Karo Parisyan Makes $175,000 a year, says NY Times

The NY Times' Economic blog has an interesting piece up today on MMA fighters' endorsement income.

Says NY Times blogger R.M. Schneiderman:

Individual sports like tennis, golf and boxing, on the other hand, can offer more endorsement opportunities for non-stars; lesser-known competitors, playing in big events, can bring major attention to a brand by plastering it on their shirt or shorts, even if they lose.

Mixed martial arts offers the most extreme example of endorsement economics. The rules regarding sponsorship are fairly lax — as opposed to, say, tennis, a sport whose governing bodies restrict the number of logos an athlete can wear. Most mixed martial artists tend to brandish post fight T-shirts, hats and sports drinks to give their sponsors exposure.

Over the past few years, as the sport has become more popular, that has translated into a significant chunk of income for fighters, according to Kenny Florian, a lightweight contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the sport’s premier organization. Karo Parisyan, a top welterweight in the U.F.C. who makes roughly $175,000 a year from fighting and sponsorships, said this would be the first year that his fight purses will outweigh his endorsement dollars. (He added that the reason has more to do with an increase in salary than the current economic downturn, which has hurt fighters’ sponsorship deals).

Nonetheless, because mixed martial arts is a relatively new sport (albeit a popular and increasingly mainstream one), it has not reached a level at which fighters’ salaries and endorsement deals rival those of sports with more-established traditions and bigger audiences. While star U.F.C. fighters like Chuck Liddell make millions of dollars a year, per fight salaries for newcomers in the U.F.C. can be as low as $2,000 a bout. In contrast, boxers on the undercards of fights televised on H.B.O. largely make six-figures each time they step into the ring.

Can't really blame him, but the writer failed to point out other methods of compensation in the UFC, such as fight/submission/knockout of the night bonuses, post-fight locker room bonuses, and PPV bonuses for the big guys.