Paying it's athletes

Before even starting the video I said to myself "pay scale"... I have checked out the comments section and it looks like a lot of people are in agreeance on that. With all due respect to other athletes and what they do MMA fighters are putting themselves through much more strenuous tasks during their careers and considerably more danger on average. I believe that alone deserves better compensation.

"How much does this mean for you" every press conference without fail.

I hate teams but if they had a whole card of two gyms going against each other and maybe a huge prize purse for whatever team won more fights? Would be sick.

The UFC needs a base pay structure that goes up the more you fight per year. make it something like 25k a year plus 5k per each fight you take per year, maybe 10k for short notice bouts. Support your athletes so they’re able to dedicate their time to becoming the best fighter they can. It also makes MMA a more viable option for fighters who live in a first world country. Why get punched in the face when you can sell used cars and make the same amount of money.

Football: Marketing Basketball: athlete paychecks Pro wrestling: pageantry Baseball: Merchandise

I miss the 30 minute break downs of nuisances in the sports, I'm a sucker for long form content!! You guys are awesome, thank you for entertaining me so well throughout the years

The biggest difference between sports teams and MMA is that sports teams play at least once a week, if not more, for a season. A single fighter might get to 3 fights a year.

MMA ruined every other sport for me.

The media thing is spot on for too long we’ve been dealing with “anyone with a KZfaq channel or a blog “ being our credentialed media in mma ..but on the flip side there are guys who are company shills like John Morgan like there’s obviously a reason he always gets the first questions and it’s cause he never ever asked a real hard hitting question in his life

Another benefit of having major UFC events on regular TV is it gives a chance to make other major stars. Normal people who don’t normally watch UFC might check it out and see a fighter they really like and boom just like that the UFC has a new customer and their fighter has a new fan he/she wouldn’t have if he was only fighting on ppv.

Almost every suggestion here is directly at odds with what the UFC wants. It limits their control, and more important their revenue. The best bet is for PFL or Bellator to take these suggestions seriously and challenge the UFC through proving to be a true sporting organization as opposed to simply prize fighting.

I was first introduced to sports with hockey and football, eventually i found passion in basketball, and since finding MMA it’s pretty much all sports with MMA and american football at the front for me

the $80 ppv is a big reason I watch less UFC events.

Grassroots development is essential for the legacy of any sport. It may not be the best parallel, but we have a very strong rugby culture where I'm from, kids start playing at 6 and it makes a huge difference. If UFC/Bellator etc invested in development, it would help the sport in the long term. Great video!

I always love Jason’s analysis videos, he’s always some the thorough research needed for these videos since early 2016, the videos have always smacked hard

I really like the idea of MMA teams/orgs becoming more prominent. Fighters from those organizations could wear kits for their org and you could do tournaments and stuff like that, that could pay out additional money.

I agree with about the ref should have allowed that fight to continue also. That's why I love Japan if there was an injury like that they would restart the fight. Even if there's a legitimate ball kick I've seen several times in Pride FC they will go into the back they will bring the next group of fighters out, they will fight. Then after they are done they will bring the other two out again and redo the fight..

I really wouldn't want to see to see MMA end up like other American sports. For example, people talk more about the half time show in the Super Bowl than they do the actual game. MMA doesn't need that and fans (outside of the US at least) don't want that. Most of us want our sports to be sports. Not shows where they fight in between. That's one of the main problems people outside of the US have with American sports.

Hey boys, love how far the channel has come.. I’ve been a sub since the beginning when it was just Tom and Jason. I’ve watched pretty much every video you guys have ever made and try to like when ever I remember.. I try to comment most vids to.. Again, I’ve always said it, best MMA content on KZfaq! Keep up the good work boys.

I think the institutionalization of sports is genuinely a bad think. Junior leagues like it was described here, sure, but organizations like the NCAA only muddy the waters. It also adds to the compicated legacy of athletes going to college for nonsense degrees and going into debt to do their sport at a competitive level. I think schools can have after-school MMA programs, but going to college to advance your MMA career is a flawed premise.

I'd like a deeper explanation of how Teams would work, I felt like details were missing and it sounded like the concept of a player agent/manager being tied to a gym which doesn't make much sense to me.

They need to get that FIGHTER PAY figured out and make it fair because some fighters REALLY get shafted💯🤦

Team sports in school had me thinking I was athletic and hard working but just sucked at playing ball. Found out later in life I excel at individual martial arts. Who knew. lol

The fighters association is separate from teams. You were really off on that one. Players still have their own rights outside of their teams. It’s a step after teams, but teams really create deferred responsibilities from the top. That’s a HUGE cost

Glad to hear you again Jason!!!

I also always loved the NHL, but I must confess, since I discovered MMA, I focused most of my free time to watching just that sport!!!

Should have named the video "What MMA Desperately Needs To Take From Other US Sports", since that's the only perspective really shown here.

love the work fellas. keep it up plz

Did this guy just say, its easier to see the prospects coming up in MMA over boxing? As someone who follows both, boxing is much easier to know. That was a crazy statement

The press conferences used to be ao fun with the s**t talking, near scraps, fans cheering and booing, etc. Now they are sterile and I can't really name any new fighters that I give a damn about.

I just had an internal conversation about this. The UFC is the most business-like, corporate sports organization there is. Money talks in every sport, believe me, but when the UFC does things, it feels like its more for profit than it does when other organizations do things.

here;s a good one pay thier roster enough money to attract some real athletic talent to mma as opposed to the UFC's current model of "hey you could do literally any other sport and make borderline infinite money or you can come to the ufc, get yelled at by an angry tomato and work a second job at domino's while training full time"

In the NBA, the Ball Brothers have done sooooo much basketball as kids that Lonzo's knees are basically trashed, and he's not even 30. A lot of NFL players careers only last 2-5 years

I never got into other sports, I’ve been watching only MMA since I was 5 years old, and have been only training and competing in multiple different martial arts my while life.

Just to point out you could remove any advantage to cutting weight by having them weigh in just before they go in the cage but then that cause all sorts of other issues.

That Tommy Bravo thumbnail got me rollin' 😂😂

Hockey is my jam, but mma is something I can actually compete in 5-6 times a week so I def participate in the art of strangling and and punching lips much more. I miss no UFC,Bellator, ONE , or PFL, but I only watch my favourite team in Hockey.

The franchise idea is so stupid. It's an individual sport. It would make ZERO sense. So you'd expect a fighter to abandon their home gym when they get to the UFC to go join a franchise?? As the UFC grows, how big would these franchises get? Would fighters who aren't in a franchise then not be pushed as hard and face more challenges? You're creating WAY more problems than you're solving.

Jason is so relatable lol. I grew up watching NBA and NFL. But once I found MMA/UFC, I was instantly obsessed

Absolutely love this. Allows the athletes to focus like an athlete.

The UFC also needs standardization of matchmaking and title management(within reason.) 1. There needs to be a defined window which a champion can be inactive without being stripped of the title(with a longer window if absence is due to injury.) 2. Particularly with title loss rematches, there needs to be a standard of defenses before a champion gets an automatic rematch(especially if the division is in a logjam.) Without standards or a process, everything starts to feel like the Dana White show... Who's next in line for the title? Who knows?... will a champion get an automatic rematch? Who knows?... Is this champion allowed to just randomly switch weight classes? Who knows?... etc.

Kermit the Frog has returned.

I think the biggest difference will always be that general sports are children’s games taken to the human maximum. Fighting is never gonna be seen like that. Even with how huge boxing was, it’s been severely diminished.

saw the title and was like yep thats a jason video

Point scoring instead of round scores. Even live round scores, so the ring girls have more then one board to carry(or more ring girls per round).

I definitely agree on MMA press (even if you’re not a real journalist at least act like one) and I like the idea of teams or gyms getting more involved. Maybe even a gym logo on fighter shorts and such. Just had a discussion with a friend of mine how gym affiliations aren’t common knowledge like fighters and fight fans think it is.

on the "Teams" part of it, a lot of that would also be solved by a fighters union

MMA will never be like other stick and ball sports because it is like the worlds first sport. MMA doesn’t need the Reebok bullshit, the fighters deserve to show off their sponsors everywhere. Clinchgear, Venum, Affliction, Forward MMA, should be allowed to be worn and the art that went with individual fighters’ T-shirts and clothing in general. The reason the Pride Fighting Championships was such a sight to behold was because it looked like a real life Street Fighter game. Everyone wore what they wanted to, and the fact that they were from all parts of the world and they played the National Anthems and brought flags from their respective countries as well; at least whoever wanted to. When Chuck Liddell was in the UFC, he fought Rampage Jackson and lost, but it was so awesome to see two top organizations and 2 of their best fighters, fight in Japan.

I would apply to work at that MMA Commission in a heartbeat!

MMA On Point : "There is no way around Pay Per View". Khabib : "We have russian link. Never pay for it".

Was definitely expected to see actual use of replay.

Another example of why this channel is the best in MMA.

Crazy I live in Vegas and actually used to work as a Cleaner at the t mobile arena for events and was on my way to work when Masvidal got the KO and had just stopped sweeping bleachers when the earthquake happened

MMA is still far behind in what needs to change. Cavemen before fire

Hey! Really appreciate seeing the Iowa Hawkeye highlights when showing examples of football… GO HAWKEYES! But football and baseball are my other two sports, grew up playing both

I think the biggest improvement they could make is having an actual ranking system and basing fights off of that. Make it simple, if you’re the champ you fight the number one contender. If you lose a fight, you lose a predetermined number of spots in the ranking. Include it in the contracts early and it’ll stop a lot of problems. It also makes the sport more legitimate. The rise to the top should be the same for everyone. Imagine if the KC Chiefs got to go to the superbowl because they had the most fans. That’s what you’re doing now. Maybe it makes you more ppv money in the short term, but it makes the sport less legitimate. Same day weigh ins would also help. If guys were forced to fight closer to their actual weight, you could have faster turnarounds for guys who don’t take much damage in a fight. Probably more exciting fights also as they wouldn’t be exhausted from cutting 30 lbs.

I don't want full blown teams, but I'd like to see some team aspect to an event. If the event is in Canada and almost every fight has a Canadian in it then there could be a ticker at the bottom of the screen showing Team Canada vs The World with an overall score. Or during the events where mainly two camps have all the fights they could promote the undercard as all people from this training camp vs that one with a scoreboard. You'd still have the main point be the big matches, but it would make the undercards more interesting.

Our PPVs here in NZ are $40 but we don’t get the early prelims

I'm curious about doing "day of" weigh-ins but with a representative pushing the athletes to drink fluids on a set schedule for the 24 hours before.

$80 fee AND being forced to watch Ads? Wtf lol I'm going somewhere and drinking water.

As a teacher who has contemplated pushing for combat sports to be included in schools, the pay for professionals needs to be higher. Freshman in high school ain’t going pro to just earn 12/12 while rookie NFL contracts are minimum 750k

There are FIGHTS in the crowd, that is like a free show.

Really interesting topic for hardcore mma fans like the video idea.

The Stanley Cup? Cmon bruh lol

Feel like some of these are hard to apply as the UFC is an international sport right? Not sure one commission would work across multiple countries

bro the editor put the steam effect on khabib and his "team" LMFAO

Love basketball and mma.

On point of team..just imagine fight between teams Team A vs team B and each team have fighter from each division

One commotion would be amazing, but you'd have to move heaven and earth to get it done

50/50 pay split is easily the most important

Aside from weigh-ins, the biggest change I would make is about matchmaking for title fights; I know certain fights would be better for sales but in order to have the most legitimate and fair sport , these fights need to be made solely off of rankings and recent records. No more giving random title fights to big name people thay haven't done anything lately. It's not fair to the real contenders who have been working their ass off. They don't pick superbowl teams by whoever would sell the most, it's decided by who's actually earned it. No reason for MMA to be different

Franchising works for all major AMERICAN sports leagues out there. The UFC is looking to a global brand with competitions held all around the world, where franchising is not common practice. As an EU watcher I feel a lot of these suggestions cater purely to the American audience.

As a fan of the UFC since 2018. Ive never payed for a single event,and never would unless they lower the ppv price to 40$

I was never a massive sports fan, but I'd watch some hockey, some baseball, some football, basically if it was on TV or if I was visiting a friend who wanted to watch it, etc. MMA ruined me for all of those sports. Not only do I find the sport more compelling in general but a fight card is broken up into little bite-sized individual contests between two fighters. Can last anywhere from 10 seconds up to about 30 minutes but that's the limit. 30 minutes for title fights and main events and 15-20 minutes (including breaks between rounds) for all other fights on the card. Compared to having one long contest / game (like a baseball game for exemple) - breaking up the long broadcast into bite-sized portions seems to fit my attention span a little better.

Definitely need better media tho, and agree on the ways we can do things to get the fighters paid more

Nice footage of Bobby the Beast. That kid is awesome.

Should go beyond just paying when you fight. If you're contracted for a fight, you get a base salary through some standardized format for training camp. Say every fighter that gets a contract to fight someone, gets a 3 month "training camp" allotment. Maybe 5k a month. Then, if you make it to fight night, you get a 10k show, 10k win and keep majority share of revenue from your name and likeness. And bring back sponsorships. One fight a year should get you 25k-35k. Two fights gets you 50k-70k, 3 fights 75-105k, that would be if you won all 3 you're somewhere in the middle class. If you lost all 3 you still walk away with 75k. If recommend that and remove fight bonuses if you're really concerned about revenue stream but I'm sure even that's doable to still leave a solid profit for the top. Prepping for 2.5 months and getting injured during camp and walking away with nothing is absurd.

a serious competition structure, not just arbitrarily made fights. oh yeah, and 50% of income.

Combat Sports were the only sports I followed for some years but I recently got into NFL, NBA, and soccer. I guess the respect for combat athletes had me look at athletes of other sports in a different light.

aye jason’s from indianapolis? thats dope lol

Haven't watched yet but a union should be the main one.

My 50 cents are as follows: 1) the pay scale is what desperately needs to be reformed. You cannot have a sport where potentially great athletes have their involvement curtailed just because the UFC is too cheap to pay people properly. Other promotions may pay better but like it or not, the UFC is almost synonymous with MMA. Therefore, the cheapness of Dana White is hurting the sport. 2) there needs to be a proper global governing body that oversees the sport. 3) Jason is completely utterly wrong when he says that MMA events need to be like most US major league sports where they have “entertainment” during breaks, pauses or time between fights. MMA is a •global• sport and the American “razzmatazz” like mascots firing t-shirt cannons, dancers, etc is pure superfluous BS to most sports fans around the world. If your sport is interesting enough, it doesn’t need that extra nonsense. You don’t see this in boxing do you? Nor do you at football, rugby, tennis, etc. And cheerleaders can take a hike too - proper supporters of sports don’t need that nonsense to get behind people or teams. Look at UFC events in Paris, London or Australia. Or look at any football match (proper football, NOT American “feet are used less than 0.3% of game time” Football), rugby, boxing, tennis, etc. Sorry, about that. Rant over.

I think a players association is much needed and considering the he merger of the UFC an WWE into TKO a wrestling/fighter union, that could focus of concussion research and whatnot.

G Burns with afro is hilarious. hahahaha

UFC 289 Fan Q&A had like 5 people ask Juliana and Valentina if they'd fight after a reporter already asked Only one person asked if they'd train together and that was the best question the the event.

I have a way around PPV 💀

I have yet to try it but couldn’t you just use one of the VPN services and buy the PPV for a cheaper price as though you were in some other country?

The biggest thing is Khabib Nurmagomedov, cuz we just Don’t Know what his impact will be yet

Why do uu guys still have the discord sign up at the end of the video?? uu dont have one

Woo man I really feel the point about better media. It's so cringe watching the press conferences, it feels like a lot of these guys are just trying to make their own moments. You can tell because they have a complete change in their speaking cadence they're trying to get the crowd to make noise. Just shitty fluff questions with zero substance.

i thought of a way to prevent weight cutting. multiple weigh ins. let's say you weigh the fighters after they sign the contract, you weigh them again half way through camp, and you weigh them one last time the day before the fight. they wouldn't cut weight 3 times, right? they would have to fight at their respective weight.

The thing you have to remember is UFC is a niche, premium sport. The entire company has the value of one NFL team. It's 1/32 the size of the NFL.

The fan event stuff is because American sports play like 60 minutes of adds for 40 minutes of play time, so they need the mad distractions to keep people hyped, lol. There is some downtime between fights true but, idk if the cage lends itself to cheerleader antics, etc

Loved wwe in the 90s growing up and followed prince naz in boxing but that was it until about 2007 when my mate got a pride boxset for his birthday i was interested and asked to lend it and been hooked ever since

As far as institutions, America literally starts wrestling at age 4. We have bitty, junior high, high school and collegiate wrestling across the country. American wrestling is far and away the most effective base in MMA.

I like that your franchising team idea could increase fighter pay and stuff but I honestly would not be a fan of having team brands, logos, mascots etc. or that sort of thing. I very much enjoy in this sport that we focus on the individual fighter and their personality. Makes it feel more real and personal

Elephant in the room: it doesn’t happen because Dana and his cronies want as much control and profit as possible

More weight classes! move welter weight to 175 then add a 165 and 195, move heavy weight to 240 and add in a super heavy weight w/ no limit like boxing

Imagine the baby race across the bludied canvas 😂