Roger Huerta “I don’t care if I fight in the UFC or somewhere else”
Top UFC Lightweight contender Roger Huerta opened a lot of eyes in his recent interview with FIGHT! Magazine. Here are a few snips from the article:
Huerta’s disillusionment with the UFC began when he did press tours for his employer in Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, and London and received a $50 per diem for his troubles. It sounds like a a good deal until you factor in time away from training, friends, and family, days often stretch twelve hours or more, and an exchange rate of one UK pound for two American dollars. “Why do you think I don’t do PR for the UFC any more?” he asks.
He argues that many UFC fighters barely make enough to cover their training expenses. He brings up teammate Keith Jardine repeatedly, incensed that a main event fighter is working for ten and ten- $10k to show and 10k to win – while his opponent regularly makes ten times as much.
“The truth is, I don’t really care if I fight in the UFC or somewhere else,” Huerta says. The fighter says he understands that Zuffa has to keep an eye on the bottom line, but he wants to work, “For a company that is as loyal to me as I am to them.”
Wow. Them are some pretty strong words. Maybe there’s something to the ever-increasing list of disgruntled fighters making their way out of the UFC. The UFC is considered the major league of mixed martial arts fighting, but unlike other major leagues (at least, on paper) they don’t pay the most. How much value do you put into exposure versus the money?
The UFC has usually tried to bury fighters who gripe too loud about this, like Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz and Andre Arlovski. On Arlovski’s way out the door, Zuffa sat him on the bench for almost a year, then stuck him on a preliminary card against a smothering blanket of a fighter. With Ortiz’s case, they sent their version of a hitman, Lyoto Machida and Machida got the job done.
I really wonder what they’ll do with Huerta. He’s right though, $50 per diem is an outright joke.
