5 Biggest Problems in Mixed Martial Arts Today Part one: Fighter Pay and Performance Enhancing Drugs

The Sport of Mixed Martial Arts is often praised by its fans for being the fastest growing, most exciting and complex sport in the world. However, if asked, many fans will admit that the sport is far from perfect. It is a very young sport and it has multiple organisational and infrastructural flaws which we will look into today.

Problem number 1: Fighter Pay

Low fighter pay is perhaps the biggest problem in the sport today. An undercard fighter who earns 10 grand a fight before tax and fights three times a year (if he/she is lucky) can hardly make a living.

Participating in one of the hardest sports in the world and taking risks in training every day for so little money in hope that everything will go extremely well and perhaps one day 10,000 dollars a fight will turn into 100 grand does not seem like the most clever career option for a young person. There are examples of fighters who realised that the risk is not worth it and have retired very early into their MMA careers. Last year an undefeated Bellator Heavyweight champion Cole Konrad retired at the age of 28. The fighter decided to take up a job with the North Central Trading where he started working as a financial trader specialising in milk products.

The Ups and Downs of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament

When Strikeforce announced that they will be organizing a heavyweight tournament - we nodded, there has not been a renowned MMA tournament in a very long time. When the president of Strikeforce, Scott Coker, stated that it may go down as the best MMA tournament of all times - people smirked. Next to UFC, Strikeforce was small and powerless. However, they managed to get a bunch of elite heavyweights to perform and deliver in every fight. Those who smirked in the past - do not any more.

Today, right before the final fight of the tournament between Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier, we can look back at the Grand Prix and evaluate it. As mentioned above, Strikeforce succeeded at the most important aspect of organization - they have gathered a group of heavyweights who have brought a broad arsenal of skills and heavy power. One could argue that today, every single fighter (with an exception of Andrei Arlovski) in the tournament could at least co-main event a big UFC pay per view card. Another major reason for the tournament's success has been the fashion of the fights. With an obvious exception of Werdum vs. Overeem, the fights were entertaining and hardly predictable. These are the reasons why heavyweight fights are favorite among the fans of the sport.