Wheelie
09-02-2005, 18:36
-Tito Ortiz was the highest-paid fighter on the card. Tito's contract for the past four fights has been $125,000 to fight and $50,000 more to win. Tito has now completed his six-fight UFC contract, which was to originally pay him $80,000 for each fight and an additional $80,000 for each win.
What's interesting to note is how much more Tito is being paid than Chuck Liddell. Tito has been making $125,000 and $50,000; while Liddell made $60,000 to fight and $60,000 more to win in his most recent outing. That is likely to change, with Couture and Liddell becoming the two highest-paid fighters in the UFC, because of the exposure Couture and Liddell are getting on Spike TV. More people have watched The Ultimate Fighter than have watched all of Tito's fights combined, so I would be shocked if Liddell is still making $60,000 and $60,000 for his next UFC contract.
Before UFC 51, a contract was offered to Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock for them to fight at some point... a contract that Shamrock signed and Ortiz didn't. The reason is now clear: As a free agent, Ortiz is seeking a huge raise that would make him the highest-paid fighter in the UFC by far. In an interview with Sherdog's Josh Gross before UFC 51, Tito's agent said that Ortiz would be seeking a minimum of $300,000 per fight. And that's not $150,000 to fight and $150,000 more to win; the agent said Tito wanted at least $300,000 for any given fight in guaranteed money, win or lose. This is an outrageously high contract demand that I can't imagine the Ortiz camp thinks Zuffa would ever accept. Also notable is the fact that Ortiz recently said on national television in an interview with Max Kellerman that he is only fighting in MMA at this point to showcase his charisma in order to get more prominent acting roles in Hollywood.
The contract demands from the Ortiz camp are all the more shocking when you consider the massive hit that Ortiz recently took in his reputation as a PPV draw. Zuffa had a string of pay-per-views with good buyrates, including approximately 80,000 buys for UFC 49, which headlined with Couture vs. Belfort, and with Liddell in a "second from the top" position. UFC 50, which had an advertised main event of Tito Ortiz vs. Guy Mezger right up until the last minute, drew somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 to 40,000 buys according to the Observer Newsletter, an atrociously bad buyrate not seen since UFC 42. Tito's reputation for being able to draw good PPV buyrates on his own was shattered, and even if UFC 51 ends up being a PPV success, Tito's drawing power will still be mitigated by the PPV failure of UFC 50.
Seeking a huge raise and with no financial leverage on his side, Tito Ortiz once again proved what a shrewd and calculating businessman he is with his post-fight performance. Ortiz called out Chuck Liddell and Ken Shamrock, naturally causing both of them to get into verbal confrontations with him, and helping to create an artificially inflated impression of the demand for Ortiz vs. Shamrock II or Ortiz vs. Liddell II. There's no doubt that both of those fights would draw PPV buys, but would it be worth it for Zuffa to pay Ortiz a minimum of $300,000 in guaranteed money for both fights? Also, just the visual image of multiple fighters jockeying for position, both wanting a piece of Ortiz, made Ortiz the center of attention and was no accident. While Ortiz apologized and backed down from his in-ring statements about Liddell at the post-fight press conference, the mission was already accomplished with the on-air perception and image of multiple fighters wanting a piece of Ortiz.
Ortiz has also managed to convince a certain percentage of the MMA viewership that he only lost to Chuck Liddell because he was too head-strong and insisted on standing in front of Liddell and trading strikes. Never mind the fact that Ortiz went for several takedowns in the fight and Liddell brushed all of them off; including, two in the first minute of the fight... if there are people out there who believe that Ortiz only lost the fight with Liddell because he insisted on standing with him, that will inflate the demand for a rematch between the two fighters. Also, despite claiming before the fights with Couture and Liddell that he was 100% healthy, Ortiz is now claiming that he was hampered by injuries in both fights. In an interview before UFC 51, Ortiz said, "The difference for me now is that I have no physical problems. In both of those fights, I had injuries that kept me out of training." Again, whether that's true or not is beside the point. The point is that if a percentage of the MMA community really believes that, it would increase demand for rematches.
There are a lot of questions about Tito Ortiz' MMA future, but two things are clear. One is that whatever salary Ortiz may or may not get from the UFC in the future, it will have to be within the context of Couture and Liddell now being much bigger stars than he is due to the exposure from The Ultimate Fighter. Two is that whether he would want to or not, Ortiz will not be fighting on the April 9th live special on Spike TV, he will not be fighting on the April 16th UFC 52 card, and he will not be fighting in the first round of Pride's 205-pound Grand Prix in April. Ortiz was officially diagnosed with a broken nose after his fight with Vitor Belfort at UFC 51, and even if he recovers from a broken nose quicker than most athletes do, he still wouldn't be ready to fight in April. Any future that Ortiz may or may not have with the UFC or Pride is not going to start until after those events have taken place.
What's interesting to note is how much more Tito is being paid than Chuck Liddell. Tito has been making $125,000 and $50,000; while Liddell made $60,000 to fight and $60,000 more to win in his most recent outing. That is likely to change, with Couture and Liddell becoming the two highest-paid fighters in the UFC, because of the exposure Couture and Liddell are getting on Spike TV. More people have watched The Ultimate Fighter than have watched all of Tito's fights combined, so I would be shocked if Liddell is still making $60,000 and $60,000 for his next UFC contract.
Before UFC 51, a contract was offered to Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock for them to fight at some point... a contract that Shamrock signed and Ortiz didn't. The reason is now clear: As a free agent, Ortiz is seeking a huge raise that would make him the highest-paid fighter in the UFC by far. In an interview with Sherdog's Josh Gross before UFC 51, Tito's agent said that Ortiz would be seeking a minimum of $300,000 per fight. And that's not $150,000 to fight and $150,000 more to win; the agent said Tito wanted at least $300,000 for any given fight in guaranteed money, win or lose. This is an outrageously high contract demand that I can't imagine the Ortiz camp thinks Zuffa would ever accept. Also notable is the fact that Ortiz recently said on national television in an interview with Max Kellerman that he is only fighting in MMA at this point to showcase his charisma in order to get more prominent acting roles in Hollywood.
The contract demands from the Ortiz camp are all the more shocking when you consider the massive hit that Ortiz recently took in his reputation as a PPV draw. Zuffa had a string of pay-per-views with good buyrates, including approximately 80,000 buys for UFC 49, which headlined with Couture vs. Belfort, and with Liddell in a "second from the top" position. UFC 50, which had an advertised main event of Tito Ortiz vs. Guy Mezger right up until the last minute, drew somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 to 40,000 buys according to the Observer Newsletter, an atrociously bad buyrate not seen since UFC 42. Tito's reputation for being able to draw good PPV buyrates on his own was shattered, and even if UFC 51 ends up being a PPV success, Tito's drawing power will still be mitigated by the PPV failure of UFC 50.
Seeking a huge raise and with no financial leverage on his side, Tito Ortiz once again proved what a shrewd and calculating businessman he is with his post-fight performance. Ortiz called out Chuck Liddell and Ken Shamrock, naturally causing both of them to get into verbal confrontations with him, and helping to create an artificially inflated impression of the demand for Ortiz vs. Shamrock II or Ortiz vs. Liddell II. There's no doubt that both of those fights would draw PPV buys, but would it be worth it for Zuffa to pay Ortiz a minimum of $300,000 in guaranteed money for both fights? Also, just the visual image of multiple fighters jockeying for position, both wanting a piece of Ortiz, made Ortiz the center of attention and was no accident. While Ortiz apologized and backed down from his in-ring statements about Liddell at the post-fight press conference, the mission was already accomplished with the on-air perception and image of multiple fighters wanting a piece of Ortiz.
Ortiz has also managed to convince a certain percentage of the MMA viewership that he only lost to Chuck Liddell because he was too head-strong and insisted on standing in front of Liddell and trading strikes. Never mind the fact that Ortiz went for several takedowns in the fight and Liddell brushed all of them off; including, two in the first minute of the fight... if there are people out there who believe that Ortiz only lost the fight with Liddell because he insisted on standing with him, that will inflate the demand for a rematch between the two fighters. Also, despite claiming before the fights with Couture and Liddell that he was 100% healthy, Ortiz is now claiming that he was hampered by injuries in both fights. In an interview before UFC 51, Ortiz said, "The difference for me now is that I have no physical problems. In both of those fights, I had injuries that kept me out of training." Again, whether that's true or not is beside the point. The point is that if a percentage of the MMA community really believes that, it would increase demand for rematches.
There are a lot of questions about Tito Ortiz' MMA future, but two things are clear. One is that whatever salary Ortiz may or may not get from the UFC in the future, it will have to be within the context of Couture and Liddell now being much bigger stars than he is due to the exposure from The Ultimate Fighter. Two is that whether he would want to or not, Ortiz will not be fighting on the April 9th live special on Spike TV, he will not be fighting on the April 16th UFC 52 card, and he will not be fighting in the first round of Pride's 205-pound Grand Prix in April. Ortiz was officially diagnosed with a broken nose after his fight with Vitor Belfort at UFC 51, and even if he recovers from a broken nose quicker than most athletes do, he still wouldn't be ready to fight in April. Any future that Ortiz may or may not have with the UFC or Pride is not going to start until after those events have taken place.