For as long as the UFC has existed, there have been great American champions who have risen through the ranks of amateur wrestling. But wrestling is coming to an end in the MMA pipeline, and we may soon see the end of American collegiate and Olympic athletes joining our sport.
problem? A 2021 law change that will allow NCAA athletes to legally make money from their “name, image and likeness.” Since then, the era of the elite but broke amateur athlete is largely over. Daniel Cormier recently commented on wrestlers making $100,000 to $400,000 per year, and three-time NCAA Div I champion Bo Nickal endorsed him.
“Of course, these kids are definitely out of control,” Nickal said on the Show Me The Money podcast. “I graduated in 2019 and that was nothing. It didn’t start until like ’21 or ’22. And now it’s really starting to kick in and these kids are making money. For example, the numbers that D.C. puts out for top college teams are pretty conservative… I’ve heard about seven-figure deals. Yeah, I’ve heard that too.”
But who is paying so much for the names, images and likenesses (now referred to as NIL) of these young athletes? Football and basketball have significant corporate sponsorships from major brands. There aren’t that many systems in wrestling. So-called NIL Collectives are endowment funding organizations for schools that raise money from boosters and alumni. That money is used to bring athletes to school.
There are now top schools with deep-pocketed donors paying six- and seven-figure sums to attract athletes. This is a good thing for athletes. For years, all the money miraculously went straight into the school’s coffers, but the students who did all the work couldn’t earn a penny. It’s not great for the sport of MMA, which relies on poor, exploited fighters to fill its roster.
As the UFC White House card was revealed, the absence of an American (or at least American-born) champion began to be highlighted. For now, we have Kayla Harrison and that’s it. The UFC salary structure has a lot to do with the problem, and things aren’t going to get any better as college athletes can earn six-figure salaries while UFC fighters are expected to move up the ranks with $10,000/$10,000 contracts.