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Follow link for full article > Mixed Martial Arts Salaries: A Look at Their Disproportionate Growth in the UFC - Bloody Elbow

Mixed Martial Arts Salaries: A Look at Their Disproportionate Growth in the UFC

Introduction

Since World War II, the face of American big business has changed dramatically. In the 1950s and ‘60s, chief executive officers of successful companies obviously made substantially more than their employees. At that time, CEOs made roughly 25 to 30 times what their average employee made. In the 1980s, big business practices changed. Factories were being moved overseas to capitalize on cheaper labor sources while government under the Reagan Administration infringed less and less on big business practices.

In 1980, the CEO of a major company made about 40 times that of an average employee. By 1990, the ratio rose to 100 times. In 2007, a typical CEO of a major company made 350 times the average company worker. Wal-Mart exemplifies this shifting trend in business relationships vividly. It was the largest U.S. company in 2005, and at that time, Wal-Mart’s CEO made 900 times that of the average Wal-Mart worker (Pickett & Wilkinson, 2011).

Forty, fifty years ago, CEOs were more compelled to maintain positive relationships with their employees and adhere to tighter governmental oversights. Employees also had stronger collective bargaining rights and better relationships with management. Today, management and owners maintain distance from employees through protective legal mechanisms and worker disposability that together, limit workers’ efforts to unite in fighting for fair pay, health care, retirement, education, and other potential benefits.

So what does all this have to do with mixed martial arts?

In 2001, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta paid $2 million to purchase the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). It is common knowledge that the two brothers lost $44 million in their UFC investment from 2001 to 2004. But in April 2008, Forbes magazine reported that the UFC had skyrocketed in value to $1 billion. Assuming these figures are correct, then in seven years the UFC’s value increased nearly 500,000%. No, that is not a typo.

I'm currently doing a Masters degree so I spent hours and hours reading boring academic pieces, so it's good to finally read one that is truely interesting. It's great MMA is finally being deemed legitimate enough to be used as the topic for academic articles. I guess back when it was NHB there wasn't much to say about it other than looking at how audiences react to extreme real-life violence, but with the sport having evolved into a TV-friendly sport, there is a LOT to say about why/how this has happened. It's a good read so check it out.