^This ^thread ^is ^constantly ^updated ^after ^each ^UFC ^event, ^so ^the ^current ^topic ^title ^is ^obviously ^out-of-date.

Stats:

• 3,275 Documented Zuffa Fighters via UFCStats.com
• 110 fighters able to avoid getting cut long enough to have a 20+ fight career.
• Less than 3% of all UFC fighters have managed this feat.

Why Find These Numbers?

A few months back I became curious as to how many fighters would actually qualify for Reebok's top performance tier for payout money. They tout it around as if it is something easy to achieve, but in reality only 90 fighters would qualify for such a tier, with only 48 of them being active in the first place.

For those not in the know, fighters whom have more 20+ Zuffa bouts under their belt receive 20k in incentivized Reebok money per fight. So, basically only about 7% of the current roster qualifies, and only 3% of all the UFC Fighters in general would qualify.

It is NOT a proper incentive when it is damn near impossible to ever even qualify for. However, I feel that the select few fighters whom do end up sticking around the UFC long enough to reach such a tier, should be getting a whole lot more!

It really is quite amazing to be able to have more than 20+ UFC bouts! One would have to fight at least 3 times a year for 7 years to qualify - to go that long without getting cut is a miracle onto itself!

A Retirement Plan?

As such I was thinking that perhaps the UFC could institute a "retirement plan" for fighters whom survive for this long. Meaning, that if a UFC Fighter lasts to 20+ fights, and wants to retire (after hitting a certain age bracket, let's say 38) then they have a job w/ benefits waiting for them. Kind of like the job that Forrest Griffin has.

Or, if the fighters do not want to take the "ambassador" job, then they can still sit on their asses and collect 1k a month, plus medica benefits, and access to the Performance Institute. Granted that they do not ever compete in MMA again. If they decide they don't want to retire, and the UFC is unwilling to provide them w/ fights, then they can forfeit their benefits and go fight elsewhere.

WWE actually does a decent job of this, with their "road agent" programs. This is where retired wrestlers stick with the company and scout/train new talent, or help produce the live events.

Either way, there should be something greater awaiting these fighters whom have put in the work (and years) to make it this far...something besides C

Up front, sorry for the very long post, I tried to be concise but there is a lot of information I had to try and whittle down.

Late last night I found a post about Jessica Rose Clark only having $17 in her bank account. I went to the event’s wiki page to see what she was paid this past weekend. Weirdly, I found that the payouts weren’t listed, which they usually are on the wiki pages for Vegas events as Nevada and the NSAC have always disclosed show/win money. It turns out Nevada no longer discloses payouts. Because I’m a stubborn person I decided to see if I could find out why. I wrote a brief post about what I found in that thread, linked here, and someone mentioned that this should be it's own post. So I did a little more looking around and here is what I found:

The change from disclosing to not disclosing payouts is a result of Nevada Senate Bill 29, which was passed in May of 2019 but has been in the works since at least 2017. The bill was sponsored by the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

The committee's members are the following state senators: Nicole J. Cannizzaro – Chair, Dallas Harris- Vice Chair, James Ohrenschall, Marilyn Dondero Loop, Melanie Scheible, Scott Hammond, Ira Hansen, Keith F. Pickard. Source.

The NSAC commissioner Staci Alonso spoke in favor of the bill in front of the committee in February of 2019. Source

When I started looking into why these people would want to make this change, I thought about who benefits most from it. I decided to check for connections between any of the parties involved and the UFC/the Fertitta’s/WME. This is what I found.

The chair of the committee that wrote and introduced the bill, Nicole J. Cannizzaro, at one point in time received a donation of $10,000 from Zuffa LLC, and $4500 from Station Casino LLC. Station Casino LLC is owned by the Fertitta brothers. Source, in the “Top Contributor category scroll down and click “see more contributors”. You’ll see Zuffa and Station Casino there. Repeat this process for later sources.

Dallas Harris at some point received $2500 from Zuffa LLC. [Source.](https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/186124/dallas-

Overview:.
A fighter must have at least 20 Zuffa Bouts under their belts to qualify.

Out of the 3,227 fighters to have ever graced the UFC Octagon, only 108 have actually reached the 20+ milestone - about 3%

This is an accomplishment in of itself, but out of those 108 fighters only about a handful have been able to maintain a "C Average" in terms of winning percentage, which is by far much more impressive!

#By Winning Percentage:

• GSP = 91%
• Jones = 90%
• Tony = 86%
• DJ = 80%
• Cormier = 80%
• Benson = 80%
• Bader = 78%
• Aldo = 76%
• Lewis = 75%
• Glover = 75%
• Max = 74%
• Magny = 74%
• Dustin = 73%
• Chuck = 73%
• Hughes = 72%
• Franklin = 70%
• Bisping = 70%

If Maia & Cerrone win their next fight then they will also be ahead of Bisping. There are probably more, but those were the obvious ones I saw at first glance.

Conclusion:
It's just too damn hard to compete 20+ times at the highest level and come away with a "C Average"

With that said, out of the 17 fighters to do so, all but Magny have been scheduled to fight for a UFC Title - a 94% ratio. Along with Magny the only other non-champions (interim included) on the list are Bader, Lewis & Glover - a 76% ratio. Basically, just being on this list makes one "HoF-Worthy"

*View the comments below for a list of fighters with 20+ Zuffa bouts.

With all the Dustin/Conor talk, so many people are parroting the whole “it’s an exhibition they can do it!” talk. It’s simply not true. Eddie Alvarez’s contract with the UFC was brought into evidence during his Bellator lawsuit a few years back and we know it’s covered under the following clause:

> The Fighter hereby grants to ZUFFA the exclusive unrestricted worldwide right to secure, promote, arrange and present any and all mixed martial arts contests to be engaged in by Fighter during the Term and any Extension Term...

>During the Term, ZUFFA shall have the exclusive right to promote all of Fighter's bouts and Fighter shall not participate in or render his services as a professional fighter or in any other capacity to any other mixed martial art, martial art, boxing, professional wrestling, or any other fighting competition or exhibition, except as otherwise expressly permitted by this Agreement.

Source:

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/3/4/8146159/mma-ufc-antitrust-lawsuit-monopoly-bellator-contracts

TLDR: UFC contracts cover this. Not happening without their consent.

Edit for those saying his contract could be different:

These are standard clauses. Bellator has the same and it was brought in as legal evidence in the anti trust lawsuit.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulgift/2019/07/30/ufc-or-bellator-whose-fighter-contracts-are-more-restrictive/

> Topel would go on to reference exhibits summarizing 2,111 UFC fighter contracts from 2001-2015 and a random sample of 82 Bellator contracts from January 2010 through June 2017. UFC attorneys had to fight to obtain Bellator’s fighter contracts and the judge ultimately decided to turn over those for 20% of Bellator’s fighters from a 6 ½ year time frame.

> Topel’s figures show the UFC and Bellator each used exclusivity clauses in 100% of the fighter contracts examined in this case. In example clause language, both promotions disallowed fighters from providing their services for, among other activities, any other MMA, boxing, or professional wrestling competition.

With Usman having recently joined the “13 club” it seems like a good time to take a look at some stats about UFC win streaks you might not know

I could’ve gotten some of these wrong, please let me know if I did since I don’t wanna be spreading false info

1. Holloway has the longest divisional win streak at 14. This basically means that Holloway has the longest winning streak at a single division.

He won 14 in at row up at featherweight until he lost to Volkanovski

2. Silva is the only person to surpass 13 wins. Everyone else either lost (a decision), retired, or got caught for drugs and was overturned to a NC

3. Including all of Zuffa, Aldo has the longest at 15, which also breaks Holloway’s record for the longest divisional win streak. (Holloway’s is UFC only though, and this isn’t)

4. If we include all of Zuffa, but limit it to undefeated streak (NC and draws don’t break it), then Jones is the new leader, at 17 officially, but realistically 16 cuz reyes. This would also make Jones the leader in divisional undefeated streaks, beating out Holloway and Aldo

After a discussion with a friend the BMF Title seems to be the most WWE-esque thing the UFC has put out. The fact "The Rock" was involved makes it all the more a gimmick. Don't get me wrong, Nate vs Masvidal is a fight that I would have happily watched on a PPV co-main event or headliner of ESPN card.

Dana mentioned it was a one and done but with regards to the integrity of the sport, what other charades have they hyped?

The only other would be Randy Couture and James Toney.

https://www.mmamania.com/2020/11/6/21553000/canelo-alvarez-free-agent-caleb-plant-boxing-match-dumping-dazn-golden-boy

It doesn’t seem like a real question but it is. Zuffa has some seriously deep pockets and this would legitimize their boxing endeavor in every way. They have PPV, broadcast, sponsors, and again serious money. Is there any way that Zuffa could make a pitch and sign someone the magnitude of Canelo Alvarez? It would put them on the map in a huge way, and entice others to sign as well. They have their own network, and could put a contenders series type show to rival Arums top rank show. Anyone think there is a chance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSuS9fpc83Y

Cyborg was never my friend.

There seems to be a lot of smoke for the beginning of Zuffa Boxing from Dana, McGregor, and Mayweather. But so far, there is no fire or official announcement despite the pre-announcement of the November 2019 announcement (Which never happened). Which leads me to ask... Is Zuffa boxing going to happen? Is Dana going to be partnering with a fellow promotor (Haymon?) considering Endeavor owns UFC and has connections to PBC? Or is it a pipe dream blocked by the political log jam of fellow promotors and possible legal hurdles from the Mohammed Ali Act. I, for once, as a fellow boxing fan, would welcome Zuffa Boxing and their own championship belts. And I'd love to see a BMF belt in boxing as well. I think it could solve some of the issues regarding boxing with many world champions with one weight class and sanctioning body (Looking at you, WBA). What do you all think?

The 20+ Zuffa Bout Club! (There are 90 fighters who qualify)

Heavyweight:

• Andrei Arlovski (19–14)
• Stefan Struve (13–11)
• Junior dos Santos (15–7)
• Derrick Lewis (15–5)
• Alistair Overeem (13–7)
• Gian Villante (10–10)

Light Heavyweight:

• Ovince St. Preux (15–10)
• Ed Herman (12–12-1 NC)
• Jon Jones (20–1-1)
• Mauricio Rua (10–11–1)
• Glover Teixeira (15–5)
• Thiago Santos (13–7)
• Sam Alvey (10–9-1)

Middleweight:

• Anderson Silva (18–7-1)
• Derek Brunson (14–7)

Welterweight:

• Donald Cerrone (29–15-1)
• Demian Maia (22–10)
• Diego Sanchez (19–12)
• Matt Brown (15–11)
• Nate Diaz (15–10)
• Anthony Pettis (15–10)
• Robbie Lawler (14–11)
• Neil Magny (17–6)
• Francisco Trinaldo (16–6)
• Jorge Masvidal (14–8)
• Tim Means (13–9-1)
• Carlos Condit (12–9)

Lightweight:

• Jim Miller (21–14 -1)
• Rafael dos Anjos (19–11)
• Clay Guida (15–14)
• Joe Lauzon (15–12)
• Dustin Poirier (19–6-1)
• Charles Oliveira (17–8-1)
• Michael Johnson (11–12)
• Bobby Green (12–7–1)

Featherweight:

• Jeremy Stephens (15–17-1)
• Cub Swanson (16–10)
• Nik Lentz (14–8–1-1)
• Max Holloway (17–6)
• Edson Barboza (15–9)
• Alex Caceres (12–10-1)
• Darren Elkins (15–8)

Bantamweight:

• Urijah Faber (19–10)
• Rani Yahya (18–7–1-1)
• Frankie Edgar (18–8–1)
• José Aldo (18–6)
• Raphael Assuncao (14–7)
• Eddie Wineland (10–10)

Flyweight:

• Joseph Benavidez (20–7)

*Includes fighters w/ 19 fights, but are currently booked to have their 20 later this year...and thus collect that sweet reebok cash!

Non-Active UFC Fighters Who Would Qualify:

• Michael Bisping (20-9)
• Gleison Tibau (16-11-1)
• Frank Mir (16-11)
• Tito Ortiz (15-11-1)
• Thiago Alves (15-12)
• B.J. Penn (12-13-2)
• Chuck Liddell (19-7)
• Vitor Belfort (15-10-1)
• Ross Pearson (12-13-1)
• Matt Hughes (18-7)
• Josh Koscheck (15-10)
• Nate Marquardt (13-12)
• Johny Hendricks (15-8)
• Randy Couture (16-8)
• Lyoto Machida (16-8)
• Tim Boetsch (12-12)
• Georges St-Pierre (21-2)
• Rashad Evans (14-8-1)
• Dennis Siver (13-8-1)
• Yushin Okami (14-8)
• Gabriel Gonzaga (12-10)
• Chris Leben (12-10)
• Danny Castillo (12-10)
• Melvin Guillard (12-9-1)
• Patrick Cote (11-11)
• Scott Jorgensen (11-11)
• Demetrious Johnson (17-3-1)
• Thales Leites (13-8)
• Evan Dunham (11-9-1)
• Yves Edwards (10-10-1)
• Jake Ellenberger (10-11)
• Daniel Cormier (16-3-1)
• Benson Henderson (16-4)
• Ryan Bader (15-5)
• Rich Franklin (14-6)
• Gray Maynard (12-6-2)
• Dan Henderson (11-9)
• Mike Pyle (11-9)
• C