During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with retired UFC lightweight Dustin Poirier, Rogan laid out his position on competitor pay using a comparison to his own comedy club.
“There’s a weird sort of discussion about competitor pay,” Rogan said. “I’ve always been of the opinion that athletes should be making more money, period. Because like the same way I feel about the way I run my comedy club, the comedians make 80% of the money. I feel like that’s who you’re paying to see. You’re paying to see them. We make plenty of money with drinks and 20% of the ticket sale. It’s like it’s enough.”
He pressed the point further: “If we had a comedy club and there’s no comedians, no one’s coming, right? No one’s gonna pay just to sit there and buy drinks. Like the whole idea is they’re paying to see someone’s work. If you compete, that’s what people are paying to see. They’re paying to see athletes.”
Poirier agreed, saying: “Without the athletes, there’s no show.”
The real problem, Poirier argued, is the revenue split. “I think the big thing with the discussion of competitor pay is the percentages. When you look at other major organizations like the NFL and NBA, the percentages are so different.”
Rogan agreed without hesitation: “Yeah. It’s not good.”
Poirier did offer a counterpoint. “At the end of the day, I’m all for competitor pay, too. I’ve been competing my whole life. But you signed the contract. You agree this is how business is done. Push for, try to get more of what you’re worth. You can’t sign a contract and complain.”
Rogan acknowledged the point while underlining why athletes hold little leverage. “That’s true, too. But also, it’s like the reality of MMA is if you’re not in the UFC, people are not paying attention. That’s unfortunate, but it’s reality.”
Poirier also revealed how pay-per-view points were historically used as a negotiating tool by the promotion.
He said: “That was always the thing they kind of held over you in discussion about contracts and about future matches. You win this bout, one day you’re going to compete for the belt, you’re going to get pay-per-view, your life’s going to change. That was always a carrot they hung. That was the goal, to one day compete for the belt and get the pay-per-view money.”
Poirier noted that incentive has now disappeared. “But now that that’s gone, there’s no way these guys aren’t competing with that backdoor money.”
On Ronda Rousey’s public comments about compensation following the UFC’s television deal, Rogan said: “She made some good points and the most important thing is that she gets the conversation out there and it puts pressure on the UFC to pay people more.”
He continued: “If what she’s saying makes sense, then you have to go, she’s got a point. They sold it for $7 billion or whatever it is. They got this deal with Paramount, not even selling it, sold rights to it. She’s making sense.”
Poirier said the UFC has kept him without answers on how athletes are compensated under the new model. “Nobody’s telling me anything. Keeping me in the dark, man.”
