UFC Fighters will be getting a small increase in pay under the UFC's new uniform deal with Venum.
UFC 260 on March 27 was the last event under the UFC's deal with Reebok. Starting from April 1, the UFC's official uniform partner will be Venum, UFC senior executive vice president, and chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein told ESPN. The design for the new fight kits will be revealed next week, and they will make their debut at UFC Vegas 23 on April 10.
The UFC operates on a fight-week incentive depending on how many fights they have and whether they are a champion or challenger etc. Champions will now get $42,000 per bout in fight week incentive pay, compared to $40,000 under Reebok. Title challengers will get $32,000, compared to the old rate of $30,000. Fighters with 21 or more UFC fights get $21,000, up from $20,000. Athletes with between 16 and 20 fights will also see a $1,000 increase, from $15,000 to $16,000.
Entry-level fighters with between one and three UFC fights will now get $4,000 compared with $3,500 previously. Athletes with four or five UFC fights also get a $500 bump, from $4,000 to $4,500; athletes who have six to 10 UFC fights will go from $5,000 to $6,000; and fighters with between 11 and 15 fights get $11,000, compared with $10,000 under Reebok.
The Venum era starts today for UFC fighters. @marc_raimondi has a story on the slight pay bump the fighters receive as a result of the new deal: https://t.co/MSTTrjjvgx
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 1, 2021
Here is the payment structure breakdown, which was sent to all fighters (or their reps) this AM: pic.twitter.com/UCxlI50Mti
Some have noted that when you take inflation into account inflation since the Reebok deal started in 2014. Twitter user "RiniMMA" noted that on the deal with Venum, the $40,000 in 2015 with Reebok would today be valued at $44,387.36 which is slightly higher than the $42,000 Venum offers UFC champions. The deal may be less lucrative than the Reebok one but the UFC will be hoping that the quality of the product will be higher than the previous one and the fighters are content with the money they are being offered.
The Venum sponsorship money is public and while it looks like a slight increase it’s actually a drop in pay when you factor in inflation. pic.twitter.com/3Rjymhdieq
— Chris Rini (@RiniMMA) April 1, 2021
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