
The compensation plan initially functioned under a seven tier system that ranged from $2,500 to $40,000 per fight. However, there will now be an eighth tier added to the system.
As reported by ESPN, fighters with three or fewer performances under the listed promotions will now receive $3,500 per fight. Fighters with four to five appearances will now earn $5,000 per fight. Fighters under these two categories were initially organized together and only received $2,500 for their match ups.
UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein claims that over half of the UFC’s roster will be affected by this new payment tier.
“This gives the shorter-tenured fighters on our roster an increase,” Epstein said of their UFC fighter payroll. “We felt this was the most impactful, meaningful way to get more money to our athletes.”
