Gil Melendez and Bellator agree to terms, UFC holds rights to match offer
- Thread starter Nastycrow
- Start date
Reckin007 said:
The UFC
like(d) Gilbert Melendez
, he
won
his last fight under contract and
still didn't
renew (
and likely
for
less
money). If
Gil
is doing something like what Gil is doing that means the contracts they are offering are
s---
,
likely higher than other orgs
, and easier to work with than what the media likes to portray (obviously with some negotiations in between). (
Public trashings, saying a guy turned down a fight while he isn't even under contract, denigrating the manger you're supposed to be negotiating with really seem like someone easy to come to an agreement with)
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Benson Henderson fighting in his 3rd straight UFC title fight, on FOX, had a contract for $39k/39k, that is a f---ing joke
fartman420 said:
Benson Henderson fighting in his 3rd straight UFC title fight, on FOX, had a contract for $39k/39k, that is a f---ing joke
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Dude, let it go already... If that is all he really made during that time I am sure someone close to him would have said something. You keep trying to stick this line out there for someone to take the troll... No one is biting.
fartman420 said:
Benson Henderson fighting in his 3rd straight UFC title fight, on FOX, had a contract for $39k/39k, that is a f---ing joke
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True, but you neglected to mention two of his defenses were on FOX not FS1 or FS2 or ppv but fox which gives him a ton of exposure
Sapper said:
Dude, let it go already... If that is all he really made during that time I am sure someone close to him would have said something. You keep trying to stick this line out there for someone to take the troll... No one is biting.
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His salary is probably closer to the truth than I think a lot of you want to believe because his options are so limited. And I'm sure someone around him speaking out will help when the UFC hands out these bonuses, which you guys seem to think are frequent and large based on some belief in Zuffa altruism, at
their
discretion. I'm just looking at what tangible evidence there is.
And fighters managers in MMA generally seem to be poor at their jobs, a lot of fighters managers are simply their trainer. That's why Dana's trashing Rodolphe Beaulieu, because he comes from a business background and can see how out of wack the compensation being given is. Dana would rather deal with trainers whose business expertise goes as far as operating a gym instead of a guy who worked financials for multimillion dollar companies.
ChaosGod said:
True, but you neglected to mention two of his defenses were on FOX not FS1 or FS2 or ppv but fox which gives him a ton of exposure
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Yes, and I agree that under the present (and flawed) system UFC deserves a significant percentage of credit for providing the exposure to allow more sponsorship dollars. But still, say he made an additional $400k-500k through these other avenues, which I think is being extremely generous, boxers on HBO and Showtime playing to a quarter of the audience FOX is drawing regularly clear $1-1.5 million base salary and they still got sponsorship money coming in too.
Spud said:
How can they drag it out? They can match, or then can pass. If they match, Melendez signs with them. If they pass he signs with Bellator.
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I believe there is a one year matching period with basically all UFC contracts, meaning that the UFC may actually be able to drag this out a full year before they are forced to decide if they are willing to match or not... I remember seeing something about Lorenzo saying that he was sure they had plenty of time to make up their mind on whether to match or not...
Shawnd1901 said:
you must have that bad downs the the point is easy gil isn't worth to the ufc what he thinks he does not make or break the ufc he is not a champion or even a huge draw so he wont get paid as if he is one
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And you're basing this value on an intrinsically flawed system where the UFC dictates the values of the fighters. Fighters salaries are basically being used to subsidize Zuffa and their 300 person staff and a headquarters worth tens of millions of dollars to build the UFC brand which in turn just makes the fighters more expendable. People in this thread are basically saying they don't care about the actual quality of the fighters they're watching when they say oh well, they can bring in 3-4 guys in to replace him for that cost no problem, like fighters of his caliber just grow on trees.
5.5+ million viewers on FOX, $1.5 million gate and the payout for entire roster is only $1.2 million. I'm sorry but that's a joke. The money's going somewhere and I don't think the distribution is fair.
fartman420 said:
And you're basing this value on an intrinsically flawed system where the UFC dictates the values of the fighters. Fighters salaries are basically being used to subsidize Zuffa and their 300 person staff and a headquarters worth tens of millions of dollars to build the UFC brand which in turn just makes the fighters more expendable. People in this thread are basically saying they don't care about the actual quality of the fighters they're watching when they say oh well, they can bring in 3-4 guys in to replace him for that cost no problem, like fighters of his caliber just grow on trees.
5.5+ million viewers on FOX, $1.5 million gate and the payout for entire roster is only $1.2 million. I'm sorry but that's a joke. T
he money's going somewhere and I don't think the distribution is fair.
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the money is going somewhere..........the 1oo or so employees who set up the event, the rental of the venue, delivery of equipment, insurance, and so on.
the cost of running the business and building the brand is enormous.
Gil's "caliber" of a fighter isn't exactly tested and he isn't needed.
mabrown45 said:
the money is going somewhere..........the 1oo or so employees who set up the event, the rental of the venue, delivery of equipment, insurance, and so on.
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Most estimates put that cost between about $3-5million which also includes advertising and promotion. Even going on the high end of that, and adding salaries you get total costs at about $6.5 million. The relatively modest $1.5 million gate offsets some of that cost but is nothing compared to the revenue generated from sponsorships for 2.5 hours of broadcasting on FOX, not to mention the fact FOX is paying them $100 million a year.
the cost of running the business and building the brand is enormous.
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Building a brand at the expense of fighters, like I said they are only made more expendable because the focus is on strengthening the UFC brand and not on the fighters who are forced to sign away their likeness rights in
perpetuity
so Zuffa can still profit off them even if they're not with company or if their dead. Most people associate UFC with Dana White instead of any fighter and the average person probably couldn't name a single active fighter, heck the average person probably wouldn't know what MMA is if you asked them but know exactly what the UFC is.
Gil's "caliber" of a fighter isn't exactly tested and he isn't needed.
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What? You're probably happy watching sloppy kickboxing matches from the guys making $8k as long as you see the words UFC somewhere on your screen.
I just don't understand this blind support and belief in Zuffa altruism, people are essentially arguing from the stance of Zuffa corporate interest. It's dumbfounding, in every other sport fans can see the owners for the greedy, self servers they are.
All I know is that financially the UFC is doing something right cause if they weren't they wouldn't have lasted this long and fell just like Pride, Affliction, etc. The UFC is slowly increasing fighter pay. MMA fighters today make more money than they did 5 years ago. And that whole "Boxers make this and that much" well the UFC has only been around for 20 years. When boxing hit its 20 year anniversary I'm sure they weren't making anywhere near what these MMA guys make today (relatively speaking of course). Also the more big name sponsors that get into MMA then the more cash that will be flowing. The UFC is trying to get all the big names. However I do think that sponsorship tax is too high. It will take time.
Neonep said:
All I know is that financially the UFC is doing something right cause if they weren't they wouldn't have lasted this long and fell just like Pride, Affliction, etc. The UFC is slowly increasing fighter pay. MMA fighters today make more money than they did 5 years ago. And that whole "Boxers make this and that much" well the UFC has only been around for 20 years. When boxing hit its 20 year anniversary I'm sure they weren't making anywhere near what these MMA guys make today (relatively speaking of course). Also the more big name sponsors that get into MMA then the more cash that will be flowing. The UFC is trying to get all the big names. However I do think that sponsorship tax is too high. It will take time.
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I think that time argument is a bit flawed, I see in certain respects how boxing has more stability and that could have an effect but at the end of the day money is generated. If I throw a dodgeball PPV next week and I gross $1Billion, doesn't matter if that's the first time I still grossed $1 Billion.
While I see UFC has had great success to this point I think a reason why they have stagnated is their lack of star building and I think it's been because of an overselling of the UFC brand over the fighters. Build up the fighters and the fans will come, when the athletes are taken care of the product will do better and you'll attract the best athletes in the world. Possible MMA superstars could be sitting at home right now thinking it's not worth all the risks just for the chance to make a couple hundred thousand dollars.
The real reason the UFC is stagnating is.
1. Too many cards. Spreading themselves too thin and to fill those cards they need more fighters which leads to...
2. Dropoff in quality of fighters. Nowadays we see guys that without the extended schedule would not be around.
3. Due to all of the cards and trying to get people to watch and care about them they are taking PPV caliber fights and making them free. The double edged sword. Take the main events of a few of the free cards this year. Henderson/Thomson, Machida/Mousasi, Shogun/Hendo 2, & Browne/Werdum. Put those on a PPV with Jones/Glover and everyone on here would lose their f---ing minds.
I think the UFC needs to adopt a less is more strategy now. I say one PPV and one free card a month. Have 2 months with 2 PPV's. Also expand the PPV main card to 6 fights. Pull back a bit, cut a lot of the bottom tier fighters which in turn would flood the market for Bellator & WSOF. Restore the idea of "UFC caliber" cause there are a bunch of fighters that shouldn't be in the UFC, we can all agree on that.