UFC's Travis Browne on pay disputes: Don't complain after you sign the deal

UFC heavyweight Travis Browne agrees to disagree with sometime training partner Tim Kennedy on the issue of fighter pay.

“Everybody has a choice,” Browne told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “You don’t have to fight. You don’t have to be in this business, just like if I want to wake up and eat oatmeal instead of cream of wheat, it’s my choice.”

Browne (14-1-1 MMA, 5-1-1 UFC), who next fights Alistair Overeem (36-12 MMA, 1-1 UFC) at UFC on Fox Sports 1 1, chose to walk away from a successful career as a K-9 trainer in San Diego to join the UFC. He’s been a full-time fighter since.

The 30-year-old fighter admitted he’s seen lean times during his tenure in the industry-leading promoter and said managers have helped him make ends meet while he pursued his dreams of becoming a champion.

“They helped to get me where I’m at now,” he said.

Now, though, Browne said his fighting income is on par with what he made in his previous career. The fighter lives in Albuquerque, N.M., with his girlfriend and two sons and trains at Jackson-Winkeljohn’s MMA.

“I’m doing alright for myself, and I’m taking care of my family,” he said. “I know what I’m getting myself into. It’s not like their promising me a million and giving me 10 grand. I signed on the dotted line, and I’m doing what I want to do. I’m able to take care of my family and provide, and that’s success for me.”

Kennedy, who’s previously trained alongside Browne in Albuquerque, contends there are few leftovers when he deducts expenses from his fight purses. The former Green Beret and Strikeforce middleweight title challenger this week told the GrappleTalk podcast that he could net $70,000 with a win over Roger Gracie at next week’s UFC 162, but will only pocket $20,000 after costs and before taxes.

Kennedy said reports of UFC fighters being overpaid was “propaganda” and quipped that he should become a trash collector if low pay is indeed the norm for those competing in the octagon.

Browne notes the outspoken fighter is one of the hardest workers he’s seen at the gym and has taught him about pushing his limits. But when it comes to how much relative cash the two make, he said they ultimately are worth as much as they agree to, and how much they earn.

“If you want to fight, this is what’s promised to you,” he said. “If you agree to it, then I don’t feel like you have the right to go back and say, ‘They’re not paying me that much.’ You agreed to it. This is your job. I think that some guys may forget about that a little bit.

“Tim isn’t the first guy to ever say that. Look at (heavyweight) Todd Duffee. … He basically got cut for what he said. I don’t agree with it. I’m not going to complain after I’m the one that signed on the dotted line. They’re not twisting my arm to sign with them.”

Duffee resigned with the UFC late this past year, nearly three years after his pleas for financial assistance raised the ire of the promotion’s president, Dana White. In recent months, several ex-UFC fighters have criticized the UFC’s pay structure.

White frequently defends the UFC’s compensation by saying fighters have the same opportunities to get better pay through winning fights.

Since a lackluster draw against Cheick Kongo at UFC 120, Browne is 4-1 in the promotion and has earned an extra $185,000 in performance bonuses. Including win bonuses, he’s earned $92,000 over four UFC fights, according to figures released by state athletic commissions.

Of course, critics often take issue with the amount of revenue shared by the UFC with its fighters, who are independent contractors and can be cut after a single loss in the cage. UFC executive Lorenzo Fertitta has said the fight promotion pays approximately 50 percent of its revenue to athletes while also bearing higher costs than other companies as a producer of events.

“The way I see it is maybe we’re not the [original gangsters] of fighting, like Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, and (Quinton) ‘Rampage’ (Jackson), even Mark Coleman and the Gracie family,” Browne said. “We’re kind of stuck in that in-between stage, where we’re making decent money, and the champions are making really good money.

“If you think about any other sport that’s gone through the growing pains that the UFC is going through now, in the beginning stages, the players played because they loved the game. At this point now, I guarantee you now that there’s a lot of football, basketball and baseball players that are in the sport because they’re naturally gifted at it, and they can make millions of dollars doing it. They’re more after the money, and that’s what motivates them. I think we’re stuck in that in-between stage, so we’re going to get some guys that do it for the love of the sport, and there’s going to be some guys that do it just for the money, and there will be big discrepancies.”

Some of those discrepancies stare Browne in the face on a daily basis. As a flagship member of Jackson-Winkeljohn’s MMA, he rubs shoulders with those who have earned a high measure of financial freedom through fighting, such as Andrei Arlovski and UFC champ Jon Jones, as well as those who still struggle to pay rent.

The difference he sees in the two groups is not in the size of their bank accounts, but how seriously they take the sport. He said those with passion and drive frequently find success.

“Jon Jones loves this sport, and he’s found something that he’s really good at,” Browne said of the light-heavyweight kingpin. “He puts in just as much, if not more work, than anybody I’ve ever seen. You can’t take that from people. There are people on the sidelines of the gym, and they might be complaining about stuff, but then as soon as they walk out of the gym, they’re not doing anything to better themselves and be successful when you get those opportunities. That comes with any gym there is. There are the guys that are sitting on the sidelines complaining, but they’re not willing to do what the next guy is willing to do to be successful.

“I’m at the gym Monday through Friday and another workout on Saturdays. It’s funny to see the guys that show up on certain days, but not others, and those are the usually the guys that are saying, ‘Why can’t I get that shot?’ I’ll tell you right now, Tim Kennedy is one of the hardest working son-of-a-bitches I’ve ever known, so I’m not talking about him when I’m saying this stuff. I love the guy. I learned a lot from him when he was here, but there are other guys that are like, ‘Woe is me.’ Well, get your ass to the gym, let’s do those sprints, let’s run the mountain. Quit bitching about it, and let’s get it done. There are guys that just don’t have that, and they wonder why they’re sitting on the sidelines.”

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