From past to present, one of the largest sources of fighters often comes from receiving the sponsorship of brands, in return, the brands will appear on the costumes of the boxer when they are upper. Not only boxing, Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, in MMA tournaments such as One Championship, Bellator, Rizin, Cage Warrior, boxers also often appeared with pants embroidered with advertising brands.
But at UFC, since 2014, every UFC boxer on the stage will only wear Reebok's plain outfit without any other advertising embroidery. Reebok will also be the only partner to pay for boxers. Up to now, the contract with Reebok has expired and Venum will be the next UFC partner, starting from April 1.
Looking at the advertising remuneration for every fighter, it can be seen that compared to Reebok, Venum pays the boxers a little increased, but not significant. They are still based on achievements and titles that pay for martial artists similar to Reebok and increase to US $ 500 to $ 2000.
Jordan McCreery, the manager of some UFC boxers, commented that compared to the period of “freedom of costume”, Venum's increase is not worthy:
“In the past, the boxer will have an additional $ 5,000 for each brand that appears on pants. Each brand is 5000 USD, including Venum. But now athletes have about 9 matches at UFC to receive only 6 thousand USD. And they have to wear exclusive clothes of Venum alone for a week!”
Chris Rini, the writer of Bloody Elbow, also compared Venum's $ 42,000 payment in 2021 with Reebok's $ 40,000 payment in 2015 to the weight champion in each belt protection match.
“If calculating the inflation of Dollar in the past 6 years, the USD 40,000 in 2015 was still worth more than $ 42,000 in 2021,” Rini wrote.
“I do not think the boxers have any more benefits, if not cutting down.”
Venum is a familiar brand in the MMA world, one of the big brands focusing on the martial arts segment. This French fashion company is considered a familiar choice when it comes to protective products, costumes, and training tools in antagonistic sports.
In the past, Venum cooperated with many famous UFC boxers such as Lyoto Machida, Carlos Condit, Jose Aldo, Miesha Tate, …