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Several documents have been recently unsealed from the class action lawsuit against the UFC, with Bloody Elbow recently uncovering contract negotiations from Ronda Rousey that revealed dozens of requests from the mainstream superstar.
As Bloody Elbow sorted through the trove of documents John S. Nash has obtained, among those that stood out were the full fighter contracts of Holly Holm and Urijah Faber.
What made these two longtime UFC stars different from other fighters? Apart from the standard language on purses and incidentals, Holm and Faber both had other unique contract clauses added, including special terms involving the likes of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey.
Holly Holm’s unique UFC contract gives clues on Dana White’s vitriol
Dana White repeatedly trashed and complained about Holly Holm’s manager from boxing through the years.
“He’s an old boxing guy who thinks he’s smart, and he’s not,” Dana White said in one of the many instances he spoke bad about Holly Holm’s manager Lenny Fresquez. “I don’t know if Holly really knows what she lost. I think she has so much faith in the people that surround her, she feels like, ‘Well, they got me this far.’”
Holly Holm signed her first UFC contract on July 9, 2014, with the world champion boxer being 7-0 in MMA at the time. That contract does give some clues on where Dana White’s anger is coming from, with her deal being quite different than most from the get go.
It included a special clause for a super-fight with Ronda Rousey, along with a few unique perks for Holm and her manager, that seemingly triggered a lot of that vitriol from the UFC boss.
Holly Holm’s purse would only increase after every two wins
Her deal started out with a $25,000 purse, with a $25,000 win bonus. Instead of typical UFC contracts with pay escalations per win, Holm’s purse and win bonus would only increase by $5,000 after every two wins.
While the base purse isn’t anything huge and those escalations were far worse than normal, perhaps Holm’s team managed to negotiate a higher base purse with more guaranteed pay up front. As Bloody Elbow previously reported, most UFC debutants at the time only had payouts of around $11,000 — including any and all “locker room bonuses.”
Holm would also get the UFC’s standard PPV cut if she won the title and came in as a defending champion: $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000, and $2.50 for each buy over 600,000 buys.
Holly Holm has special terms for Ronda Rousey fight, perks for manager
While Holly Holm’s base purse and escalation was not very good, her incidentals had clauses not found in other UFC contracts:
- Holm had an extra room added compared to most, getting contracted for 2 hotel or motel rooms, and 2 economy tickets for fighter and cornerman. For title bouts, it becomes 2 rooms and 3 economy flights.
- She had slightly more free tickets, getting six instead of the typical four. If she’s in a main event, those seats will be within 10 rows of the Octagon.
- Apart from those, her manager will also receive 2 additional free tickets, within 4 rows of the Octagon. Her manager and his wife will also get 2 credentials and access to Holm’s dressing room.
- Holm will have the right to purchase 100 pre-sale tickets to her events.
While this was only Holm’s first contract with the UFC, she already had a clause for a Ronda Rousey fight from the very start. For a title fight against Ronda Rousey, her base purse would be bumped up to $50,000 with no win bonus.
For a bout against Ronda Rousey, Holm’s camp will also increase their right to purchase pre-sale tickets from 100 to 1000 tickets.
While it’s common in boxing for headliners to get a cut of every single revenue stream on top of their purses, UFC only gives a very small cut of the PPV to their stars and none of the other revenue. Apart from their negotiation style and minor concessions for the manager, perhaps it’s Holm essentially getting a small cut of that previously untouched live gate revenue that infuriates the UFC brass.
Holly Holm eventually fought Ronda Rousey for the belt after two wins and about a year and a half since signing this UFC contract. In a rare move, the UFC put the bout in a massive stadium, with 56,214 people attending in Australia. This made Holm’s contracted 1000 tickets a much smaller percentage of the live gate than if it was hosted in the UFC’s typical venues that were over three times smaller.
As Bloody Elbow previously reported, Holm had a side deal and bonuses that led to her taking home $1,100,000 for that upset win. She was paid more on her next bout, when her PPV cut kicked in as a defending champion.
Urijah Faber’s unique UFC contract
On August 26, 2015, Urijah Faber signed another UFC contract. At the time, the former WEC champ already had 12 UFC fights. He was coming off a loss on his UFC Manila main event bout against Frankie Edgar, but had won six of his last eight fights.
This UFC contract Faber signed started at $150,000, with a $150,000 win bonus. Each win would then bump up both his base purse and win bonus by $10,000 up to potentially $220,000/$220,000 if he wins all previous seven contracted bouts.
Faber had pretty standard incidentals:
- 1 hotel or motel rooms, and 2 economy flights. If in a title fight, it becomes 2 hotel rooms and 3 economy flights.
- $50 per diem for meals, three meals per day, for fighter and 2 cornermen.
- 4 free tickets to each fight, and if main event, seats will be within 10 rows from the Octagon.
Urijah Faber had special clauses for Conor McGregor, other fighters
What makes Faber’s deal unique, was that while most UFC contracts stopped there, he had additional clauses for…
Read the rest of the post over at our Substack page
In the full post, we go over the details and conditions involved that improved on Urijah Faber’s UFC contract that specifically discusses Conor McGregor and a couple of other fighters.
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