What It Costs to Be... An MMA Fighter

On Saturday Nov. 17, 2012, three-time Canadian Athlete of the Year, Georges "Rush" St. Pierre, makes his triumphant return to the octagon to defend his UFC welterweight title against interim-welterweight title holder Carlos Condit.

This, after a year on the sidelines due to a torn ACL. But don't cry for him, Argentina. As a fighter in the top 2% of earners for the UFC, he pulls in $4 million to $5 million per fight on pay-per view, has an estimated net worth of $14 million and, when it was time to go under the knife in California, had the UFC foot the bill for an arthroscopic surgery estimated to cost between $35,000 and $50,000.

But what if you're not the number one welterweight and the number two pound-for-pound fighter in the world? What if you're just a mixed martial artist with a dream trying to make it as a professional fighter? How much does it actually cost to step into the cage?

There are guys fighting across Canada as I write this in smaller venues in front of local crowds that no worldwide audience has ever seen. These are the true journeymen of the sport and they are the ones who truly know the price of a UFC dream.

One of them is Brazilian-Canadian Jorge Britto.Britto will tell you he's an old school martial artist. "I started to train in MMA and fight in MMA when it was in transition from vale tudo, or 'no holds barred', to the sport it is now," he says. "I came from a very traditional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym and we trained in the old school way."

That gym was Gracie Humaitá on Humaitá St. in the Botafogo neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was founded by Grandmaster Helio Gracie and, to this day, still teaches Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the original style Gracie innovated with his brother Carlos when he created the art as his own adaption of judo in 1925.

"Of course I update myself, but I'm still an old school fighter. For mixed martial arts, I try to use my style more than the mix. I train in everything, but I'm out there representing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu," stresses Britto.

He's done quite well doing just that. The man is a second degree black belt under three legends of the sport: Vinicius Aieta, Saulo Ribeiro and Royler Gracie. He holds various medals and championships from tournaments all over the world and has been a training partner of some of the most decorated fighters in UFC history, including Vitor Belfort, Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua, Lyoto Machida and, the best of them all, Anderson 'The Spider' Silva.

Now he represents Gracie Jiu-Jitsu as a professional mixed martial artist and the head instructor of Toronto BJJ where he trains guys like me to be better Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners as well as better people.

During class, I'll often hear him shout, "No easy life!" In those cases, he's reminding me that I will receive no special treatment from my opponents just because I have cerebral palsy, but Britto knows it's also "no easy life" to pay your bills as a professional MMA fighter.

"I just finished a fight and I'm in debt. My training camp costs pretty much what I get in the purse and now I've got a tough injury. I've got to go for surgery and despite Canada's free healthcare system, which I would be screwed without, I've got to pay for some prescription medication and for me it's even worse because I teach martial arts, so I'm not able to teach and I teach private classes where I make a little extra money. So, it affects my job, affects my budget and, my wife's pregnant, waiting for a kid."

The injury took place on Oct. 19, 2012, during the Score Fighting Series 6 live from Sarnia, Ontario. Britto took on striker Tony Hervey and suffered a broken forearm at the end of the second round. Bizarrely, the broken arm was not inflicted by Hervey at all. In fact, Britto dominated both rounds with Hervey laying on his back executing what he told the post-fight interviewer was his "strategy" of eating endless punches and submission attempts hoping that Britto would get tired. Well, that didn't happen. But, despite everything working in Britto's favour, the broken arm left him dumbfounded and with a TKO loss due to doctor stoppage.

"I don't know what happened. I just heard my arm pop, felt a sharp pain and realized my arm was broken," says Britto. "I'm not going to tell you here that I'm 100% going to win the fight. You never know. Anything can happen in a fight, but I had a game plan and the game plan was working."

To execute such a game plan with six weeks of training camp, it costs a fighter at Britto's professional level an average of $2,000 per month with some sponsorship. Sponsorship is a key component in any professional fighter's career. In exchange for advertising and promotion, sponsors help the martial artist offset the costs of living and the investment of training with either gear, equipment, food, travel, gym facilities, money and all or some of the above. However, the split between what is covered by the sponsor and what comes out of the fighter's pocket varies with each new relationship. The holy grail for a lot of athletes is getting sponsored by a supplement company.

"Some people have supplement sponsorship, but I don't have that, so if you get paid by a lower level sponsor, you're probably looking at $200 every six weeks. Some people have sponsorship from a store and the store gives you 40% off," says Britto."In Brazil I remember I had one company who sponsored me and provided everything that I needed."

So, what do fighters like Britto usually need? Number one is a good academy and number two is equipment.

"You always have to think about your training as an investment. If I could, I would spend $10,000 every month," he says. "You need to invest in your training and have a good team around you. Conditioning is training and you need a good physiotherapist always around and equipment. If you want to fight professionally, you need to buy a different mouth piece, you need your cup and the appropriate gloves -- a pair to hit bags, a pair to hit pads, a pair for sparring and a pair to train in MMA. Of course, the more you train, the more professional you get, and the more you need."

So, when Britto approaches a sponsor, he offers them three levels of participation: support, support sponsorship and sponsor. Support gives you a very small amount of money, or maybe nothing and possibly products; support sponsor gives you a good amount of money and maybe some product and a full sponsor gives you a significant amount of money. Of course, based on the level, you pick the placement of the sponsor on the banner that's draped over your corner at the beginning of the match, as well as on your shorts and how you will promote them through social media.

"I think sponsorship is important because we can influence a lot of people who are in the fight business, but it's hard. The whole industry doesn't have a lot of people with a lot of money to spend, so I appreciate everything that I have," he says.

"I'm lucky because I teach at one of the largest gyms in the country with a lot of students who want to take my classes and I fight professionally, so it's easy for me to get some sponsorship. But, even that is pretty far away from what we as fighters really need. The ideal sponsorship means getting money every month, whether you're fighting or not, but for me it's a little more sporadic than that. But I do have some monthly sponsorship of products, which is good."



As a result of such sporadic financial support, Britto tells me that martial artists who want to dedicate their lives to fighting professionally are usually two kinds of people: "There are guys that have no other way out and look at fighting as a way toward greater success. Then, there are guys who have family support."

Part of that family support comes from the gym the fighter aligns with. Usually the fighter teaches there like Britto does, or come to some other arrangement so that they can train and support themselves financially at the same time.

"Most professional fighters work in the gym and would normally be paying the average price of a monthly membership of $150, but they are probably not really paying that. Maybe they'll pay around $40," confirms Britto. "In exchange, you're going to be teaching at the gym, cleaning for the gym or you'll just be allowed to professionally train without any of that because of your potential, the gym's need for fighters to train, or as part of establishing a competition team."

Jorge Britto has undeniably accomplished much in his mixed martial arts career, but, even then, at the age of 32, he still dreams of competing in the UFC. If you share that dream, remember it is going to be a difficult road no matter what path you take to get there, but you still have to take a chance.

"Sometimes you have talent and a dream and you got to go for it," he says. "Nothing is going to be easy in life. It's no different for MMA, martial arts or any other thing you want to succeed at. Don't give up, have a lot of discipline and dedication. There's no secret. When you really want something, you'll figure it out. You'll always have somebody who wants to support you, especially if you're doing things the right way. You're always going to find a way to do things honestly. I believe a lot in God and I think he watches for people and he sees when people are working really hard for something and rewards them. So, if you really want something, you just have to work hard and pay the price."