The truth about fighters and sponsors.

[blackadder]

To the fan, it's just logos. It's background scenery, hardly worth noticing.

It's a shirt some fighter wears to the cage and then struggles to pull back on to his sweaty torso in time for the post-fight interview. It's a banner his cornermen unfurl behind him during the pre-fight introductions. It's a website on the seat of his shorts.

You see it, even if you never think about it. But because you see it, because you're watching, fighters are getting paid. They might make anywhere from a couple grand that's barely worth mentioning after their manager takes a 20 percent cut, to hundreds of thousands of dollars on an endorsement deal that will change their lives forever.

For many fighters, sponsor money means everything. It's the difference between prospering and just getting by. It's something they talk about among themselves, but rarely in public. It's the hidden undercurrent of the MMA economy.

As fighter agent Lex McMahon explained, "Younger guys who are just starting out in their careers and are in their first contract with the UFC, they're probably making quite a bit more in sponsors than they are from fighting."

All this, just to reach you, the fan, who hardly gives any of it a second thought. Is it worth it? That depends on who you ask. Do fighters depend on it for their financial well-being? Absolutely. And as you learn when you take a closer look, it's a complex economy buzzing with frenzied activity behind the scenes of every MMA event you watch.

De rest van het aardig lijfige artikel.
The Truth About Fighters and Sponsors
Aangezien Basblue hem er niet in kreeg...

[basblue]

Het is mij 10 min geleden toch gelukt.... Thanx anyway! Goed artikel hoor!

[blackadder]

Ach ja. Ik zie het nu. Ik zag eerst alleen de gesloten thread.

[blackadder]

Thanx anyway! Goed artikel hoor!

Ze laten het wel erg positief klinken. Ik denk dat de werkelijheid is dat Zuffa alleen wil zeker stellen dat HUN betaald krijgen van de sponsors. En ook alleen grotere bedragen. Maar het klinkt natuurlijk sexier wanneer "het de vechters beschermdt" als er alleen kapitaal krachtige sponsors aan boord zijn. Maar het is ja niet zo alsof die kapitaal krachtige sponsors ineens ook de kleine namen gaan meesponsoren die dankzij Zuffa hun sponsors zijn kwijtgeraakt.