Report: UFC Only Paid Fighters 16% Of Revenue Last Year

Fighter pay is a hot topic in the MMA world and it looks like it is a topic that seemingly will never be going away.

A report from the New York Post states that the UFC paid their fighters 16% of their revenue in 2019.

Here is an excerpt from the New York Post’s report (via Tom Taylor of BJPenn.com):

Sources tell The Post UFC’s fighters cost the Las Vegas promotions company less than $150 million last year — or under 16 percent of its $900 million in revenue. By contrast, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League all share between 48 percent and 50 percent of revenues with their players, data shows.

“It’s different league by league,” Endeavor president Mark Shapiro said. “We pay our fighters significantly more than any other MMA organization. They deserve it. Fighter compensation has gone up commensurately with the success of UFC.”

However, while the fighters are making a small portion of the revenue generated by the UFC, celebrity investors are allegedly raking in the dough.

The UFC, according to the New York Post, has approved a $300 million dividend to pay their celebrity investors. 

This is another excerpt from the New York Post (via Tom Taylor of BJPenn.com):

“Ultimate Fighting Championship is draining its cash reserves to fund big payouts to celebrity investors — even as its fighters gripe that they are vastly underpaid, The Post has learned. The mixed martial arts giant has approved a massive $300 million dividend to UFC’s investors — a star-studded list that includes Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Gisele Bündchen, Ben Affleck and tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, sources said.”

There has been no comment yet from a UFC representative about the claims made in the story from the New York Post.