UFC’s Venum Deal Sees Fighters Receive Marginal Pay Bump

Details have emerged of the UFC's newly effective apparel deal with Venum, revealing a slight increase in pay compared to the Reebok deal

Venum
Photo via Instagram @venum

Beginning today the UFC enters a new era of apparel, as Venum has now taken the place of Reebok as the sole proprietor of fight gear for the promotion. With the deal taking effect, we have an idea of the differences between the two contracts.

When the UFC announced that they would no longer allow fighters to have their own individual sponsors while fighting, this was met with mixed reviews. Those opinions quickly dipped further south when it became clear that Reebok was not properly equipped for the challenge.

After botching their initial rollouts with major typos and design mistakes, Reebok seemed to get their act together around the second half of the deal. While they released more colors and slightly different designs, fans and fighters alike were still anticipating the day when the Reebok deal would expire.

Details Of Venum Deal Announced

There was intrigue when it was announced that upon the completion of the Reebok deal, Venum would be taking over as the new apparel sponsor. With this being a company that has a ton of experience in the combat sports space, there was a high amount of anticipation to see the changes that would be made.

Now we have a bit of insight into what is coming from this deal. Reports have emerged that detail the new pay structure for fighters, akin to the compliance pay that fighters previous received, and it seems that there will be slightest increase in what fighters will make per fight. It breaks down as follows:

  • Champions receive $42,000 per bout (up $2,000 from Reebok)
  • Title challengers receive $32,000 per bout (up $2,000 from Reebok)
  • Fighters with 21+ UFC fights receive $21,000 (up $1,000 from Reebok)
  • Fighters with 16-20 UFC fights receive $16,000 (up $1,000 from Reebok)
  • Fighters with 11-15 UFC fights receive $11,000 (up $1,000 from Reebok)
  • Fighters with 6-10 UFC fights receive $6,000 (up $1,000 from Reebok)
  • Fighters with 4-5 UFC fights receive $4,500 (up $500 from Reebok)
  • Fighters with 1-3 UFC fights receive $4,000 (up $500 from Reebok)

It should be noted that officials have stated that the fighters will receive “essential” all the money from this deal with Venum. On the other hand, this was said about the Reebok deal too, and that did not seem to be the case at all.

All in all, the fighters are not exactly getting that big of a boost from this deal that they had no say in. Of course, that is the way it will continue to be until the fighters find a way to get a seat at the table when it comes to these negotiations.

Published on April 1, 2021 at 12:33 pm
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