UFC, stars sparring over money

The main event of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's pay-per-view card Saturday in Las Vegas will be the interim welterweight title fight pitting former champions Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre.

But a more serious battle is taking shape between the UFC and some of its elite mixed martial arts stars over money.

The fighters say the big-name competitors aren't getting their fair share of the profits, and those at the lower end are simply underpaid. The organization's president, Dana White, counters that UFC's pay structure is more than fair, having made millionaires out of many fighters, and dismisses the complaints as a matter of a fighter being upset because another is making more than him.

The issue came to a head two months ago, when UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture announced his resignation, calling his decision "a matter of respect."

"I don't want to make a big deal of the money, but how do you show you respect an athlete?" Couture said at his resignation news conference in October. "How you pay him."

Popular former light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz said recently that there's too great an inequity between UFC's profits - a tightly guarded secret - and what it's disbursing in fighter purses and bonuses.

"Like Randy, I want to make sure that the top guys get what we're entitled to, and that the smaller guys get bumped up," Ortiz said. "When I'm hearing the UFC made $42 million from my [December 2006] fight with Chuck Liddell, and that both me and Chuck got $1.5 million, I think we're being cut out and being taken advantage of.

Couture, 44, said he was motivated to resign from the UFC because he felt "unappreciated," despite signing a reported four-fight contract with the organization this year. In March, he defeated heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. Couture then defended the belt in August with an impressive third-round knockout of Gabriel Gonzaga, 28.

In an unprecedented move, the UFC answered Couture's well-publicized departure by making public the usually confidential total the organization has paid the fighter this year: nearly $2.9 million.

"We know what we've done for Randy, we know who we are," White said of the split and the fighter's request for an additional bonus that one UFC source placed at $500,000. "We're running a business here. This is not Fantasy Island."

By defeating Gonzaga, Couture earned $250,000, according to financial figures released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The UFC reported Couture also was paid a $35,000 bonus for "fight of the night," and is due to receive more than $780,000 in final pay-per-view percentages.

Other public financial figures from that night's card at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas showed the UFC generated live-gate revenue of $3,307,790, and paid its 18 fighters $999,000 (pay-per-view payments or other bonuses are not included in that total).

Another factor in the call for more money is health concerns, Couture and Ortiz said. Ortiz was positioned to have a rematch with unbeaten Rashad Evans in November in New Jersey, but he balked because he says he has been slowed by back pain since their July draw.

Couture said the UFC needs to consider providing "medical coverage outside the shows, like when we are in training. Those guys making $2,000 to $3,000 a fight who get hurt in training, that's a shame."

Boxing promoter Dan Goossen said the fighters' gripes are no different from the sometimes contentious labor negotiations in other major sports.

"Success brings headaches," Goossen said. "MMA/UFC is just starting to feel the repercussions of its success. You wouldn't be having these arguments if the UFC was not so successful in its promotion."

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