Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone: Two ends of the spectrum

“Treat yourself like a business and stop saying you'll fight for free” – Nate Diaz to Donald Cerrone

Nate Diaz might’ve officially replaced Conor McGregor as ‘Mystic Nate’. Last month, Nate was a guest on Helwani’s MMA Hour podcast, and had some wise words for Donald Cerrone. Nate, while talking about his contract negotiations with Dana White, told “Cowboy” to treat himself like a business.

A month later, Donald Cerrone finally understood what Nate meant.

Nate, much like Cerrone had the “anytime, anywhere” mentality. However, Cerrone for the first time spoke out against the UFC during his post fight press conference while talking about the money he made for his fight against Patrick Cote.

“God, that all sounds nice. According to my pay, I don't mean sh*t to the UFC. But we'll see. Maybe I'll talk to Dana after this and see if we can figure that out”, Cerrone said during the post-fight press conference.

Cerrone, who is generally considered to be a “company man”, lashed out at the UFC, and for a valid reason.

Let me do some number crunches and break down the reason for Cowboy lashing out. Since the Reebok deal came into effect, most of the fighters spoke out about losing out on their sponsorship money, which, for a mid – level fighter is equivalent to the purse he gets for showing up on fight night.

The payment structure of the UFC Athlete Outfitting program is as follows:

Based on the total number of fights under the UFC banner, as well as the Zuffa-era WEC fights and the Zuffa-era Strikeforce fights, fighters with 1 – 5 fights under their belt get $2,500 for showing up. Fighters with 6 – 10 fights get $5,000, while fighters with 11 – 15 fights under their belt get $10,000.

The upper tier fighters, with 16 – 20 fights get $15,000 per appearance, while fighters with 21 or more fights earn $20,000 for showing up on fight night.

It was reported that for his title fight against Rafael Dos Anjos in December, Cerrone collected a paycheck of $79,000. For his fight against Cote, Cerrone received $20,000 as per the Reebok – UFC deal, and $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, taking his total to $70,000.

Additionally, Cerrone gets to keep the royalty payments for any UFC merchandise sold that bears his likeness.

For argument’s sake, let us round off his earnings to $75,000, which isn’t a bad payday. However, one has to remember that Cerrone is a top tier fighter, and gets $20,000 because he has fought more than 21 times under the UFC/WEC banner.

Now imagine a fighter on the prelims card, who would earn only about $10,000 at most. Most fighters don’t even break even with their spending for a fight, let alone make a profit.

Breaking down the numbers for a fight

Former UFC fighter John Cholish spoke about the numbers while talking to MMA’s Great Debate Radio

All the fighters, at least at the top level train at popular gyms. A training camp costs the fighters anywhere between $6,000 to $12,000 and with the fighters living nearby their gyms, it costs additional $5,000 - $10,000 (at least) for 2 months of bills, supplements, training gear etc.

A fighter spends nearly $20,000 even before the fight week to get ready for his fight.

With the UFC fighters being independent contractors, they pay for their pre-fight medical tests, which once again burns a hole in their pocket.

If the fighters are fighting abroad, they need to pay international taxes, which could range from 12% to nearly 30%. This comes out of their paycheck even before they get the money from the UFC.

UFC pays for the fighter’s travel and accommodation, along with paying for one coach or corner man. For any elite fighter, it is important to have a couple of sparring partners/corner men/coaches, and while UFC pays for the fighter and one coach, it is usually the fighter who bears the expenses for the others.

All of these add up, and for someone like Cerrone, who is a top tier talent, it adds up to a considerable amount.

So considering all of the expenses mentioned above, Cerrone would’ve made $75,000 (money earned) + win bonus - $10,000 (training camp) - $10,000 (living/training expenses) - $2,000 (pre fight medicals) - $10,000 (expenses covered for his corner men) – $2,000 (Canadian taxes) – $2,000 (US taxes) – $5,000 (miscellaneous costs) =$34,000 (a generous estimate) + win bonus.

A top level fighter such as Cerrone breaks even, but making a profit of only 30,000$ (again, a generous estimate) and the win bonus, is a fair enough reason for Cowboy to get mad at the UFC brass. It would’ve been much worse had Cerrone not won the Performance of the Night bonus!

(The estimates were taken from an interview given by former UFC fighter John Cholish)

Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz leading by example

Conor McGrergor and Nate Diaz have understood the importance of being businessmen

“Treat yourself like a business and quit [saying] 'I'll fight for free’. That don't (sic) help nobody. That's bad karma for you for even f*cking (saying that). Stupid a** “Cowboy” Cerrone says that sh*t. That's bad karma for everybody. You'll fight for free, now everybody else has got to?

Why wouldn't they pay us? Because they got dumbs**ts like you fighting for free. Start acting like a businessman and start treating yourself like a business and get you’re a** paid for being in an Octagon. The whole world watches you fight."

There was a time when the Diaz brothers called out fighters, saying they would fight for free. But Nate has now realized that, much like boxing, the MMA fighters too can earn a good paycheck.

While UFC paid Conor 1 million dollars for showing up for his last fight, and half a million for Nate to show up on fight night, Dana later stated that Nate became a millionaire after beating Conor.

For years, fighters, pundits and the fans have been clamoring for better payment structures for the fighters. With the sponsorship money the fighters were earning, the payment issue wasn’t given much importance. But the Reebok deal has had a snowball effect, and the fighters have now begun to understand that they are businessmen, aside from being fighters.

This change can be attributed to Conor, who stood up for his beliefs, even if it meant he couldn’t fight at UFC 200. While this isn’t meant to point fingers at anyone, Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone are certainly at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

It will be interesting to see where this leads to, but the UFC fighters, much like NFL, NHL and baseball players deserve to make good money, especially when you consider the health hazards that come with the profession, along with the longevity of their careers.