One of the hottest topics surrounding the world of mixed martial arts is fighter pay. Compared to other major sports, fighters in the UFC get a much smaller percentage of revenue that the company makes. Fighters like Jon Jones, Jorge Masvidal, and even Conor McGregor have voiced their opinions on how they don’t get what they deserve. One of the biggest voices in fighter pay besides Leslie Smith is UFC commentator Joe Rogan. Rogan believes that fighters are getting robbed when it comes to the UFC’s bonus money model.
UFC vs Fighter Pay
Fighter pay isn’t just a topic that’s spoken about from the fighters. Commentators, fans, and even formal Presidential candidates are in awe when it comes to how UFC fighters are paid. For Rogan, his belief was always about how bonus money for winning is ridiculous.
Joe Rogan Speaks on Fighter Pay
On a recent episode of his podcast, Rogan dove into more detail on how he feels about fighter pay. Reiterating previous statements, Joe criticized the pay as well as judging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAoo7oXtyy4
“Don’t you think there’s a problem in incentivizing people to just win because you have a win bonus? A win bonus, I do not like. I’ve said this from the beginning. I just don’t think it’s fair,” said Rogan.
“First of all, if you’re going to do a win bonus, you’ve got to do something about the judging,” Rogan said. “You need to have a better scoring system and you need to get rid of incompetence. Then, when you go to other states, you need to take control of the situation. Yes: In other states it’s dire. I don’t want to name states, but there have been states where we do fights where I’m just going, ‘Who watched that fight? How is that even possible?’ People just get (expletive) robbed.
Changing the System
“If you have win bonuses (and) if a guy comes in and gets 50, and if he wins he gets another 50, you stole $50,000 from that guy by giving him incompetent judging. If you’re a fighter, you’ve got to do your best to win. That means taking a guy down and hump and throw enough punches to keep the referee from standing it up, that’s $50,000 for you.”
Rogan finished by saying he doesn’t even believe those elite fighters are intrigued by win incentives. Lastly, the UFC should re-do the way they approach paying fighters in general.
