Yep, that’s the title of my master’s project, which I have recently defended (successfully). I’ll spare you 40 pages and give you the quick and dirty.
1. MMA salaries are efficient, meaning that the more you pay out in salary per fight card, the more revenue you are likely to make. This is a no-brainer that I’ve proved with the data; the higher quality fighters get (demand?) higher salaries and consumers pay more for higher quality.
2. If a fighter gets ~200k show and 0 to win, that fighter is likely getting a cut of PPV.
3. The system of PPV revenue sharing works; giving guys a cut of PPV sales drives up PPV buys.
4. The art of matchmaking matters. From a salary perspective, you’d think that compelling match-ups would consist of taking the top quality (paid) guys and matching them up against each other. However, there is no “balanced ticket effect” – salary fairness/equality between fighters doesn’t boost PPV sales or Live Gate numbers (attendance). Fans may bemoan Joe Silva’s match making, claiming XYZ fighter needs to fight ABC fighter, but from a revenue standpoint, they are doing things right: the UFC is making money.
5. MMA fighters are underpaid, and I can prove it. (Monopoly/Monopsony market effects on salary, inter-sport comparisons, etc)
There is a lot I still don’t know, and plenty more research to be done. However, I’m happy to field questions about any of these points or various MMA salary issues in general. I’d love to hear your thoughts and theories of MMA salary!
Tags: analysis, fighter salary, money
It sucked. I was going to review it, but couldn’t help myself from sleuthing into the details. Basically, Dave or Kevin Howell or Tim Ferris (of 4-hour fame) paid for something, very very dirty.
And by that I mean paying for positive reviews on the book to help it sell. And not prostitutes. Although that would be an even spicier story.
Before I dive right into a rant about how I can nearly 100% prove this allegation, let me say that I think Dave Camarillo is an amazing instructor. I hope that he had nothing to do with the dubious promotion of a book I think he had actually little to do with in the first place. I give him the benefit of the doubt. I’m not here to bash him, nor the book (seriously). I have a fascination with publishing, Tim Ferris, and other shenanigans Basically, I just wanted to look into it.
So onto the meat.
Read the rest of this entry »
Just found out that two MMA Brits have ridiculously low resting heart rates.
And of course when I found out, I thought of you.
Tags: Bisping, heart rate
I love slams. In particular, the back to belly suplex. Judo players call it Ura Nage, WWE fans call it the German suplex. I call it delicious.
Believe it or not, the best free instructional I’ve seen on this move is from Shonie Carter’s DVD set, Judo Pimp: Brotha Hugga – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcHbqVPE21A
Tags: Shonie Carter, slam ko, suplex, ura nage
As you might know, I’m not a pro MMA fighter but I am pro when it comes to laundry so I thought I dish a few tips.
First, if you do not want foul smelling boxing gloves, you need to wear hand wraps (always!) and wash them often. This is non-negotiable; safety and smell go hand in hand with this one. How often you say? If we were in a perfect universe, I’d say after each use. Practically, I’d go with every 3 wears – if you let them hang out and air dry between uses.
As for the actual washing, I like to keep them wrapped and jam them into a sock or the sleeve of one of my rashguards. If you have more money than sense, you can always buy a handwrap wash bag. Use a mild, non-bleach detergent.
For comparison, I washed two of my hand wraps with the differing methods; wrapped up in a coil (above left), and the toss-them-in-carelessly method (above right). When you just wash them as is, they often get kinked and tied up, which is super annoying. I employed the sniff test to the wrapped ones and even the core of the roll was fresh – despite my initial fear of the inner part of the wraps not getting washed correctly.
One word of warning though, some hand wraps are notorious for bleeding color into your laundry – sometimes I’ll wash hand wraps for the first time while I take a shower, oldschool style, to avoid the possibility of dying my other clothes.
As for drying, hanging up the wraps, I suggest the air-dry method. Hang them up somewhere with as little self-contact as possible and wait. Letting them dry out in sunlight will help deodorize them a bit, although sunlight can slightly degrade certain fabrics/colors. Some wraps claim they can be put into a clothes dryer. I’ve foolishly entrusted a few pair to my dryer – only to be spurned with twisted, knotted, ripped and shrunken hand wraps.
Two other miscellaneous tips: wrap the fabric in reverse (Velcro ending up in the coil’s core) so they roll directly onto your hand when putting them on and invest in several pairs of hand wraps so you’ll always have a clean pair- they can often be picked up in a cheap 3-pack of wraps online.
Do you have any spiffy-clean tips? Let me know in the comment section below.
Tags: Gear, handwraps, laundry