Dana vs. ESPN on the pay issue

bobbitt15 wrote:

I liked the way Forrest explained the undercard guys and how they get paid makes me think alittle deferent about it. That video makes me think that I only see the ufc as somewhat corrupt because Dana just comes off as a crook to me, if Fertitta was the guy being the face of the company I'd probably never of thought that way.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/1/17/2713322/ufc-pay-sean-mccorkle-espn
McCorkle hit up The Undergroundto defend the UFC's pay structure and to give some details about how he was paid during his time in the promotion:

During my 3 fight stint with the UFC the paid me exactly 150% what
they were contractually obligated to pay me. That is without a
KO/Sub/Fight of the night bonus of any kind. That is even though I lost 2
of my 3 fights.

I got a discretionary bonus after all 3 of my fights, even an amount
equal to my what would have been my win bonus after my embarrassing
performance against Stephan Struve. I was told that was given to me
based strictly on the effort I put in to promoting the fight, and not
because of how I performed.

I am currently unaware of any pro sports franchise that pays any player more money than they are obligated to do so.

Sponsorship wise during those 3 fights I made an average each fight
of about 75% of what I was contracted to be paid by the UFC. So if my
purse for fighting was $10,000 I made approximately $7,500 in sponsors
on average.

Take an average fighter's reported pay for a televised fight, and
double it, and you'll have a rough number of the amount he made on that
fight. So if a guy is reported at $12,000 to show, and $12,000 to win,
chances are he'll make around $50,000 by the time it's all said and done
for that fight.

MMAEYES wrote:

I just want what's best for the fighters that why. I understand why the ufc doesn't want to do that and I'm not saying it's criminal that they don't I just think they should have to for the better of the fighters.

Is it possible the fighters themselves don't want what they make, put out there for all to see?

OU wrote:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/1/17/2713322/ufc-pay-sean-mccorkle-espn
McCorkle hit up The Undergroundto defend the UFC's pay structure and to give some details about how he was paid during his time in the promotion:

During my 3 fight stint with the UFC the paid me exactly 150% what
they were contractually obligated to pay me. That is without a
KO/Sub/Fight of the night bonus of any kind. That is even though I lost 2
of my 3 fights.

I got a discretionary bonus after all 3 of my fights, even an amount
equal to my what would have been my win bonus after my embarrassing
performance against Stephan Struve. I was told that was given to me
based strictly on the effort I put in to promoting the fight, and not
because of how I performed.

I am currently unaware of any pro sports franchise that pays any player more money than they are obligated to do so.

Sponsorship wise during those 3 fights I made an average each fight
of about 75% of what I was contracted to be paid by the UFC. So if my
purse for fighting was $10,000 I made approximately $7,500 in sponsors
on average.

Take an average fighter's reported pay for a televised fight, and
double it, and you'll have a rough number of the amount he made on that
fight. So if a guy is reported at $12,000 to show, and $12,000 to win,
chances are he'll make around $50,000 by the time it's all said and done
for that fight.

I bet McCorkle is bucking for another stint in the UFC.

just another example of the UFC favoring out of the ring trash talk to actual ring substance. It will get you pushed up the rankings and get you paid. All UFC fighters, turn on WWE RAW and take notes.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

OU wrote:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/1/17/2713322/ufc-pay-sean-mccorkle-espn
McCorkle hit up The Undergroundto defend the UFC's pay structure and to give some details about how he was paid during his time in the promotion:

During my 3 fight stint with the UFC the paid me exactly 150% what
they were contractually obligated to pay me. That is without a
KO/Sub/Fight of the night bonus of any kind. That is even though I lost 2
of my 3 fights.

I got a discretionary bonus after all 3 of my fights, even an amount
equal to my what would have been my win bonus after my embarrassing
performance against Stephan Struve. I was told that was given to me
based strictly on the effort I put in to promoting the fight, and not
because of how I performed.

I am currently unaware of any pro sports franchise that pays any player more money than they are obligated to do so.

Sponsorship wise during those 3 fights I made an average each fight
of about 75% of what I was contracted to be paid by the UFC. So if my
purse for fighting was $10,000 I made approximately $7,500 in sponsors
on average.

Take an average fighter's reported pay for a televised fight, and
double it, and you'll have a rough number of the amount he made on that
fight. So if a guy is reported at $12,000 to show, and $12,000 to win,
chances are he'll make around $50,000 by the time it's all said and done
for that fight.

I bet McCorkle is bucking for another stint in the UFC.

He's fighting on a card in West Virginia on the 28th.

Primetyme199 wrote:

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

OU wrote:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/1/17/2713322/ufc-pay-sean-mccorkle-espn
McCorkle hit up The Undergroundto defend the UFC's pay structure and to give some details about how he was paid during his time in the promotion:

During my 3 fight stint with the UFC the paid me exactly 150% what
they were contractually obligated to pay me. That is without a
KO/Sub/Fight of the night bonus of any kind. That is even though I lost 2
of my 3 fights.

I got a discretionary bonus after all 3 of my fights, even an amount
equal to my what would have been my win bonus after my embarrassing
performance against Stephan Struve. I was told that was given to me
based strictly on the effort I put in to promoting the fight, and not
because of how I performed.

I am currently unaware of any pro sports franchise that pays any player more money than they are obligated to do so.

Sponsorship wise during those 3 fights I made an average each fight
of about 75% of what I was contracted to be paid by the UFC. So if my
purse for fighting was $10,000 I made approximately $7,500 in sponsors
on average.

Take an average fighter's reported pay for a televised fight, and
double it, and you'll have a rough number of the amount he made on that
fight. So if a guy is reported at $12,000 to show, and $12,000 to win,
chances are he'll make around $50,000 by the time it's all said and done
for that fight.

I bet McCorkle is bucking for another stint in the UFC.

He's fighting on a card in West Virginia on the 28th.

Who is that Prime? KOC?

Don't know how he can be fighting on Jan.28th and again on Feb.10th in Indy for LFC?

McCorkle added to NAAFS Caged Fury 16 card in West Virginia
Stephanie Frausto and Ashley Cummins to make WMMA History

1/9/12 Morgantown, WV: UFC veteran heavyweight Sean McCorkle (13-2) has officially been added to the NAAFS’ first ever event in the state of West Virginia when he collides with undefeated prospect Mike Gordon at Caged Fury 16 on January 28th in Morgantown.


http://naafs.biz/site/2012/01/09/sean-mccorkle-and-added-to-naafs-caged-fury-16-card-in-west-virginia-frausto-vs-cummins-to-make-history/

http://standthemup.org/dr/content/sean-mccorkle-added-jan-28th-and-updated-west-virginia-card

This is the updated card.


SHW – Sean McCorkle 13-2 (Integrated Fighting Academy) vs Mike Gordon 4-0 (Independent)
155 lbs – Joey Holt 9-5 (Team Impact) vs Dustin Center 8-3 (Cenrockda Siam Muay Thai)
110 lbs – Stephanie Frausto 1-2 (Team Gurgel) vs Ashley Cummins 7-0 (Vaghi Martial Arts)
170 lbs – Mickey Hughes 8-7 (H2O MMA) vs Brandon Saling 15-8 (Mov bjj)
205 lbs – Josh Stansbury 12-4 (Team Impact) vs John Opfar 10-4 (Pittsburgh Fight Club)
170 lbs – Zac Gobel 7-4 (Dragons Den) vs Jason Cardillo 6-0 (Pittsburgh Fight Club)
135 lbs – Ronnell Green 6-1 (Bullpen) vs Amos Collins 10-3 (Fitness Edge/Relson Gracie)
265 lbs – Nathan Bryant 8-6 (Ground Zero) vs Rick Day 9-1 (USA Martial Arts)
145 lbs – Matt Montalvo 7-7 (Fighters United) vs Jon Washington 10-3 (Buckeye MMA)
170 lbs – Matt Garrettson 4-5 (Butch Hiles MMA) vs Marcos Pecina 8-2 (USA Martial Arts)
185 lbs – Chris Goldbaugh 8-3 (Bullpen) vs TBA

OU wrote:

Don't know how he can be fighting on Jan.28th and again on Feb.10th in Indy for LFC?

My guess is he won't be on the Feb card.

Quote :

In addition to the eight-man “Tachi Tourney” quarterfinals at LFC 51,
the event will be headlined by UFC vet Chris Price (20-2) taking on
Raymond Lopez (6-2) and co-headlined with UFC vet Sean McCorkle (13-2)
taking on Michael Williams (3-1).

http://prommanow.com/index.php/2012/01/06/legends-of-fighting-championship-eight-man-tournament-winner-to-earn-contract-with-tachi-palace-fights/#.TwdRilOTwIg.twitter

Primetyme199 wrote:

OU wrote:

Don't know how he can be fighting on Jan.28th and again on Feb.10th in Indy for LFC?

My guess is he won't be on the Feb card.

yeah, looks like you're right.

Then again, maybe he's hoping he doesn't get hurt in any way and will try and fight in Feb too.

Primetyme199 wrote:

Then again, maybe he's hoping he doesn't get hurt in any way and will try and fight in Feb too.

Possible. He did get "co-main event" status on the Feb. card.

McCorkle finishes these other bums in like one minute. He could do both

http://mmajunkie.com/news/27015/with-fighter-pay-in-spotlight-ufc-vets-shed-light-on-life-in-octagons-middle-class.mma
George Roop gives his thoughts.

Quote :

Roop plainly said it was nobody's business how much money he makes. But
he also wanted to make it plainly known that he feels well-compensated.

He goes into alot more detail.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/1/20/2720755/espn-john-barr-ufc-pay-dana-white
OTL's John Barr sat down for a lengthy interview with Eddie Goldman's No Holds Barred podcast
and gave his thoughts on the story they did and the way the UFC handled
the situation. Thank god for Zach Arnold of Fight Opinion who actually
transcribed a great deal of the interview, so check out the full post over at his site. But here's some of the good bits.

On the UFC needing to learn to take the criticism:

"It's clear to me that if the UFC really wants to mature as a sports
entity, it's going to have to be able to shoulder and weather the
criticism. I live in Philadelphia, OK? You know, probably outside of New
York, maybe Boston, I can't think of a more passionate fan base in
terms of, you know, columnists who are critical of the local sports
teams, sports radio hosts who bring it every day with no holds barred,
pardon the expression, critiques when you know the leaders of their
local sports teams don't call those shots the right way. Heck, there
were people calling for Andy Reid's head after the third week of the
season. But those columnists go to press conferences every week,
multiple times a week, they go into the locker rooms and talk to
players, they're not banned. You know, they're big boys, they can take
the slings & arrows. You know, if you want to really prove that
you've arrived then put up with it, you know? That's my take.

"If every story that comes out that's mildly critical or takes a
critical view of what you do if every story is to be responded to by
somebody coming out with a series of half-truths and, you know, what was
rather telling when UFC put two videos out. One of them was a 10 minute
video that included interviews with Chuck Liddell, who by the way wouldn't talk to us for our story, Matt Serra who by the way wouldn't talk to us for our story, and Forrest Griffin
who we never contacted. But it also included several clips from the
interview that I did with Lorenzo... I didn't tall them up but I think
he may have made 10 to 15 salient points during the course of that
UFC-produced video and easily 7 of them were either in the TV piece that
we did or the dot-com piece that we did.

"Look, we're not, it's not our charge to do your public relations.
You hire people for that. I had a news director years ago who told me,
‘PR people distort the truth, you report the truth.' You know, that
sounds like, you know, I'm trying to say I fight for truth, justice, and
the American way but at the end of the day that's all we want, that's
what we try to get at - the TRUTH. I know people are out there just
convinced that we have this agenda and there are some people that are
the conspiracy theorists who think (UFC) signed a deal with FOX so
ESPN's out to get them! And that's convenient and it fits into
somebody's paradigm but it's just not the way we work, you know?

More after the jump






On the piece being some part of a larger grudge ESPN has against the UFC:

"I can tell you, I can reel off the last dozen stories I've done,
there have been stories that have been critical of the NFL. We did a
piece recently that was critical of the quality of NBA officiating. We
put hundreds of millions of dollars in the NBA's pocket every year, you
know. This is not about that. It's about journalism, it's what we do,
and this is a story that we thought was important to do. Heck, we don't
cover Mixed Martial Arts enough, you know, and the few times we do it we
get blasted for not doing it in a way that essentially would have us be
nothing more than shills of the UFC. That's not the kind of reporter I
want to be."

On Dana White's refusal to do interviews with ESPN:

"Look, [Dana] wasn't a big fan of ESPN to begin with. He's still
hacked off about a profile that our friends at E:60 did about him some
months ago. You know, a very fine reporter Tom Farrey who I work with
who I respect a lot did that story. He's still upset about that and that
was the reason cited for Dana not agreeing to not do an interview with
us, it's just the lingering... I guess ill-will he feels towards ESPN
because of that feature. I actually thought that the piece was pretty
fair, you know... I thought it was a pretty accurate reflection of a guy
who... is, you know, at times profane, at times always passionate...
and just... you know, one could argue an extremely aggressive and one
might even argue ruthless businessman. But, what are going to do?

On Ken Shamrock and if he they handled his grudge with the UFC correctly:

"So, there's all sorts of challenges and on some level the UFC's in a
good spot because you wind up getting guys who, you know, in their
minds and in their characterizations often have baggage. Does Ken
Shamrock? Absolutely, he has baggage. Did we report that eh had been
engaged, that he was involved in a lawsuit with Zuffa? We did. Did we do
it within the context of the story? No. Bob Ley mentioned it after the
story but we got the information in there. We actually received a letter
from UFC's attorneys not after the piece ran but after a short tease of
the story ran and there was one little comment from Ken Shamrock in
that piece and I'm not sure who saw that and who decided to pick up the
phone and call the lawyers but as soon as somebody saw Shamrock they had
their attorneys send us a letter and... look, to be fair, yeah, we
should be mentioning that Ken Shamrock was involved in a lawsuit with
the UFC and he lost and he owes them legal fees. Does that make what he
was saying wrong? You know, I'll leave that up to others to decide. I
know what I heard from over two dozen fighters not named Ken Shamrock,
so... I felt pretty comfortable with airing what we did as far as what
Ken's comments were.

“I will always be grateful for the opportunities MMA and wrestling have brought me. This would include the incredible experiences presented by the UFC.

ESPN asked me to provide comments for their OTL piece on MMA fighter pay and I gave my honest opinion on what I feel is an important part of the sport both past and future. I take being the first UFC Champion and UFC Hall of Famer as a responsibility; and I worry about our legacy. The sport is new and in many ways we still have growing to do.

I stand by what I said. UFC has, good or bad, boxed out other competition. As a result, there are very few options for MMA fighters to make a living without working as fighters for UFC’s parent company, the ZUFFA Corporation. That’s why over 20 fighters that ESPN interviewed could not go on record for fear of losing favor with UFC. It is true that they pay the upper tier fighters well. I was one of the first to realize that kind of pay. I can appreciate the fighters Dana and Lorenzo cited with video clips, but they are not the fighters I was referring my comments to. I do feel there should be more transparency in reporting of fight gates and actual Pay Per Views. Yes, Lorenzo’s statements are true. You do have the right to audit; the problems arises when you ask for the audit.

Dana White’s response about me was just way over the top, and included several slanderous statements about me that where straight out lies. He said I failed 3 drug tests, and that is a lie. He said I owe him money, but I don’t owe Dana White anything. Dana and Lorenzo both know these statement are untrue.

Why did Dana have to mention anything about my knee. This has absolutely nothing to do with the interview. Dana White wanted me to fight for him, but I had a knee problem and wasn’t ready to fight. The truth is that my knee surgery was paid through my contract, out of what I earned. Dana insisted he needed me because UFC was dying and needed me to boost PPV’s. I came back sooner then I should have after the surgery. No regrets there on my part.

The fans are too smart to buy into this idea that UFC pays up to 50% to the fighters. I’m not a mathematician, but when they claim that the UFC is now the most valuable franchise in sports, the numbers do not add up. In the interview they said they paid out a quarter billion to fighters over the years but 50% means that the UFC ought to be dolling out closer to a $1 billion. Seems like the UFC fighters are getting short changed.

Lastly, this is typical of how Dana White responds to criticism – he deflects things and exaggerates with straight out lies. I can not understand why Dana feels the need to bad mouth me. In the end, it’s just disrespectful and slanderous to the FANS who love and support our sport.

-Ken Shamrock

He won his bout.

SHW – Sean McCorkle 13-2 (Integrated Fighting Academy) vs Mike Gordon 4-0 (Independent)

Sean McCorkle wins via head and arm choke Rd.1