Apples to Apples: Why UFC’s Volkanovski will make a pittance compared to boxing’s Kambosos

One can think about it was a painful expertise for the Final Preventing Championship’s 145-pound titleholder Alexander Volkanovski to work as the colour commentator for countryman George Kambosos’s current boxing match at Marvel Stadium.

Not due to Kambosos’s poor displaying or the truth that he was commenting on boxing as an alternative of his personal sport of combined martial arts. No, what should have been tiresome for Volkanovski was listening to time and again that George was set to obtain “ten million {dollars}” for his title protection — an quantity that’s doubtless greater than Volkanovski’s whole profession earnings. That is even though Alexander, who will try to defend his UFC title this weekend, is the vastly extra completed fighter of the 2. His mistake? Selecting a profession in combined martial arts, a sport singularly outlined by a promotional monopoly.

There are many similarities between combined martial arts fighter Alexander Volkanovski and boxer George Kambosos, whose championship fights are set to happen a mere 4 weeks’ aside from each other – Kambosos fought on June 5, and Volkanovski is about to defend his UFC title on the two^nd of July.

Each are Australian, have been born and raised in New South Wales, and are of Australian-Greek heritage. Each struggle within the decrease weight courses, Kambosos within the 135 lb (61kg) division and Volkanovski within the 145 lbs (66kg) division. Each threat critical damage and probably demise of their chosen professions. And, till Kambosos’ current loss to Devin Haney, each have been seen by most of the people as on the prime of their respective sports activities and weight courses: Volkanovski as the present Final Preventing Championship world’s featherweight title-holder, whereas Kambosos was the light-weight champion in boxing, holding three of the 4 main sanctioning group’s belts.

The place these similarities disintegrate although is when one seems to be at what they’re every paid to follow their craft.

Photograph by WILLIAM WEST/AFP through Getty Photos

In response to Prime Rank’s Bob Arum, who was one of many promoters for the Haney-Kambosos occasion, the Australian acquired $7 million (roughly AU$10 million) in compensation for the USA broadcast rights, the gate from greater than 40,000 spectators at Marvel Stadium, sponsors, and different sources of income. Not included on this quantity was Kambosos’s share of the residential and industrial pay-per-view gross sales. Reportedly 50,000 homes paid AU$59.95 to observe the match together with a whole bunch of bars that paid rather more for the best to display screen it. Collectively this could have translated into roughly two million {dollars} extra in Kambosos’ pocket, placing his complete incomes at round $9 million or AU$13 million.

Compared, Volkanovski, who is about to defend his featherweight title on July 2, 2022 in a trilogy bout reverse former champion Max Holloway, makes a lot, a lot lower than his pugilistic counterpart.

As a UFC champion, Volkanovski could possibly be anticipated to have a contract that paid him round US$500,000 assured “to indicate” together with pay-per-view factors, as long as he’s defending a title. The usual UFC pay-per-view (PPV) settlement, for those who have them, is often structured in order that the athlete receives a cascading sum relying on how properly the occasion sells:

• One greenback ($1.00) for every pay-per-view purchase between 200,000 buys and 400,000 buys;
• Two {dollars} ($2.00) for every pay-per-view purchase between 400,000 buys and 600,000 buys; and
• Two {dollars} and Fifty Cents ($2.50) for every pay-per- view purchase over 600,000 buys.

A low promoting PPV would thus pay nothing, whereas a particularly profitable one — resembling UFC 251, the place Volkanovski co-headlined alongside aspect a welterweight title struggle — may translate to a seven-figure bonus. Usually although, the whole PPV buys for an occasion are beneath half one million. Thus, as Amanda Hooton of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote in her recent feature on the UFC champion, “somebody at [Volkanovski’s] stage is likely to be anticipated to earn between $500,000 and $1 million a struggle.”

Volkanovski, like all different UFC fighters, doesn’t obtain a reduce of the gate, nor a bit of the industrial PPV. His solely sponsorship earnings for a match is derived from the UFC’s attire cope with Venum, which pays him a token quantity ($42,000) in “compliance pay” for carrying its uniform throughout struggle week. The upside for fighters – their share of the enterprise – is solely for residential pay-per-views. Bars, theaters and different industrial venues are excluded when figuring out a fighters’ bonus. The pay-per-views which are included are additionally generally restricted to locations the place the value is the equal of no less than $40. This might imply gross sales in the USA and Canada are at all times included when figuring out a UFC champion’s bonus. Conversely, Australian gross sales will solely be included if the Australian Greenback doesn’t fall beneath 73% the worth of an American greenback, which it at present is.

For fighters on playing cards that notably attraction to Australians, this may be expensive. If the {dollars} stay at $1.43AUD to $1USD then the fighters with PPV bonuses on UFC 276 won’t obtain any earnings in respect to Australian purchases. The exclusion of 100,000 buys from Australia for an occasion that bought, say, 600,000 within the US and Canada, may characterize the sudden lack of 1 / 4 million {dollars} for fighters like Volkanovski; or roughly 1 / 4 of all of his earnings that evening.

Why is it then that Kambosos made a lot extra off his title protection than Volkanovski does defending his UFC belt?

It’s not as a result of boxing is extra in style or generates extra money. UFC broadcast rights, pay-per-view gross sales, sponsorships cash, and ticket gross sales generate more than $1 billion a year for the corporate, which holds a mean of 42 occasions per calendar yr.

Volkanovski’s subsequent occasion will be anticipated to generate tens of millions on the gate at T-Cell Enviornment in Las Vegas, tens of millions extra from sponsors, worldwide broadcasters, and a assured eight determine payment from ESPN for the US residential PPV rights. All advised, it is rather doubtless UFC 276 will generate greater than Kambosos versus Haney did.

No, the rationale why boxers like Kambosos make extra, is as a result of boxers get a a lot increased share of the income generated by the occasions they compete in. Which is to say that in boxing, extra of the proceeds go to the women and men within the ring throwing leather-based than to the paper-pushing fits who handle, promote and broadcast the occasion.

This isn’t hypothesis. Paperwork that the UFC was required to reveal by antitrust litigation in the USA confirmed that that the group pays approximately 17% of revenues to its athletes. This compares with the roughly 28% of revenues which Australian Soccer League gamers obtain, the 50% of revenues paid out to athletes in American ‘stick and ball’ sports activities (NFL, MLB and NBA) and the astronomic sums commanded by prime boxers. Living proof: Prime Rank, Haney’s promoter for his struggle with Kambosos, just lately reported that it paid on common round 70% of its revenues to the boxers on its occasions. Thus, in the event that they fought on identically performing playing cards, a boxer may count on to earn in extra of 3 times what his UFC peer would for theirs.

Why would boxers get a better share of the income than UFC fighters when the sports activities are so comparable? Each contain two people competing in hand-to-hand fight in entrance of a paying viewers, be it attending stay occasions or watching on pay-per-view. The one main distinction between the 2 is that one takes place in a hoop and the opposite an eight-sided cage, and that the typical sports activities fan typically confuses “that cage preventing stuff” with the contrived world {of professional} wrestling.

Reasonably, the reason for why a boxer like Kambosos could make a lot greater than fellow champion, Volkanovski will be present in how the 2 sports activities are structured: a distinction that enormously impacts the leverage that their respective athletes when coping with the aforementioned fits.

The game of combined martial arts is dominated by one entity, the UFC, which was based in 1993 and has an estimated worth of between $4 and $10 billion. It’s estimated that 90% of all of the income generated by skilled MMA bouts pours into the UFC’s coffers, they usually have an equal share of the highest fighters beneath long-term, unique contracts.

UFC champions are acknowledged because the primary fighter in every of their weight courses, and people titles are owned and managed by the UFC and (to a lesser extent) the fighter that holds them. Thus, to turn into acknowledged as one of the best on this planet, like Volkanovski has completed, a fighter has to signal an settlement with the UFC that tilts closely within the promoter’s favor. With out agreeing to their phrases, the fighter won’t ever get a chance to struggle the opposite prime fighters beneath unique UFC agreements, nor will the UFC ever grant them the best to struggle for his or her championship. And thus, they are going to be compelled to linger in obscurity, denied the possibility to show their capabilities of their sport of alternative.

Conversely, agreeing to the UFC’s phrases as a way to get the chance signifies that even after successful stated title they are going to be locked right into a long-term deal that continues to present the UFC leverage in negotiations. Phrases within the UFC’s boilerplate contract embrace prohibitions on the fighter carrying their very own sponsors, prohibitions on competing in non-MMA competitors (e.g. boxing, skilled wrestling) with out the UFC’s permission, provisions giving the UFC the best to use the fighters’ likeness in perpetuity, wide-ranging IP rights granted within the UFC’s unique favor and varied “tolling” provisions which permit the UFC to increase the contract in sure frequent circumstances (e.g. the fighter will get injured).

In contrast, the “labor market” in boxing in 2022 is rather more closely geared in favor of its prime athletes. To make certain, it wasn’t at all times this manner. Corruption and exploitative conduct from promoters have been hallmarks of the candy science all through a lot of the 20 th century, and an extended listing of pugilistic icons discovered themselves on the receiving finish — together with Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson. Nevertheless, Federal laws which was handed on the flip of the Century, aptly named the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act modified this paradigm and, vitally, launched antitrust provisions which gave boxers extra bargaining energy with promoters and created a extra aggressive market panorama.

In contrast to MMA, nobody promoter dominates the game in boxing, nor do any of the promoters personal their titles. As a substitute, the titles and the rankings they use to find out the highest challengers are managed by unbiased sanctioning organizations. These organizations are sometimes seen with disdain, for not like in MMA the place the UFC champion is seen because the acknowledged world champion, their presence means there are sometimes a number of champions who could make a declare for that title. What it additionally means is that no promoter can withhold entry to world championship alternatives as a way to coerce a boxer into signing an settlement within the promoter’s favor.

Photograph by Paul Kane/Zuffa LLC

Kambosos and Volkanovski provide clear examples of the distinction these totally different buildings make. Each had been skilled fighters for the same length with comparable data (8 years and a 20-1 report for Alexander, 7 years and a 19-0 report for George) earlier than receiving a shot on the title. However whereas Alexander needed to petition the UFC for the chance to even struggle for his or her promotion and once more for the chance to struggle for his or her title, Kambosos was free to decide on his personal promoter with the data {that a} single promoter didn’t management entry to a belt.

As former UFC welterweight champion Carlos Newton as soon as described the distinction between the 2 sports activities: “in boxing, promoters compete for boxers, who in flip compete for titles, whereas in MMA, fighters compete for promoters who personal titles.”

Thus, when Volkanovski was given an opportunity to struggle for a UFC title there can be little in the way in which of negotiations. If he wished the chance, he must struggle for it on the date and on the venue of the UFC’s selecting. His pay for the championship bout ($250,000) had additionally been decided properly forward of time: when he signed a long-term contract with the UFC earlier in his profession, earlier than he was a top-ranked contender.

In the meantime, as soon as Kambosos had received sufficient fights in opposition to different prime challengers, he was made the necessary contender for the Worldwide Boxing Federation (IBF) – one of many 4 main sanctioning organizations – light-weight title. The champion on the time, Teofimo Lopez, was now required to defend in opposition to Kambosos or give up the championship. There have been no necessities on the Australian’s aspect to signal over his future rights to Lopez’s promoter as a way to get his title alternative.

Kambosos would go on to earn $1.23 million for his title shot reverse Lopez. This excessive quantity was largely attributable to the truth that there was a young course of by which promoters may make purse bids for the best to advertise the struggle. That is one thing that Volkanovski would by no means have entry to as a UFC champion, as his unique promoter is the UFC. (Kambosos’s $1.23 million purse didn’t embrace the $420,000 he earned when the unique purse bid winner forfeited their deposit for failing to carry the occasion throughout the required time interval.)

Even when some eccentric billionaire – say Andrew Forrest – wished to pay Volkanovski a $10 million flat purse to compete in a stadium present in Melbourne or Sydney: Alex can be contractually obliged to say no. The one means he may take up that provide is that if he fought out his UFC contract (a five year sunset provision make ready it out very troublesome) however champions who’ve tried this escape have often confronted retaliatory motion from the promotion.

The shortage of market competitors within the MMA trade, and the low share of income that lands in fighters’ pockets, is a state of affairs that the UFC has intentionally cultivated over the previous 20 years – suppressing fighter-led efforts to start out a fighter’s union and to increase boxing’s Ali Act to the combined martial arts trade. A number of class action lawsuit have also been brought by former UFC fighters in opposition to the promotion, claiming it has engaged in anticompetitive conduct and workout routines unlawful monopoly energy, nonetheless the progress of those claims has been gradual and their outcomes unsure.

Within the interim, the UFC’s executives and shareholders are paying themselves massive salaries and bonuses, while selling their top athletes short to the tune of a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} per yr.

The unfairness of all of it is unlikely to have escaped Volkanovski, who joined the Principal Occasion commentary crew for the Kambosos-Haney conflict and heard all about how a lot his counterpart was anticipated to make for what turned out to be a solitary title protection. What’s much less clear if there’s something that Alexander “The Nice” or his administration crew can do about it earlier than his time on the prime of the game is over.

John S. Nash is an everyday contributor to Bloody Elbow. Jacob Debets is a Melbourne primarily based lawyer and author.

Collectively, they’re engaged on a e book concerning the UFC, anticipated to come back out in 2023. Its working title is “Simply Bleed: The Untold Story of the Final Preventing Champion’s Rise from Banned to Billion Greenback Bloodsport”.