Opinion: Condoning Pantoja's Poverty

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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Alexandre Pantoja scored the triumph of his life against Brandon Moreno at UFC 290. In one of the greatest fights ever, he defeated the champion by split decision, becoming the new UFC flyweight king. It was a moment of pure, overwhelming joy and success, the kind one experiences only a few times in all one's earthly years. And yet, it was a different story that captured the attention of many fans on Monday. Namely, that Pantoja had been forced to work for Uber Eats to make ends meet until August of 2021, when he received a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his submission win over Brandon Royval. For context, Pantoja was considered a Top 10 flyweight if not better by 2019, and the Royval fight was just two matches before Pantoja battled Moreno in the co-main of a pay-per-view card. Nor is this unusual. In the past, we've heard other top contenders like Jared Cannonier and Corey Anderson mention how difficult it's been to support their families from their UFC pay.

Right away, there was a desire by many fans, conscious or not, to change the subject. Some brought up the low pay of hometown fighters with records of 3-1 on Bellator MMA prelims, or how a random guy on a small regional card was paid a few hundred bucks. This constantly happens with these discussions, and it's infuriatingly irrelevant. Pantoja has been one of the best fighters in the world for many years. The others are fringe fighters nowhere near the world's top 100 in their own weight class.

Lower-level athletes being paid peanuts is constant across every sport, even ones far more lucrative than MMA. Basketball players outside of the NBA and top European leagues make very little. Tennis players competing on the futures circuit get paid less than $100 for showing up and a few thousand if they win the entire tournament. The median salary for an arena football player is less than $40,000. The only exception is Minor League Baseball, where even Class A, the lowest tier, pays players a respectable wage, but notably, those salaries are subsidized by the teams’ major league affiliates, which see them as an investment in their own future talent as well as the sport as a whole.

Fringe athletes making little is true everywhere. Elite athletes making little and having to supplement it through unskilled labor, however, is unique to MMA. Moreover, this obfuscation provides convenient cover for the UFC. Rather than keeping the focus on the promotion, one will commonly hear fans say “Sure, UFC pay is bad, but it's a lot better than the regionals!” These people are being convenient patsies for the UFC whether they realize it or not. Moreover, the UFC is the only promotion that is capable of paying its athletes more. The regional promotions rely on getting the friends and family of a fighter to show up, as virtually no one else cares, since there is always high-level MMA to watch instead. That might be enough to break even on their shows, but certainly not for producing big profits. However, the other major promotions make nowhere near the revenue or record-breaking profits of the UFC. Many show huge financial losses and are in danger of going under, being sold, or some combination thereof.

The only other promotion that has any effect on the UFC’s fighter pay is Bellator. Bellator, despite making a tiny 5% of the revenue that the UFC does, pays close enough that multiple world-class fighters and former UFC champions like Sergio Pettis, Ryan Bader, Gegard Mousasi, Benson Henderson, Phil Davis, Rory MacDonald and Anderson have jumped ship. One reason is that while UFC pays its fighters just 13% of its total revenue, including nothing from major sponsorship deals like the one with Crypto.com, Bellator shares over 40% of its revenue and allows fighters to have their own in-cage sponsors. This is no coincidence. The UFC purposely keeps its pay around Bellator's since there is no incentive to go higher. Thus, if Bellator didn't exist, UFC fighter pay would likely be even lower.

Many will throw up their hands here and exclaim, “It's a free market! If they don't like the UFC, they can fight elsewhere,” as UFC president Dana White himself has done on more than one occasion. Like most of what comes out of White's mouth, that's pure BS. The UFC is well-known for its onerous contracts, ones that conveniently allow the company to keep a fighter indefinitely. All the promotion has to do is keep offering them fights. I'm sure a lawyer could dispute this, but how many fighters have money to spend on that? Meanwhile, the UFC is owned by William Morris Endeavor, the biggest Hollywood talent agency. I'm guessing its own legal representation is quite formidable. Thus, one reason for the current low pay isn't economic, but rather, legal. That makes it far more coercive but at the same time, potentially easier to remedy. Just get rid of the infinite contracts. Imagine if the UFC actually had to re-negotiate every few fights with their champions and contenders. However, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that it's not only the UFC who had these exploitative contracts. Manouel Sousa is currently suing the Professional Fighters League because despite not offering him a contract after he won on the PFL Challengers series, he was nevertheless prevented from appearing on Dana White's Contender Series.

Most of all though, I just wish UFC defenders would be honest. Either the UFC's fighters are amazing, world-class fighters or they're disposable, irrelevant, and should be thankful for the small scraps they get. However, they can't be both. It's one or the other. And if you're curious about what you can do to help top fighters avoid delivering foods to feed their own kids, remember that Bellator pay is the bellwether for how low UFC pay can go. So rather than jeering at them, as those same UFC defenders tend to do, consider supporting Bellator instead.