UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta address fighter pay issues after unveiling plans for fancy UFC headquarters

You hear the subject come up quite often. From the media addressing the issue of fighter’s pay, to the fighters themselves making a fuss over the financials of being a professional mixed martial arts fighter.

Since the news broke of the UFC breaking ground on their new campus-style headquarters in Las Vegas, the subject came up once again with it being known the new facility would have a hefty price tag. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta spoke with MMA Junkie and addressed the reasoning behind the new headquarters.

“That’s always going to be an issue,” Fertitta told MMAjunkie. “If we distributed 200 percent of our revenues, people would be complaining about fighter pay. The fact of the matter is, fighter pay has continued to increase every single year that we’ve owned the company. We pay way more than anybody else in this space.”

If it isn’t obvious, the stars in the UFC get the highest paying contracts with Fertitta telling it like it is.

“You do have some fighters that maybe aren’t happy with what they get,” Fertitta said. “But at the end of the day, the fighters that achieve great things in this sport and get to the level of actually being able to make a career out of it, you don’t see many of those athletes complaining. The guys that are rising to the top are making the majority of the money.

“Relative to this (groundbreaking), we’re making an investment in the future so that the company can continue to go on and achieve even bigger things, so that the revenue will continue to grow, and obviously that will continue to flow down to the fighters. This is no different than any other business.”

Do you think that the new campus headquarters will, in fact, play a part in helping the company grow and push the business forward? Or do you think it is excessive and the same things could be done without the new campus?

Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.