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Originally Posted by rodnreel
Wow... For most of those guy's the pay out really sucks. Randy and Chuck are the only 2 that are making any kind of real money, and even they should be earning more. Perhaps as the popularity of the sport grows so will the earnings. I don't see how someone like Kenny Florian or Chris Leben can make a living fighting, and training full time. They've got to have full time jobs to make ends meet.
I'd like to see Tito get paid the $300k.
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Sponsorship has a lot to do with it. It's like when Michael Jordan signed his biggest contract ever, people were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over what the Bulls were paying him, but the money he was making from all of his sponsorship deals was equal or greater. Chuck's Xyience deal brings him something like a million bucks a year, and every logo you see a fighter wearing on his shorts, hat or t-shirt means money that he's received.
It's why Quinton Jackson wanted to come back to American soil to fight. Pride (rival MMA organization, based out of Japan. Sorry if you already knew that, but you say you're a new fan so I just wanted to be sure) pays more money per-fight than the UFC (they also draw 50,000 people to their events), but if you're not Japanese, it's hard to get lucrative sponsorship deals. Jackson knows he's a marketable persona, and he wanted to come back home and make some of that money that Chuck's earning.