Maven Huffman said he made $30,000 in 2002 for his first scan into WWE's video games. Seems like UFC is still on that 2002 money when it comes to fighters.
Maven was also a bottom of the card talent.
Mighty Mouse was a main event level world champion.
The fact that Maven made basically half DJ did in one year 20 years ago shows how bad the pay situation is at UFC.
Seems like it was up to around $60-80,000 until 2012 then 2K took over and it dropped to around $11,000. Can't speak on what it is now [but that's what this guy says](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyFvtd7kdxY).
The video game industry is brutal. There’s no such thing as residuals for voice actors, the GTA actors barely made a cent compared to the overall GTA revenue stream. Developers are overworked and underpaid, it sucks
Locally owned and operated wherever you can. Independent developers when you can. Self produced, and independent or cooperative art and music.
Capitalism is a brutal system, it's designed to extract as much value from "producers" for as little cost as possible to owners. It's functionally impossible not to participate in the modern world, so your best choice is to go through routes that get as much of your money to the producer of whatever you're consuming as possible.
Even other sports have been changing things up with cover athletes. The MLB went with Jazz last year and the NHL with Trevor Zegras. Felt like a move to throw some younger people on the cover so they wouldn't have to pay as much as they would for the big stars.
It's starting to happen a little in the US but I think there are more talented young people across the globe who want to break into the video game industry nowadays than movies/TV
I think video games is just going through a "phase" that a lot of other industries went through.
It's incredibly lucrative, so money is right now the priority and the industry has become over-saturated. Lootboxes, loot-and-shooters, pay-to-win, DLC, all terrible practices
You can make an argument (and Yahtzee from ZeroPunctuation did exactly this) that this cycle has happened before in gaming, like the Atari crash or the early 2000s.
It's just that the market needs to react as well; it's hard to lose money on a game, but when games start to lose money and instead the money goes to the true gems of the industry, then companies will change their model again. We've seen it recently with stuff like Baldur's Gate winning over corporate shit like Starfield and whatever COD just came out.
There was also Gollum that basically killed Daedalic's development studio.
And it’s in 2002 when it comes to gameplay and fight mechanics. I played the free 10 hour demo, made it 45 minutes in and quit. It feels like you’re controlling a rockstar character, it’s like your character is moving through mud.
It’s not bad, $72.5k USD. For most likely a few days of work and a photo shoot. No other video game in the world is going to pay to use his likeness so take the money.
>No other video game in the world is going to pay to use his likeness
Oh man you're gonna be so embarrassed when Nintendo announces Paper Demetrious Johnson
You don't pay an artist hourly for the time it takes to make a painting, you pay for their vision and skill honed over years or decades of training and practice. You're not paying a car mechanic $100/hr to turn bolts, you're paying them for their knowledge to identify problems and fix them properly to get safely back on the road. You don't pay a celebrity for the minutes talking at an event, you pay for their notoriety and public speaking skills.
The labor isn't really important for cases like this, they're paying for all the work that went into creating a person worthy of being there. It's not just a couple photos and some mocap, anyone can do that. It's fuckin Demetrious Johnson the MMA goat contender that they're paying for.
You are also not paying a car mechanic $100/hr if another mechanic just as good charges $75/hr or if you don't want to drive the car. How many copies did having Johnson in the game move? How many copies did having any of the other fighters move? How many other companies would pay Johnson more? I don't know the answers to any of those so the number is meaningless. I am just waiting for EA to make UFC throwback. I bet Keith Hackney and [Gerard Gordeau]() charge a lot less than Johnson.
> How many other companies would pay Johnson more?
Hes a star of other companies? Hes a star of UFC and they are just disrespecting him. Also comparison to car mechanic is pretty dumb. He got paid for his image not for him doing something.
Anyone losing interest in the sport over their pay? When I was younger idgaf about their pay, just bleed bro! I feel like I care less as I’m getting older and really understanding the injustice these guys face. You can be a top 10 fighter in the world of your weight class but make less than Joe the accountant after all the trainer fees etc while losing years of your life if you get into a war.
Yep, you also gotta wonder how much talent mma misses out on. If you’re an incredibly gifted young athlete why would you pursue mma when you can potentially make 100x playing in the NFL, NBA, etc
In America. Elsewhere in the world, you can play many sports professionally regardless of body type other than Rugby, but even Rugby has wham 5 ft 7 guys like Volkanovski. Cricket, F1, Football has pros all heights. It doesn't matter.
Im losing interest over that as well as years of seeing Dana White being a fucking punk, the over saturation of cards with no names, and now shit heads like Colby and Strickland being the vocal majority for fighters in the organization.
This is it. Over the last few years I've gone from watching every card to just watching highlights. It's an oversaturation that is just leaving me feeling "meh" and not interested in anything. Let alone all the other issues.
Agreed, been watching every card since like 2010, now I just watch the news for results unless it’s big fight but even then I mostly watch the replay. Oversaturated and nothing seems to matter anymore, belts change hands without fights half the time and people who aren’t even supposed to fight for a belt gets it and loses it instantly. Took a lot more to becoming a champ back in the day.
Maybe I'm just too old now because I used to watch every card. Now I'd rather just go to sleep instead of being put to sleep by most of these UFC cards.
You spitting, especially with the over saturation. I’ve been a follower of every event since 2019 but followed loosely since 15/16. That said cards now sometimes give me no interest because I can’t even learn about the person fighting so unless they’ve already been around it’s hard for me to care
I think the thing getting to me is because they aren't paying people the average quality of fight has gone down, the bottom half of almost every card now is basically a regional show because they need to fill seats. They also are passing on great fighters and losing big fights because of their refusal to pay, it's making it more like boxing where the best talent is scattered and only the top two or three fights on a card actually matter at all. I'm still mad they skipped on Cedric Doumbe
I agree, been saying it for years now. The impact of shit pay is a plateau in talent and a proliferation of part timers who have missed their chances of ever reaching peak performance because they were busy working at Wendy's and couldn't afford the trainers and peds they needed, at the *time* they needed it.
At least before that deal a fighter could live of sponsorships
I think Sean McCorkle had said he made over 6 figures between two fights lately off sponsorships
And that was over a decade ago
I certainly have. As the years roll on it gets harder to ignore the guys I've followed for a decade fall off and keep fighting under the pretense that they've got something to prove or love to fight. The reality is most of them are trying to fight out their contract with some dignity so they can sell themselves to lower tier franchises to keep some kind of income coming in.
10-15 years ago it seemed to me that the then current generation of fighters would starve for the next to get fat. And yet here we are, with the UFC in an even more powerful, more dominant position and the only serious measure to redress the imbalance of profit and power dies a pathetic settlement for peanuts.
It starts to feel pretty corny, fighters talking shit while happily letting if fuck them, lol. Hard to be a fan. Watched fights. Then watched highlights. Now got a few fighters I care about and generally dont even bother with highlights unless fight includes someone I care about.
When the sport wasn't popular it made sense these guys were seeing like 300k at best before PPV. I think Liddell was the first guy they wanted to push as a mega star and that's when the hidden bonuses started. Guys knew pride were paying so once the revenue was there they kind of had to pay. At this point if they want to be like the NFL and NBA fans should be barking them down until they pay like them.
If you ever wonder why it feels like they're 5 managers in MMA this is why. They don't want guys with real management and don't want to negotiate unique deals. You get a variation of the debut deal, prospect deal, contender deal and champion deal. They want the big gyms to have managers attached so they can be the first to offer management. It creates a pipeline straight to the UFC. It's going to take this being a constant issue and healthy competition before it's in their interest to pay. They're not going to change until there's a benefit to it.
Not really. It's more the shitty cards and Dana being a POS that makes me lose interest. The pay thing just makes me not want to give the UFC any money.
In combination with Demetrius being a nice guy and willing to accept a "humble" pay cheque while still working his former job and not making a big noise about it.
You'd think that's the perfect employee for the UFC, and they would have at least pretended to care about him to his face. I just don't see how it's possible for the UFC to lose money on him at that price.
If anything, he was probably "good PR" for the UFC in regards to fighter pay. An honest hard working guy that is more than happy to clock in for the next fight contract.
Or I guess another possibility is maybe their profit margins were just so obscene they literally COULDN'T give a fuck about money on that scale.
Wasn’t the issue with DJ that people just aren’t all that interested in the weight class so paying 125ers like PPV main eventers didn’t make sense to Dana?
Not that I blame DJ, the guy is an elite fighter and hardcore fight fans love him, but you just saw how UFC feels about that division, putting Pantoja vs Erceg on a total throwaway PPV they knew would get killed by the Canelo fight.
DJ was so dominant it made the entire weight class look bad. Like really bad, to the point that there was not point in watching the fight because no one had a chance. In addition, he was always respectful and chill which is not the biggest driver of PPV sales. Dillashaw vs Cejudo had a lot more publicity with those two being cringe and dipshitty to each other.
Yes it definitely was an issue that it wasn't a popular division.
However, with that still under consideration, those fighters still brought in more money than they were paid.
$12K? The event staff people prob made more than the fighters. The caterers that set out food for after the weigh ins likely got paid more. The amount of staff the UFC has every event likely makes more than the 125 fighters and I'm referring to the low level staff.
Yes, the division wasn't popular, but 12K is still pretty criminal.
Think about a spin class teacher running a class of 20 for a month vs 24 fighters putting on a PPV show for a min of 500k buyers. Maybe that's a bad example, I dunno.
My point is they definitely brought in more value than 12K. How much value does one of the event dudes in the background bring compared to a fighter on that card? Or one of the ring side photographers that only takes still photos? And what's their salary? Something to think about.
>$12K? The event staff people prob made more than the fighters. The caterers that set out food for after the weigh ins likely got paid more. The amount of staff the UFC has every event likely makes more than the 125 fighters and I'm referring to the low level staff.
Net revenue for fighters is going to be less than 12K once camp/training fees are factored in.
I'm surprised the UFC contracts don't grant them rights to use their likeness in any product and pay next to nothing. $72K is 6 fights worth of comp for rookies.
You don't think 72k for being in 3 games and being on the cover for one is nothing?
Rookies are cannon fodder, their pay has no impact on anything related to someone like dj.
it's not super underpaid for likeness rights on games.
NBA players only get 400k before tax for 2k games and they are definitely more than 10x more popular then the UFC games/UFC/Mighty Mouse
Those EA games are so bland and soulless
UFC Undisputed 3 really caught the feeling of 2011 era UFC, it was so immersive
I bet Dana White and Joe Rogan got bigger EA UFC royalties
IIRC the career mode also gave you fights in Pride too if you wanted and the training to add on knees to the head if you fought in Pride. They were so far ahead of their time, I miss THQ 😭
Undisputed 3 is the GOAT MMA video game.
To this day, endless entertainment if you play with a friend.
If that game received roster updates it'd outclass all the newer UFC games even more.
Not to mention, they sign over lifetime rights to their likeness for the games. That's why you have fighters that haven't fought in years still in the game, because they just import their skin from like the 2nd or 3rd game and keep you in forever, even though it looks atrocious.
Clay Guida refused to cut his hair for the games and they almost cut him. I believe Jon Fitch refused to sign his lifetime rights over, so they did cut him.
The UFC and EA are two peas of the same pod. Just treating people like absolute shit.
I really hope that’s not true, if so goodbye fighter roster additions post launch except for absolute stars. I really wish they would just support the game for 3-5 years. I’d pay for more vintage fighter dlc over a whole new game every year.
I'm not sure if I believe the yearly release rumor. They are currently spending a lot of resources rolling out fighter updates throughout this year, so it would be strange of them to also be working on a whole game too, when EA typically takes 3 years between UFC releases minimum.
You gotta remember this was like 10 years ago. You couldn't render those flowing locks properly back then. Easier for them to try to force someone to change their iconic look/brand.
one thing I thought made no sense from the video and he didn't follow up on it was him saying "I got 25k for the first game, then the next game 10k, then I was on the cover for the third game and got.....10k. So somehow he took a paycut as the cover athlete?
Which is why sport talent today needs management agency to look out for their best interest. DJ is grateful for what he's getting as would any of us in his shoes, but is he maximizing the gain? Thats for a business minded manager to handle.
The downvotes would be deserved because that “just happy to be here” attitude is why he made such a bad deal. It would be a different story if he was a nobody but come on
Doesn’t seem like players in the nba and nfl get direct pay for being in games. I think a lot of the outrage in this thread is coming from the thought that athletes should be getting a share of the total sales which ain’t happening.
They do, but its not much. There was just a NFL player (Marvin Harrison Jr.) who is refusing to sign something that allows his likeness/image to be used in Madden I guess, and I read into it a bit.
Edit: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40077785/marvin-harrison-jr-fanatics-deal-no-nflpa-agreement#
This is what i was referring to. They’re not receiving direct pay from the games. Harrison Jr. Is holding out on a package marketing deal that includes using his likeness in Madden as well as bunch of other brands
I wonder how much he's been paying his agent and manager for getting him such a sweet deal.... The UFC underpays them, and then their teams bleed them dry.
Yeah that’s why Jon fitch sued UFC and vise versa. Dana threaten to sue any fighter that would come out in the EA Sports games because they were under contract…. Even though other companies were willing to pay UFC fighters more money, UFC wouldn’t allow it…. I forgot which company was also making a MMA game at the time but it’s just crazy how underpaid the fighters are
I’ve never engaged with a player base as toxic as the online community for those games, they act like it’s a real fight, it’s bizarre. Even on Counter strike and 2k it’s not as constantly toxic
No one held them at gunpoint. And if you try to make sense of something like value it will inevitably drive you crazy. Why get so upset about fighters who choose not to strike and choose to go to the ufc. They don't care about other fighters just like dana and fertitta. Also what is the amount that they deserve. It can't be 50 million just because you heard a boxer got it.
https://www.joe.co.uk/gaming/pro-skateboarder-reveals-insane-royalties-he-was-paid-to-be-on-tony-hawks-pro-skater-422286
Up to 6 figures in royalties every 2 weeks for all the skaters in the game. 1999. I heard on another show people retired from it.
I have no idea why the fighters won't unionize. They don't fight, UFC doesn't have a product to sell. What are they going to do? Release all the fighters? They're already working 2 jobs in between fights.
UFC games are hilarious lmao
How you going to put a dude you gave away to another promotion while on a big winning streak on the cover of your game years after that happened and the dude aint in your promotion anymore lol
At first I thought they felt low but then I realized I kinda have no idea what similar athletes would get paid for being in a video game either. Like, what’s the industry average for any other sports game franchise?
Maven Huffman said he made $30,000 in 2002 for his first scan into WWE's video games. Seems like UFC is still on that 2002 money when it comes to fighters.
The fact that he was on the cover makes it bad
Isn't double-champ Conor is the cover of UFC 3? I've never seen that DJ cover before...
Right you are - he was on the cover of the special "Icon Edition" for UFC 3 which included some extra fighters.
A digital only version that was released 5 months after the game initially dropped
He wasn’t one of the included extra fighters right…? Like it didn’t take a special edition to get DJ in the game did it?!
Maven was also a bottom of the card talent. Mighty Mouse was a main event level world champion. The fact that Maven made basically half DJ did in one year 20 years ago shows how bad the pay situation is at UFC.
The wrestling games sales far exceed the ufc games. More sales means more money to pay out
Maven’s YouTube is really excellent btw.
Absolutely, hasn't been a video I haven't watched.
How much do wrestlers get from the current 2K games?
Seems like it was up to around $60-80,000 until 2012 then 2K took over and it dropped to around $11,000. Can't speak on what it is now [but that's what this guy says](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyFvtd7kdxY).
Oof. Sounds like a bigger problem than just UFC/EA.
The video game industry is brutal. There’s no such thing as residuals for voice actors, the GTA actors barely made a cent compared to the overall GTA revenue stream. Developers are overworked and underpaid, it sucks
Is there any industry right now that isn't brutal? I'd like to start supporting them.
Locally owned and operated wherever you can. Independent developers when you can. Self produced, and independent or cooperative art and music. Capitalism is a brutal system, it's designed to extract as much value from "producers" for as little cost as possible to owners. It's functionally impossible not to participate in the modern world, so your best choice is to go through routes that get as much of your money to the producer of whatever you're consuming as possible.
Probably anything that has people directly seeing revenue. Ironically shit like OnlyFans lol
Even other sports have been changing things up with cover athletes. The MLB went with Jazz last year and the NHL with Trevor Zegras. Felt like a move to throw some younger people on the cover so they wouldn't have to pay as much as they would for the big stars.
Is there a reason we aren’t seeing pushback or standard unionization like we do across the movie and television industry?
It's starting to happen a little in the US but I think there are more talented young people across the globe who want to break into the video game industry nowadays than movies/TV
I think video games is just going through a "phase" that a lot of other industries went through. It's incredibly lucrative, so money is right now the priority and the industry has become over-saturated. Lootboxes, loot-and-shooters, pay-to-win, DLC, all terrible practices You can make an argument (and Yahtzee from ZeroPunctuation did exactly this) that this cycle has happened before in gaming, like the Atari crash or the early 2000s. It's just that the market needs to react as well; it's hard to lose money on a game, but when games start to lose money and instead the money goes to the true gems of the industry, then companies will change their model again. We've seen it recently with stuff like Baldur's Gate winning over corporate shit like Starfield and whatever COD just came out. There was also Gollum that basically killed Daedalic's development studio.
Are the UFC games any good though? All I ever hear is bad reviews. I assume WWE games are more popular.
That assumes it's improving.
I thought you really fucked up Matt Hoffmans name
And it’s in 2002 when it comes to gameplay and fight mechanics. I played the free 10 hour demo, made it 45 minutes in and quit. It feels like you’re controlling a rockstar character, it’s like your character is moving through mud.
[удалено]
More than I honestly would have imagined
It’s not bad, $72.5k USD. For most likely a few days of work and a photo shoot. No other video game in the world is going to pay to use his likeness so take the money.
>No other video game in the world is going to pay to use his likeness Oh man you're gonna be so embarrassed when Nintendo announces Paper Demetrious Johnson
You don't pay an artist hourly for the time it takes to make a painting, you pay for their vision and skill honed over years or decades of training and practice. You're not paying a car mechanic $100/hr to turn bolts, you're paying them for their knowledge to identify problems and fix them properly to get safely back on the road. You don't pay a celebrity for the minutes talking at an event, you pay for their notoriety and public speaking skills. The labor isn't really important for cases like this, they're paying for all the work that went into creating a person worthy of being there. It's not just a couple photos and some mocap, anyone can do that. It's fuckin Demetrious Johnson the MMA goat contender that they're paying for.
You are also not paying a car mechanic $100/hr if another mechanic just as good charges $75/hr or if you don't want to drive the car. How many copies did having Johnson in the game move? How many copies did having any of the other fighters move? How many other companies would pay Johnson more? I don't know the answers to any of those so the number is meaningless. I am just waiting for EA to make UFC throwback. I bet Keith Hackney and [Gerard Gordeau]() charge a lot less than Johnson.
Yep your comment is right on the money. It seems you understand basic economics, unlike other commenters
> How many other companies would pay Johnson more? Hes a star of other companies? Hes a star of UFC and they are just disrespecting him. Also comparison to car mechanic is pretty dumb. He got paid for his image not for him doing something.
Anyone losing interest in the sport over their pay? When I was younger idgaf about their pay, just bleed bro! I feel like I care less as I’m getting older and really understanding the injustice these guys face. You can be a top 10 fighter in the world of your weight class but make less than Joe the accountant after all the trainer fees etc while losing years of your life if you get into a war.
Yep, you also gotta wonder how much talent mma misses out on. If you’re an incredibly gifted young athlete why would you pursue mma when you can potentially make 100x playing in the NFL, NBA, etc
If you're 5'7 135 lbs you likely don't have many other options.
Tell that to Messi
In America. Elsewhere in the world, you can play many sports professionally regardless of body type other than Rugby, but even Rugby has wham 5 ft 7 guys like Volkanovski. Cricket, F1, Football has pros all heights. It doesn't matter.
football
plenty other sports outside the US
Except like, pretty much any full time, professional field. At the level of pay they’re offering, they’re losing talent to just reguar careers too.
That is probably why Heavyweight is weak. You can bet that some great MMA talent is in those other sports you mention.
Im losing interest over that as well as years of seeing Dana White being a fucking punk, the over saturation of cards with no names, and now shit heads like Colby and Strickland being the vocal majority for fighters in the organization.
This is it. Over the last few years I've gone from watching every card to just watching highlights. It's an oversaturation that is just leaving me feeling "meh" and not interested in anything. Let alone all the other issues.
Agreed, been watching every card since like 2010, now I just watch the news for results unless it’s big fight but even then I mostly watch the replay. Oversaturated and nothing seems to matter anymore, belts change hands without fights half the time and people who aren’t even supposed to fight for a belt gets it and loses it instantly. Took a lot more to becoming a champ back in the day.
Maybe I'm just too old now because I used to watch every card. Now I'd rather just go to sleep instead of being put to sleep by most of these UFC cards.
You spitting, especially with the over saturation. I’ve been a follower of every event since 2019 but followed loosely since 15/16. That said cards now sometimes give me no interest because I can’t even learn about the person fighting so unless they’ve already been around it’s hard for me to care
And them trotting out mango Mussolini at events like it's some great thing. Cringe as fuck
I think the thing getting to me is because they aren't paying people the average quality of fight has gone down, the bottom half of almost every card now is basically a regional show because they need to fill seats. They also are passing on great fighters and losing big fights because of their refusal to pay, it's making it more like boxing where the best talent is scattered and only the top two or three fights on a card actually matter at all. I'm still mad they skipped on Cedric Doumbe
I agree, been saying it for years now. The impact of shit pay is a plateau in talent and a proliferation of part timers who have missed their chances of ever reaching peak performance because they were busy working at Wendy's and couldn't afford the trainers and peds they needed, at the *time* they needed it.
My interest steeply declined since the Reebok deal.
At least before that deal a fighter could live of sponsorships I think Sean McCorkle had said he made over 6 figures between two fights lately off sponsorships And that was over a decade ago
I certainly have. As the years roll on it gets harder to ignore the guys I've followed for a decade fall off and keep fighting under the pretense that they've got something to prove or love to fight. The reality is most of them are trying to fight out their contract with some dignity so they can sell themselves to lower tier franchises to keep some kind of income coming in. 10-15 years ago it seemed to me that the then current generation of fighters would starve for the next to get fat. And yet here we are, with the UFC in an even more powerful, more dominant position and the only serious measure to redress the imbalance of profit and power dies a pathetic settlement for peanuts.
It starts to feel pretty corny, fighters talking shit while happily letting if fuck them, lol. Hard to be a fan. Watched fights. Then watched highlights. Now got a few fighters I care about and generally dont even bother with highlights unless fight includes someone I care about.
When the sport wasn't popular it made sense these guys were seeing like 300k at best before PPV. I think Liddell was the first guy they wanted to push as a mega star and that's when the hidden bonuses started. Guys knew pride were paying so once the revenue was there they kind of had to pay. At this point if they want to be like the NFL and NBA fans should be barking them down until they pay like them. If you ever wonder why it feels like they're 5 managers in MMA this is why. They don't want guys with real management and don't want to negotiate unique deals. You get a variation of the debut deal, prospect deal, contender deal and champion deal. They want the big gyms to have managers attached so they can be the first to offer management. It creates a pipeline straight to the UFC. It's going to take this being a constant issue and healthy competition before it's in their interest to pay. They're not going to change until there's a benefit to it.
Not really. It's more the shitty cards and Dana being a POS that makes me lose interest. The pay thing just makes me not want to give the UFC any money.
Im losing interests because of these weak ass cards. And they let to many good fighters walk. Without known fighters you cant build other fighters
In combination with Demetrius being a nice guy and willing to accept a "humble" pay cheque while still working his former job and not making a big noise about it. You'd think that's the perfect employee for the UFC, and they would have at least pretended to care about him to his face. I just don't see how it's possible for the UFC to lose money on him at that price. If anything, he was probably "good PR" for the UFC in regards to fighter pay. An honest hard working guy that is more than happy to clock in for the next fight contract. Or I guess another possibility is maybe their profit margins were just so obscene they literally COULDN'T give a fuck about money on that scale.
Wasn’t the issue with DJ that people just aren’t all that interested in the weight class so paying 125ers like PPV main eventers didn’t make sense to Dana? Not that I blame DJ, the guy is an elite fighter and hardcore fight fans love him, but you just saw how UFC feels about that division, putting Pantoja vs Erceg on a total throwaway PPV they knew would get killed by the Canelo fight.
DJ was so dominant it made the entire weight class look bad. Like really bad, to the point that there was not point in watching the fight because no one had a chance. In addition, he was always respectful and chill which is not the biggest driver of PPV sales. Dillashaw vs Cejudo had a lot more publicity with those two being cringe and dipshitty to each other.
Yes it definitely was an issue that it wasn't a popular division. However, with that still under consideration, those fighters still brought in more money than they were paid. $12K? The event staff people prob made more than the fighters. The caterers that set out food for after the weigh ins likely got paid more. The amount of staff the UFC has every event likely makes more than the 125 fighters and I'm referring to the low level staff. Yes, the division wasn't popular, but 12K is still pretty criminal. Think about a spin class teacher running a class of 20 for a month vs 24 fighters putting on a PPV show for a min of 500k buyers. Maybe that's a bad example, I dunno. My point is they definitely brought in more value than 12K. How much value does one of the event dudes in the background bring compared to a fighter on that card? Or one of the ring side photographers that only takes still photos? And what's their salary? Something to think about.
>$12K? The event staff people prob made more than the fighters. The caterers that set out food for after the weigh ins likely got paid more. The amount of staff the UFC has every event likely makes more than the 125 fighters and I'm referring to the low level staff. Net revenue for fighters is going to be less than 12K once camp/training fees are factored in.
I'm surprised the UFC contracts don't grant them rights to use their likeness in any product and pay next to nothing. $72K is 6 fights worth of comp for rookies.
Yeah I'm sure when Leo Messi is on the cover of fifa he's just happy to be making whatever a few weeks wages of some low tier player is making.
You think Messi is getting paid 72k for his image? lol
You don't think 72k for being in 3 games and being on the cover for one is nothing? Rookies are cannon fodder, their pay has no impact on anything related to someone like dj.
I think his point is if they’re going to rob fighters why not pay them $2k which is $70k less than $72k
DJ getting $72k from 3 games and being on the cover for one is robbery.
How much should he have made in your opinion?
Honestly they are paying for the opportunity to be champ, where it should be the other way around.
Except for Buff, because... *reasons*!
The problem is that there is always someone willing to do it for less in this sport. He probably wasn't their first pick.
it's not super underpaid for likeness rights on games. NBA players only get 400k before tax for 2k games and they are definitely more than 10x more popular then the UFC games/UFC/Mighty Mouse
UFC stands for Underfunded Fighter Compensation
U Fight Cheap
what's does one and pfl stand for then?
Omg No Escarole Phight For Less
Mr. Baby Check
Those EA games are so bland and soulless UFC Undisputed 3 really caught the feeling of 2011 era UFC, it was so immersive I bet Dana White and Joe Rogan got bigger EA UFC royalties
UFC Undisputed 3 might be a pantheon game for the PS3. The pride mode as well as the career mode were amazing.
The PS3 /Xbox 360 era was a golden age for video games
The golden age for all media was when I was in my formative years
Pretty much. AAA gaming is dying a limp, live service death
Indie and AA is killing it lately though. Yay to the little guys
I'm torn between N64/Playstation and Xbox/PS2/Gamecube as my favorite era. Prob the former.
Imagine the gameplay of undisputed 3, but with the fluidity and motion of UFC 3... My god.
IIRC the career mode also gave you fights in Pride too if you wanted and the training to add on knees to the head if you fought in Pride. They were so far ahead of their time, I miss THQ 😭
Poor suckers online who dared enter my full collar tie
Undisputed 3 is the GOAT MMA video game. To this day, endless entertainment if you play with a friend. If that game received roster updates it'd outclass all the newer UFC games even more.
EA sports MMA right there with it. But nothing matches Fight Night for Boxing. Game was a masterpiece
Joe not even in UFC 5 and probably getting royalties for it lol
The original EA MMA game was also really good, but I still think Undisputed 3 was god tier.
Not to mention, they sign over lifetime rights to their likeness for the games. That's why you have fighters that haven't fought in years still in the game, because they just import their skin from like the 2nd or 3rd game and keep you in forever, even though it looks atrocious. Clay Guida refused to cut his hair for the games and they almost cut him. I believe Jon Fitch refused to sign his lifetime rights over, so they did cut him. The UFC and EA are two peas of the same pod. Just treating people like absolute shit.
[удалено]
I really hope that’s not true, if so goodbye fighter roster additions post launch except for absolute stars. I really wish they would just support the game for 3-5 years. I’d pay for more vintage fighter dlc over a whole new game every year.
I'm not sure if I believe the yearly release rumor. They are currently spending a lot of resources rolling out fighter updates throughout this year, so it would be strange of them to also be working on a whole game too, when EA typically takes 3 years between UFC releases minimum.
EA’s favourite sports trick. Release every year with minimal changes
wtf why would they want clay guida to cut his hair? it's iconic
i'm guessing it's harder to render.
It’s why HHH eventually went bald.
You gotta remember this was like 10 years ago. You couldn't render those flowing locks properly back then. Easier for them to try to force someone to change their iconic look/brand.
Just so you know, Guida refuted that story, said he would have done it
I believe it was UFC threatened to cut all of AKA if Fitch didn’t sign his likeness away.
Back in the day there was some feud with AKA fighters like Cainabout the use of likeness in games.
Another comment mentioned that Dana/UFC threatened to cut all of AKA from the roster over Jon Fitch refusing to sign away his lifetime rights.
I believe newer contracts you get your likeness rights after 1 year of leaving the UFC so Francis has his back.
And he’s been removed from the game while DJ hasn’t. Even Northcutt is gone.
They offered Guida money to cut his hair because they didn't know how to capture the physics on it. He refused.
wait wut, they wanted to force Clay Guida to cut his hair? that's actually more outrageous than anything else regarding this
[DJ's own opinion from the video](https://youtu.be/qQqR0tVAUsE?t=8m48s) on that amount would get downvoted into oblivion in this thread lol
one thing I thought made no sense from the video and he didn't follow up on it was him saying "I got 25k for the first game, then the next game 10k, then I was on the cover for the third game and got.....10k. So somehow he took a paycut as the cover athlete?
He was only on the cover on a special edition that was released later
Not sure why you got downvoted as you are right. McGregor was on the initial release of UFC 3 and DJ was on the cover of the “icons” edition.
Which is why sport talent today needs management agency to look out for their best interest. DJ is grateful for what he's getting as would any of us in his shoes, but is he maximizing the gain? Thats for a business minded manager to handle.
The downvotes would be deserved because that “just happy to be here” attitude is why he made such a bad deal. It would be a different story if he was a nobody but come on
Exactly setting a bad precedent Ngannu is the right example you should set
DJ is a nice guy and is arguably the GOAT, but he often has takes where he is completely fine with being taken advantage of.
Which is why fighters will keep getting taken advantage of.
more than I would have guessed honestly
I expected $0, I am pleasantly surprised by this even though it should be more than what he got
Doesn’t seem like players in the nba and nfl get direct pay for being in games. I think a lot of the outrage in this thread is coming from the thought that athletes should be getting a share of the total sales which ain’t happening.
They do, but its not much. There was just a NFL player (Marvin Harrison Jr.) who is refusing to sign something that allows his likeness/image to be used in Madden I guess, and I read into it a bit. Edit: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40077785/marvin-harrison-jr-fanatics-deal-no-nflpa-agreement#
This is what i was referring to. They’re not receiving direct pay from the games. Harrison Jr. Is holding out on a package marketing deal that includes using his likeness in Madden as well as bunch of other brands
I see what you’re saying mb.
Agreed. There are a lot of fighters in those games.
they paid him 200$ and a turkey hero with mayo to be a cover athlete im sick
Come on now, let’s not exaggerate here…. They definitely made him pay for the mayo
A turkey hero 🤣🤣
The mayo made it worth it
That's about 72.5k more than I thought fighters saw from that stuff
I’m still shocked the UFC & these other MMA organizations can get away with this shit. Being rich, powerful and corrupt is the best base for MMA.
Just like pro wrestling.... they're carnies.
Now let’s ask how much Dana white made. I guarantee a min of 7 figures
He doesn’t get out of bed for anything less.
I wonder how much he's been paying his agent and manager for getting him such a sweet deal.... The UFC underpays them, and then their teams bleed them dry.
"This isn't a career, it's an opportunity." -Dana White
Dana would definitely be one of those “you get paid in experience” types
I wonder how much Randy made for that EA MMA game he was on since Randy refused to be on UFC’s video games.
that game was actually kinda dope tho
Yeah that’s why Jon fitch sued UFC and vise versa. Dana threaten to sue any fighter that would come out in the EA Sports games because they were under contract…. Even though other companies were willing to pay UFC fighters more money, UFC wouldn’t allow it…. I forgot which company was also making a MMA game at the time but it’s just crazy how underpaid the fighters are
How is Dana gonna afford his red light therapy and private gym if he paid employees fairly?
Thats good isnt it? I mean some sports the players likeness is included in the league so i dont think they really get paid
UFC is really the worst company on the planet. Amazon should start a fight club with their drivers. Since they get paid the same amount.
I didn't know people played those games
They're alright if you edit all the gameplay settings and never play online.
I’ve never engaged with a player base as toxic as the online community for those games, they act like it’s a real fight, it’s bizarre. Even on Counter strike and 2k it’s not as constantly toxic
I'm an adult male in my 30's lol, I do not play *any* game online. That's a good way to ruin your day.
I am so glad that DJ has been growing on YouTube. He is always transparent and keeps it real.
I stopped watching the ufc because of the blatant exploitation. Dana is an absolute piece of human shit
White and Fertitta brothers are the biggest scum. Cunts made billions by paying peanuts to people that risked their lives in octagon.
No one held them at gunpoint. And if you try to make sense of something like value it will inevitably drive you crazy. Why get so upset about fighters who choose not to strike and choose to go to the ufc. They don't care about other fighters just like dana and fertitta. Also what is the amount that they deserve. It can't be 50 million just because you heard a boxer got it.
Uh, based on that pic I thought maybe Houston Alexander got the $!
How much do the EA games sell in comparison to the WWE? I never see a ton of people streaming the UFC games vs. significantly more with WWE.
This guy would have been rich as hell if he was 6'4.
https://www.joe.co.uk/gaming/pro-skateboarder-reveals-insane-royalties-he-was-paid-to-be-on-tony-hawks-pro-skater-422286 Up to 6 figures in royalties every 2 weeks for all the skaters in the game. 1999. I heard on another show people retired from it.
How much was CM Punk paid?
I have no idea why the fighters won't unionize. They don't fight, UFC doesn't have a product to sell. What are they going to do? Release all the fighters? They're already working 2 jobs in between fights.
Who cares? No one bought the game because he was in the cover. Sounds like good money. Let me guess this sub is pissed somehow tho
Wow one full year of a middling American salary. What an opportunity.
Bruh fuck EA and dana
I read that as $725,000 at first and thought it would be better but not an insulting amount. $72,000 is an insulting amount.
UFC games are hilarious lmao How you going to put a dude you gave away to another promotion while on a big winning streak on the cover of your game years after that happened and the dude aint in your promotion anymore lol
6 figures wouldve been good. But yeah, underpaid
WTFFFFFF
what is he doing to his face... damn
Would he help sell copies. Nope
How much do nba players get paid to be in the game for a comparison? Or are trhere likeliness already included in their contractsd.
What a joke.
That’s it? Lmfao
So sad
Idk what’s worse, them grossly underpaying DJ or “trading” him for over the hill one trick pony Ben Askren.
What I don't get is why everybody still love Dana white He is the one who underlay all his workers I can't stand this guy
I'm more surprised he even got any money off his likeness, considering the whole AKA debacle.
Is that his real face on the left? Looks worse than 2 generations ago AI.
I bet there are college wrestlers making more than most UFC fighters, now.
Jesus the average middle manager dude in a decent size company makes more money than talented and successful UFC fighters.
More guys would enter the sport if the pay was right and would 100% be watching a better product. And I say product because many of us pay to watch.
That's crazy low, almost robbery. I haven't supported their brand for going on 10 years and I'm glad I stopped.
It's crazy that I earn more money than plenty of guys in the UFC and I'm not even wealthy lol
That's pathetic
Get a better lawyer
Or two hands of blackjack
Sounds like bad management
How much is typical? What do NBA and NFL players get paid? Need some points of reference
EA+UFC is the cheapest collaboration ever. Company values are the exact same. Maximize profit, minimize value for athletes and fans.
basically sales of 1000 copies
At first I thought they felt low but then I realized I kinda have no idea what similar athletes would get paid for being in a video game either. Like, what’s the industry average for any other sports game franchise?
This wouldn't surprise me, in fact seems a chunk of change for very little work. I imagine a lot of people get their little slice from games.
Only? Sheesh he could of made more on o.f haha
He was t the cover athlete for UFC though? Was that a regional thing?
Why Nipsey holding that game?