For UFC fighters like Carla Esparza, life is just as tough outside the octagon

(This story first appeared at USAToday.com.)

IRVINE, Calif. – Ronda Rousey and Carla Esparza have plenty in common.

Both broke new ground as the UFC’s inaugural divisional champ, Rousey at bantamweight, Esparza (11-3 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at strawweight. Both lost their title, via knockout, in 2015. Both will soon return to the octagon.

Yet while Rousey has spent the latter months of this year building a plan to beat Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 on Dec. 30, and what to do with the millions of dollars she’ll receive for her efforts, Esparza has been trying to work out ways to pay the bills.

Rousey has undoubtedly done great things for women’s MMA. UFC president Dana White once famously said he would never have females competing in his organization, and it was the brash, brilliant, mouthy former judo star who persuaded him otherwise.

Yet while Rousey is among the highest-paid athletes in MMA, the reality for many other fighters, both men and women, is very different.

Over lunch at a health food restaurant here, Esparza, 29, suddenly interrupts her interview with USA TODAY Sports. A beaming and uplifting smile crosses her face. A few flurried phone calls and text messages later and it emerges that she has been tentatively booked to fight in a couple of months.

“Finally,” she exclaims excitedly. “Please let this one be for real.”

The prospective opponent is a tough one – there are no easy rides in the UFC – and a woman whom Esparza doesn’t particularly like, but action means money and a chance to balance the books. She last fought in April, and not fighting means not getting paid.

It would be no surprise to many that entry level MMA fighters get little in the way of meaningful remuneration and sometimes struggle to make ends meet. But Esparza is neither a rookie nor a bum, far from it.

To win the strawweight belt initially, she had to survive a grueling four-bout schedule in “The Ultimate Fighter 10” tournament, eventually beating Rose Namajunas to take the title. After losing to dominant champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk last year, Esparza took some time off for shoulder surgery and then defeated Juliana Lima at UFC 197. She remains ranked No. 5 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s strawweight rankings.

And, on a rare overcast day in Southern California at the start of December, she wrote a check for a property tax payment, took a look at her finances, and realized there was nothing much left. So she decided to put her Harley-Davidson motorcycle up for sale, the same motorcycle that was her prize for winning The Ultimate Fighter.

Coming just a day after the launch of an MMA athletes’ association aimed at pushing the UFC to offer better conditions and fairer pay, her social media post about selling the bike gained some attention and sympathy.

But for Esparza, a private person who doesn’t do self-pity, such a move was difficult.

“It was just the humiliation of having to put that out there,” she says. “Nobody wants to say they are not doing well. It was super embarrassing.

“A lot of people were very kind and some offered money, but I’m not eating ramen or starving, so I can’t accept that.”

Esparza lives a frugal life, by necessity, and any “extravagances” are all related to her fight preparation. She regularly spends a couple of hundred dollars on vitamins and supplements, and always buys organic food. She is fortunate to have a sponsorship with a healthy meal service, but doing it right doesn’t come cheap, and she forks out for training equipment, gym memberships and trips to an Orange County combat sport-specific physical therapist.

She got $60,000 for her last fight, had just under 30 percent taken out for training and management fees, and was promptly hit with a $40,000 tax bill from the previous year, putting her essentially back to square one.

Then began the waiting game, for another fight and another paycheck. As fighters across the division were booked to compete, Esparza entered December still hoping to have her name called.

In the meantime, she tried to sell the Harley and raise some funds, though even that got held up when a prospective buyer in the U.K. backed out when he discovered he would have to pay import taxes.

The frustration, and the money worries, caused Esparza to become deeply despondent.

“You are at someone’s mercy,” she says. “They have the power to give you a fight, or to put you on the bench for 10 months. It is scary, and I don’t like that feeling. The stress makes you think is it even worth it. There are days when I am wondering what I am going to do to put food on my table. There have been times when I am sitting here depressed and crying every day because I can’t do what I love to do, and also, I can’t meet the bills.”

Esparza and her manager have pleaded with the UFC to put her in the octagon, to no avail. As of Thursday, no fight had been formally announced, although the signs were getting better.

Anyone who enters the business of combat sports should expect a tough road, and Esparza’s situation is far from unique. However, it does seem unfair. She doesn’t have a money-sucking crew of hangers-on, doesn’t splurge at designer stores – or any stores – drives a sensible vehicle and works her butt off.

“Some people you have to stay on top of them, constantly be making sure they are putting the work in,” Colin Oyama, head of Team Oyama and Esparza’s MMA coach, said. “Carla’s not like that. She is dedicated, she is hungry, she does what she is supposed to do. She’s a professional. She just needs to fight.”

When she publicized her money woes, Esparza caught a smattering of heat online, with critics referencing how she celebrated winning “The Ultimate Fighter” by purchasing a $1,000 limited edition sundae from the Serendipity dessert chain, which she shared with a friend.

Yet that was an isolated indulgence, and was more than two years ago. Recent purchases have been far more practical. The only thing she bought of significance after beating Lima was a new, more secure window for her home in Tustin.

Rousey, meanwhile, who will seek to regain the bantamweight belt after losing to Holly Holm last November, could have a $1,000 sundae for breakfast every day if she so desired.

Esparza has nothing but respect for Rousey and accepts that, even with the UFC having been sold for $4.2 billion, there is not room for everyone to make superstar money.

“It is Ronda’s personality that brings her those type of opportunities,” Esparza said. “You need to have a special type of character and personality to be able to pull it off in the way that she does.

“But there is not a single fighter in the UFC that doesn’t believe all the fighters should be paid more, that is a given. Some of the fighters are struggling to survive. Everyone thinks we are great and doing well, but … .”

She trails off, smiles sadly and soon departs, to rest up ahead of more physical toil. Intense days of preparation lay ahead, peppered by the fear of injury and the fiscal ramifications that would bring, just part of the reality of life outside of the UFC’s moneyed elite.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.