A long, and at times bizarre, list of requirements, payments and other assorted weirdness
Thanks to the UFC’s secrecy, we know almost nothing about what fighters earn and what their contracts with the association contain. Most of the other promotions follow a similar policy but thanks to an upcoming court case, details of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson’s Bellator contract have emerged and if this is anything like the industry standard, it is a mad business.
After losing three UFC bouts on the spin, Jackson signed a six-fight deal with Bellator in May 2013. In the end, he would only fight three times for the promotion before a dispute led to Jackson walking away in December 2014 claiming breach of contract over pay-per-view numbers being passed on promptly.
This week Bellator lodged a complaint in a New Jersey court to prevent Jackson fighting on the UFC 186 card on April 25 and that case has led to details of the original contract between both parties becoming public.
The details are frankly astonishing, as are the sums of money involved. The deal guaranteed Jackson a purse of between $200,000 and $300,000 for non pay-per-view fights and between $200,000 and $450,000 for a pay-per-view event.
Additionally he was to get a $100,000 signing bonus, a $120,000 Tesla sports car and an extra €50,000 if he didn’t receive a certain revenue stream from sponsorship.
That was only the start of it. Jackson was also to get $4 for every pay-per-view over 190,000 buys and he was to get 30 per cent of any gate over $400,000 too.
Then there were some more left-field arrangements, via Bloody Elbow
- He got $35,000 per episode for a four-episode “Rampage 4 Real” reality show on Spike TV
- Bellator promised to get him a screenwriter for a movie and he met the president of Paramount about “film opportunities”
- Jackson was guaranteed to appear on the red carpet at the 2014 MTV video awards
- Bellator paid €250,000 to air an ad on ESPN during the NBA playoffs advertising his bout at Bellator 120
- And they spent $200,000 for the rights to a Rolling Stones song to use in ads to promote the fighter
The fella who Jackson signed the deal with, Bjorn Rebney, has since left the company and if this was the type of deal they were offering to fighters, we’re not surprised he’s gone.
A court date is set fo April 2, a little over three weeks before Jackson is set to fight Fabio Maldonado.
