Maybe Randy’s not so crazy after all.
UFC lightweight contender, Roger Huerta, who is set to battle Kenny Florian at UFC 87: “Seek and Destroy,” appears to be joining the steadily growing ranks of disgruntled fighters who feel the UFC has evolved in every aspect except fighter compensation.
Often perceived as the UFC’s “Golden Boy,” Huerta explains there’s no gold for him or many of the other fighters in a new interview with Fight! magazine.
Here’s an excerpt:
Huerta is one of a growing number of Zuffa-contracted fighter who feel that there is a disconnection between the company’s success and the way fighters are compensated. Huerta’s disillusionment with the UFC began when he did press tours for his employer in Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, and London and received a $50 per diem for his troubles. It sounds like a a good deal until you factor in time away from training, friends, and family, days often stretch twelve hours or more, and an exchange rate of one UK pound for two American dollars. “Why do you think I don’t do PR for the UFC any more?” he asks.
He’s also unhappy with the terms of his current contract, but to Huerta, the press tours underscore a larger point: by and the large, Zuffa does not treat its contracted fighters with sufficient loyalty or respect. He argues that many UFC fighters barely make enough to cover their training expenses. He brings up teammate Keith Jardine repeatedly, incensed that a main event fighter is working for ten and ten- $10k to show and 10k to win - while his opponent regularly makes ten times as much.
Huerta’s expression hardens and becomes more animated as talk turns to endorsements. The common counter-argument for complaints about fighter pay is that fighters often make more from endorsements and sponsorships than they do for competing. But Huerta has soured on the system after receiving lowball offers from companies who expect fighters to jump at the chance to endorse products. He rails against a Fortune 500 company for offering a deal to build him as a spokesman that included unpaid work. “Are you serious?” Huerta ask. “I know Dale Earnhardt Jr isn’t doing appearances for free.”
“The truth is, I don’t really care if I fight in the UFC or somewhere else,” Huerta says. The fighter says he understands that Zuffa has to keep an eye on the bottom line, but he wants to work, “For a company that is as loyal to me as I am to them.”
Most fans and fighters agree there needs to be a more level playing field when it comes to fighter salaries, but as the UFC has shown in the past, it doesn’t like to air its laundry in public.
That could mean a bumpy road for Huerta, who has one fight remaining on his contract after UFC 87. Should Huerta defeat Florian, I can certainly imagine a scenario where the UFC asks BJ Penn to put his plans for vacating the lightweight title on hold in order to “take care of” Huerta.
See Lyoto Machida vs. Tito Ortiz.
That’s assuming, of course, that the UFC lets him fight at all. I seem to remember another high profile fighter, Andrei Arlovski, with one fight left on his contract who ended up being buried on the undercard against Jake O’Brien at UFC 82 after nearly a year of inactivity.
Time off doesn’t appear to bother Huerta, however, who has stated on several occasions his goals and interests outside of mixed martial arts. If one of those interests involves traveling, I know of a place overseas that’s gearing up for it’s second lightweight grand prix.
But like they say, the bento box is always greener on the other side.
Thanks to ‘Five Ounces of Pain‘ for the assist.
210 Comments »
WHAAAAAAAAAA,
Jardine signed the contract as did every other guy in the UFC. I’ll Bet a years salary that Jardine got a huge bonus when he beat Chuck. Dana already proved it to me when Randy was complaining…all those cashed checks seemed to have added up to more than Randy was letting on. Hey as far as Huerta, at least he’d have a chance to be champ in elite!
anyone know how many more fights he owes the UFC before he starts looking for greener pastures?
2, including the fight w/ Ken-flo.
thanks.
I am getting real impatient not knowing what the match ups for the semi finals of the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix on September 23!
I wish they would announce the match ups already, cause its killing me to not know!
Off topic: It would be really cool if starting with UFC 100, they start awarding their champions with new belts (different style). The current UFC belt is nice, but the style has been around for a long time. Every 100 UFC events they should switch belts!
TERRIBLE TERRIBLE MMA NEWS: DREAM might be in trouble
Taniagwa Sadaharu FEG producer has hinted some major troubles over at DREAM. Taniagwa was quoted talking about the ratings for DREAM.5, and what needs to be done to make DREAm survive.
After getting dropped from prime time earlier this year, they got another chance with the last Dream show - DREAM.5 could only manage to get around 10% ratings and the TV executives are losing their patience.
Quote from Taniagwa Sadaharu:
“DREAM.5’s TV rating is only 10%.We can not said it is success.If We can not grow up,DREAM TV show is finish in September…..”
Check out pictures that were taken of Rampage yesterday. He seems to be doing better:
http://dreamfighters.com/site/?action=detail&id=1217521088
Also, I hear that he is really looking forward to fighting
wanderlei in November
i wonder why DREAM is not a big hit in japan like PRIDE was. they have better fighters than WVR.
thats what I am wondering!
So what will happen to those fighters? Will they flock to the US?
KAMA. its because they dont have any freak-show godzilla type fights, only some of the best, most sick-a$$ lw and mw gpx fights in a long time. the japanese fans are given alot of credit for not booing fighters, but it seems like they dont appreiciate real fights or real fighters.
godzillaaaaaaa!! hiyaku! hiyaku! lol. Agree. I like DREAM. Hope they get it fixed.
me too! and JOHN i think it sucks as well that dream might be folding. maybee the ufc can pick up alot of them, like aoki,hellboy and jz just to name a few. to bad your boy alvarez is contracted to elite i belive, i would love to see these guys go up against some of the ufc,s top lws. and for sure they have to get jacare! i would like to see him go at it with hendo right off the bat. he beat mayhem, so its not out of the question. or maybee ricardo almedia (a bjj dream,no pun intended).im getting to caried away right now, this is just all fantasy stuff, but who knows, someday it might happen.
I like DReam, and my best case scenario is that they get their Sh*tt together. They should really borrow the Giant tim Sylvia(1 fight) and have him fight Cro Cop. Cro Cop is a GOD over there and since Tim is a walking Freakshow, the Japanese people will eat that fight up. I guarantee that fight would give the ratings a Huge boost!
Another possibility is that all the fighters jump ship to the other Japanese organization World Victory Road, which would really help turn that Organization around.
If that were to happen, we would probably some fighters test they American Free Agent Market, but dont get too excited because the UFC already negotiated with most of these fighters and Grossly Low-balled them, like Hellboy , Kang and others. I would think that more former DReam fighters would sign with Affliction or EliteXC, than the UFC. So it would still increase American mma, but probably not much in the UFC. It would really help EliteXC and Affliction get better creating some headaches down the road for Dana.
Just my thoughts
thats pretty genius: CroCop vs. Tim… God vs. Freak. lol. If talent is not the problem, because LW & MW talent is stacked, maybe its marketing to the key demographic. Or maybe japanese people are more interested in HW foreigners. PRIDE had a diverse range of skilled LHW & HW stars if you think about it, yes some freaks. Now, DREAM has majority Japanese fighters and no LHW or HW division whatsoever. Its hard to believe that the mma market over there just disappeared. But they definitely took a big hit losing guys like Crocop, Wand, Shogun, Fedor. UFC wouldn’t be the same without Chuck, Spider, GSP, BJ. Hopefully DREAM can make the japanese fans realize the stars that they have now, bring in some new ones (Kimbo maybe?lol) and start selling ppvs again.
How much did huerta make in the year that he fought five times?
Probably so little, i wanna cry a river for him… NOT
before he starts complaining he should maybee talk to his agent, who probably got him the shit fighting deal at the UFC. (sarcasm)
His manager is Monte Cox and he’s definately making a killing. He may wanna be pissed at him too
Monty is sofaking Lying to his fighters, every time I see him, I wish I could see him fight Wandy in pride rules. Yes I really dislike that weasel.
what a fighter makes in endorsements is irrelevant! those deals have nothing to do with the ufc contracts that fighters have and they should not even be mentioned when it comes to discussing fighter salary. if that were the case then why on earth would the cleveland cavaliers pay lebron james much money when he’s making 90 million dollars from a nike endorsement? or why should tiger woods get any purse money from tournaments he wins because he gets millions for gatorade and nike? endorsement deals are personal deals between athlete and said product. dana white’s argument of bringing up the amount of money fighters get from endorsements as a reason for low salaries doesn’t hold water
deuce 4, would those fighters make the same money in endorsments if they were at any other Org? I dont think they would. So it is irrelevant, if the fighter uses the UFC’s brand to make money outside the cage.
hell no they wouldnt!
A fighter should be more or less popular[endorsementwise]to make some big bucks in the business. W/o endorsements and royalties, I just don’t know if the UFC’s salary is enough to keep the fighters in the mix…
UFC made Roger what he is today!!!! I guess the Affliction salaries are getting to alot of fighters. Too bad they will not last that long…. Roger would still be homeless if it wasn’t for the UFC…Wandy is known through out the world Jardine isn’t plain and simply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
true that, maybe if Jardine could put together a decent streak without getting KTFO he would have a little bargaining power
Yea, Hueta hasnt done enough in his career to be crying like this.
Hey Kevin, have you read about the rumors on the actual #’s of affliction ppv’s? And what their saying about the way tickets are sold?
no what did I miss?
you mean that they bought 25% of their own tickets?
Cut & Paste
————
“Based on independent estimates we’ve heard, the number has been estimated at between 50,000 and 85,000 buys,” said Meltzer. “Atencio claimed the number as being higher, saying it topped 100,000, although at press time, any numbers could only be considered rough estimates. Atencio told us that since UFC doesn’t release numbers, he’s not going to either.”
Meltzer went on to point out that PRIDE once claimed they did 150,000 buys for their US debut back in 2006 when the number was actually 40,000; so there could be a lot of posturing going on from Affliction.
lol!!! That douche bag was all bragging about doing over 100,000, and that he’d release the #’s. Now that he sees the truth he says “the UFC doesn’t do it so I won’t either” How’s this Atencio, UFC doesn’t pay 3x what it makes out in salaries…bad business model to make 2 million and pay out 6. that means you lose money and go out of business!!!
Kevin, and they say somting about the way the tickets were sold. Ofcourse they bought 500,000 worth, and they sold tickets at the arena for $39.95 no matter where they were seated. But because the promoter pays the taxes, he can say that the $39.95 dollar ticket was $500 to $1000 dollars. Its all a way to make the event look like a success, supposedly it happens in boxing all the time. So 2.1mil supposedly made at the gate. -500,000 - how ever many tickets actually sold for $39.95 that they claim sold for more = millions in loses!
they recently said that they really did over 100,000 ppv buys. I hope its true, because the better they do, the better it will be for us fans!
I know of those buy’s came from my cable box.
Everyone keeps saying that competition is better for the fans…explain to me how that is.
From my perspective, more promotions means that I have to buy more PPVs. It also means that there is going to be a lot more red tape in cross promotional fights. I would be content if all the worlds best fighters fought under the same promotion.
no, it would hopefully mean more tv deals and less ppv’s!
RealDrew: In a perfect world.. if it was so.. One MMA umbrella would be great.. but the problem here is
#1. The sport of MMA is not like baseball, basketball, Football, it’s becoming more and more like the sport of boxing. We shouldn’t compare the UFC to MLB, NBA, NFL, cuz that like thats like apples to oranges. Even in boxing.. there is no organization like the UFC.
#2. The growth of MMA from the underground to pop mainstream.. THe UFC..and this can not be stated enough has done more for the sport of MMA in America then anybody else ( Thx Dana ).. but the buck doesn’t stop here.. MMA is alive and now growing and expanding on it’s own.. The way the UFC conduct business today may hurt them down the line.
#3. best fighter’s fighting the best fighter’s regardless of promotion..will the way it looks now.. never happen. ex: Chuck vs Wandy.. dream match up.. only happend cuz Zuffa bought pride.. and it should of happend like that.. this is where these start up/ smaller promotions are losing the fight in the MMA worsl.. The UFC holds with lock and key the best fighter’s of the world collectively. We can not have an independant MMA champ if the UFC is not sitting at the Round table. This is where my crystal ball is fuzzy.. cuz I don’t know how it will look like a few years ffrom now.
#4. More PPV’s More MMA!! More counter cock bloking by Dana. More MMA!! that is great!! for us fans.. do we recall when it was at least 6months in between UFC/MMA events..my mouth was completly dry.
It sucked for us fans..We ran otu of things to talk about. Who can afford to purchase the PPV’s go ahead..show support. Who can’t …it’s cool ..stilll show yor luv..by dropping a comment here on mania. and if we all know Dana..everytime a rival company has a show..he’ll pull a UFN out his culo.. or rebroadcast a old UFC PPV. So that is a win win..IMO
#5. The greatest HW Card to date would of never happened. Affliction is the best thing to happen to MMA since Zuffa tricked and bought the UFC from SeG for 2milllion$.
Competition is great for fans.. it will guide the sport in the right direction.. more MMA our way.. but I wouldn’t of minded if all the premier fighter’s fought under one roof.. but I also would mind..offical 3 day weekends forever. =P
please dont let mma become like boxing. too many alphabet titles (like wamma in mma). if it does, it wont be because of the ufc. i dont mind seeing competition either, as long as it’s for the right reasons. i think that affliction is trying to do the right thing, but they are way overpaying their fighters (800k for tim, 300k for linland) and if they keep this up they will be out of business quick. i know the ufc aint perfect, but what org is. so far they have shown what it takes to be the best and no one else has come close.
I’m starting to see a pattern here. Just a thought, but lately when a particular fighter is approaching a major carrer, crosroads fight, he starts whining a bit. I’m sensing Huerta may feel a loss means he would have to move on. Not that I agree but he may see it that way. Either way, Until Affliction can pay ALL their fighters loads of cash on a consistent basis, you might just want to keep grazing on this side of the fence.
KEVIN. i totally agree. i wish someone would ask him how much money he’s made so far in sponserhip money. alot im sure, and why? because he fights for the ufc, thats why. and why does every disgruntled fighter always bring up kieth jardine. every interview i see with jardine, he always says that the ufc takes care of him. chael sonnnen has a good video interview going around where he talks about how alot of fighters are spoiled and dont realize how good they actually have it. huerta career has been made by the ufc, so he had better be careful. if he lose to florian, he might just be fighting for another org. if they dont fold 1rst.
I hope Huerta enjoy’s fighting for Matt Lindland in Portland.
i’ll bet anything that huerta comes back with a retraction. he hasnt accomplished enough to be saying the things that he’s saying.
Either way, It’s bad form to go that route while still under contract. Unless you have no plans of workng for them in the future
Yeah, but that’s not what it’s about. I’m sorry, but if you have one guy making 10k and another making 100k, it’s either unfair or you have 2 fighters on different levels who shouldn’t be fighting each other.
I know everyone has their own opinion, but I think the fighters need to unionize. They will never be able to negotiate with the UFC otherwise….with the only exceptions being the top 1-5%.
Tony: for their to be a MMA union.. fighter’s like Forrest, Liddell, Silva, Nog, BJ, GSP..would haveto lead the way.. and these fighter’s are the “5%”..they are happy.. and not hungry..
” Condo paid for.. no car payments ”
That is why I don’t see a union forming anytime soon.. or anytime at all in the UFC.
PhilQNY - I agree with you completely! I’m not saying it’s going to happen, I’m saying it needs to happen if these guys want any negotiating power.
That said, it’s only a matter of time. I know the UFC helped put these guys on the map, but at the same time, they helped put the UFC on the map. Bottom line is you can have one without the other, so the fighters need the UFC as much as the UFC needs the fighters.
There’s plenty of $$ going around. Come up with some kind of pay scale that makes sense or eventually, the fighters will band together.
The UFC would have to do something if a bunch of the fighters unionized and acted as fighter reps….even if it wasn’t the top 5%. They need quality guys to fill cards….especially as many as they’re doing these days.
Great, socialism, meet MMA. Fantastic. Why dont we just give every body a belt while were at it? That way fighters won’t feel so bad after a loss. You know just to be “fair” and all.
MEMO: LIFE IS’NT FAIR!
It has nothing to do with belts or winning & losing. It’s about compensating the guys who put asses in the seats…The athletes - the guys who give up everything to train 6-8 hours a day to get in a cage an pummel each other.
By the way…Socialism…Huh? This is America where unions are everywhere….including almost every major sporting organization!
Stop swingin’ from Dana’s sack…lol
Thanks for the Disney speech coach
. OK, please bring us the “fairness” that any one of the well oiled boxing unions have brought to the sport of boxing. If it’s an “unfair” purse then don’t sign a contract. Instead, hire a new manager, move to another org, or don’t fight. Then, you won’t fill the seats with people that want to watch guys who give up everything to train 6-8 hours a day, to get in a cage and pummel each other. Which will eventualy result in higher payots. Once again, the free market will work, but if guys like Huerta continue to sign contracts they can’t complain. When they’re up to renew, they can choose one of the many options previously listed.
yea, huerta is a douche…. look at the elite paydays, not much different than UFC’s, can’t wait for Killflo to knock this dude out
Huerta is 25 yrs old and by the end of his contract will have 8 fights with the UFC. I imagine if he does well in his next 2 fights he will see a nice contract offer for his next 4 fights. Yeah, the per diem for the press tours is cheap, but he has to understand it keeps “him” in the limelight and will get him a bigger contract with the UFC or when/if he goes somewhere else. So gut it out and figure it out after the contract ends! He’s only 25 yrs old, to young to be disgruntled with the UFC, wait until the next offer is in.
Very sound reasoning. I’m baffled that Huerta (who seems to be a thoughtful and intelligent person) would make such a strategic error.
He was getting owned by Guida, he WILL lose to Florian, he wont be champ, so who cares If he leaves ?
So much for him being the “Mexican” face of the UFC
I guess that is who Cain Velazquez will turn out to be…
Looks like Tito Ortiz was right.
jacob is never right.
Cain Velasquez will be the new Mexican face and future HW champ! Oh, and for lancelegWEAK: BROWN PRIDE!!! the last four letters in your name decribe you best.
Hahahaha!!!
A premptive strike from JV.
Que cabron eres !
Cabron y Chingon Carnal!!!
Soy el mero mero buey!
Ah dinnae ken wit you just said the noo
Automation, huh???
Matando gueros
why the hate??? killing whitey?
Donde esta guapa chicas?
Only phrase i know!! All you need to ask when you go to spain.
(PS I’m sorry if i’m being really thick and your not typing spanish, me = mucho dum)
was that some scottish there auto… haha. reminds me of trainspotting.
Auto-
I did not …
My UK slang translator is bollicks, mate.
LMAO, my native tongue.
Eighty, well spotted lol, where are you from?
JV & OJR:
Ah dinnae ken wit you just said the noo
Translated to
I don’t know what you just said just now
Auto-
Hahaha!
I said that JV was a MoFo.
JV said he was a bad mofo, bro.
Mex said he was the baddest mofo.
Oiboy said we were “killing white boys”- Not true.
Nick J asked where the cute girls were at.
OJR:
Our language is english like everyone elses. What I did was just slang.
You guys just sounded impressive, even though I never had a clue what you were saying, so thought I’d throw my bit in too lol
I’ll never get foreign languages. You say that you, JV and Mex mentioned Mofo, I assumed that ‘Cabron’ was mofo as it was mentioned in both posts. But no ‘Cabron’ in Mex’s. I just don’t get it lol
Oiboys says killing white boys. Does that mean you are latin americans or something along those lines?
Trust Nick J with his comment LMAO
I can’t speak for the other posters here but the Spanish spectrum has alot of countries, i.e.-Cuba, Mexico, Chile, Honduras, etc.
Each country has their slang or words they prefer to use that might not be recognized in another region.
Guero is primarily used by Mexicans or Americans w/Mexican heritage. I don’t use it but I know what it is because I have many Mexican friends.
I was born in the US but my parents are from Puerto Rico (Caribbean, spanish speaking island that is US territory).
What a coincidence that I am hijacking the Huerta thread for Spanish diversity 101. Ha!
Its not you hijacking OJR, its me lol.
As I said on a previous thread, by the time I get on here, there is 5 new threads which have already been exhausted. So there is nothing else to add.
So you can trust me to start talking about something that is not even close to be related to mma lol
close to ‘being’ related
Smae here Auto, I get to work at 8am and loads of new articles on here but mot of what I want to say has been said, kicks off around 2pm UK time.
Matando Gueros. Great Brujeria Album
I heard Affliction is paying their guys nicely!!!$$$
I was saying this when people brought up the “outrageous” paydays over at Affliction, with many UFC guys and others coming to ends of contracts and or having open ones, the reported paydays must have a lot of people knocking on Mr. Atencio’s door…
If it works out Affliction can build it’s roster up with disgruntled workers from other orgs and before you know it…
yep before you know it, they are out of business because their ticket sales and ppv sales don’t even come close to equaling the total fighter pay. sure they can go work for affliction, burn their bridges with the UFC and if in the future Affliction goes under they have shot themselves in the foot.
Completely agree KitsuneX!!!
Kit-
Excellent point.
BINGO.
exactly!
Yep also agree. Dana is a petty man and if i were a fighter i would not want to get on the wrong side of him.
Rogers treading on thin ice. UFC is the big dog of mma… don’t pull its tail.
At first I thought you said Dana is a pretty man. lol
At first I thought you said Dana is a pretty man. lol
I can’t imagine that Affliction’s business goals are to remain in the red. I won’t predict their success but if they are well capitalized they can afford to lose money temporarily while trying to attract top talent and promote their organization. Having Fedor, Arlovski, and Tim Sylvia is a nice start, but won’t be enough. Other fighters, like Huerta for example, will need to be signed away from the UFC. As of now though, with fighters like Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Dan Henderson, The Iceman, Wanderlai Silva, Rampage, Forrest Griffin, etc, the UFC is by far the king of the mountain.
At least now these fighters might actually have a choice as to who, and for how much, they fight for.
True that.
affliction will ruin their carreer and credibility, sounds like a great carrer choice to me.
Good Job Zuffa! U are now about to loose your Mexican GoldenBoy! Dana always says that he cant keep all his fighters happy, well these days it seems that only about 10% of its fighters are happy!
If they loose a young stud like GUerta, it will really be bad for the future of the company because he isnttheonly disgruntled fighter, thats for sure!
THey pay a lot of great fighters peanuts, butthen theygo and give good money to guys like Koschek?
$50 for public appearences out of a billion dollar company like the UFC is just inexcusable!
50 was for meals, per diem. go somewhere else, I don’t hear too many guys complaining. tito (millionaire), Randy (millionaire) who else?
Hughes, silva, BJ? No.
They are too scared to complain.
You don’t hear too many guys complaining? Tim Sylvia & AA obviously thought they were better off w/out the UFC. GSP recently spoke out a bit before retracting.
Hughes, Franklin, Chuck, Randy… all of these guys are prime examples of how the UFC works. All of these guys were cool with Dana, put on great fights, didn’t complain, and fought whoever was put in front of them. They are all very rich and were taken care of while they fought in the UFC. When you start thinking like Tito that you are worth more money then you start complaining and the UFC puts you on the choping block. I’d have to say that Jesse said it right, look for Penn or even Sherk to be asked to step in and hurt Huerta before he leaves to hurt his rep.
JOHN. the ufc has lost randy couture,jacob,a.a.,sylvia cro-cop,babalu and the chance for fedor all in 1 calender year, and they are doing better than ever. i dont see losing huerta as being bad for the future. and only 10% are happy and the rest are disgruntled. give me a break! keep the ufc hate coming.
I don’t understand why all fighters don’t have their own clothing line like Tito with Punishment.
All the rappers make fortunes out of selling gear with their name on it.
Why have a crappy contract with American Fighter, One More Round or whatever when you could have you own brand, wear you stuff to the ring and sell t shirts for $25 that cost $3 to make?
Well Kos was on that 10/10 pay scale until he renewed. That Hazelet fight the last won on his contract. That’s why it was so important to win in a dominant fashion. He renegotiated and now he’s making good money. Just like Huerta was new to organization, signed a contract, he’s kept winning, he’s fights are exciting and when the contract is up he’ll get more. I was reading about it on another site and the author of the article says what Huerta had to say wasn’t actually as inflammatory as the snippets make it sound…. we’ll see.
he’s a goner.