MMA fighters all over Europe start for less money than in the Octagon! Whoever starts for a thousand euros somewhere will tell me five, Novotny said

Oktagon is one of the best MMA organizations in Europe. It’s no wonder that fighters often earn good money here, which would be hard to get elsewhere. Promoter Ondřej Novotný has now spoken about how things work in this world.

MMA is constantly gaining popularity and with it the financial valuation of individual fighters is also rising. On the domestic scene, the payouts are not bad at all, often even higher than competitors from more developed countries.

Wrestlers, however, still don’t find it enough and are naturally always asking for higher wages. After all, training costs a lot of money and in case of injury, funds are hard to find afterwards.

The exact amounts are not made public, although the MMA public has a rough idea. Ondrej Novotny has now spoken about how negotiations with fighters are going and admitted that he often has to pay over the odds to keep his card from falling apart.

“I know that fighters in MMA all over Europe start for less money than they start in OKTAGON. Then they start for more money in OKTAGON than they do in KSW because they know they have more money than we do. Then they start for more money in the UFC because they have more money than we do. The same dude who starts for a thousand somewhere will tell me five.

If I tell him he’s crazy, he’ll tell me well, he’s crazy, four. But that’s still 400% more than he normally starts. But if I want it, I have to give it to him, because that’s how it works. Sometimes, like the Vémola vs Ilic example, when someone gets hurt, I need someone fast, so I might as well pay double.

If I pick him and I believe he’ll sell it to me, I’ll gladly pay him the double and he’ll sell it to me too. Sometimes it’s a risk, sometimes it might not work out. It’s not always a risk. Sometimes you go in confident that you’re gonna get what you want for the money. At least in the pre-game, which is important. Selling that name and all that,” he said on the Which Way the Hare Runs podcast.

The price of individual fighters, in short, comes down to how they handle their promotions. If someone is selling out arenas, it stands to reason that they will be paid exceedingly well. Social media is basically as important in this sport as performance in the cage.

Source: Where the Hare Runs, MMA Shorties