‘They’re the only one that makes money’: Ex-UFC fighter Jon Fitch says other MMA companies are never profitable

Former UFC fighter Jon Fitch agrees that every mixed martial arts promotion other than the UFC has a bad business model.

Fitch fought with the UFC from 2005 to 2013 and was widely considered one of the best grapplers of all time despite never winning UFC gold. The 46-year-old has since retired but often uses his respected voice to give his opinion on fighting and fighter contracts.

‘Bellator just died. Couldn’t make money.’

Recently, Fitch stated what UFC President Dana White has long claimed: that the UFC is the only profitable MMA promotion currently putting on fights.

“UFC makes money. They’re the only one that makes money,” Fitch said in a clip from his podcast, “Jon Fitch Knows Nothing.”

He immediately cited Singapore’s MMA promotion One Championship, saying that “they’ve never turned a profit in their entire time.”

While One Championship has been around for approximately 13 years, it has never been able to capture global audiences.

Fitch continued, even revealing that Bellator — where he had his final three fights — couldn’t turn a profit, either.

“Bellator just died. Couldn’t make money. Ownership changes got shut down by PFL. Now, PFL, they’re not keeping guys active. They’re not fighting guys. They’re not resigning guys who had good contracts with Bellator. And now they’re cutting their prize money in the tournament from $1,000,000 to $500 [thousand].”

Jon Fitch against UFC legend George St-Pierre at UFC 87 on August 9, 2008. Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Fitch then surprisingly indirectly agreed with the UFC president and said if it wasn’t for money from Saudi Arabia, the PFL would have been closed already.

“It seems like they’re struggling. They’re not profitable. They probably would have closed down if it wasn’t for the massive amount of Saudi Arabia money that they were given.”

This echoed White’s remarks from last October, when he answered questions about the profitability of MMA crossover fights into boxing.

“It’s not really true. That’s the bulls**t that the public believes, but that’s not the truth. Total bulls**t. That’s that whole myth that makes everyone go, ‘Ahh, let’s f**king go to boxing.’ It’s f**king bulls**t. Boxing don’t work,” White exclaimed.

“It takes a f**king Saudi trillionaire to make boxing work,” White declared. “Even Saudi trillionaires get tired of f**king bulls**t. It’s all a myth. … They all end up losing s**tloads of money.”

Fitch went on to say that the UFC benefits from a “long-standing monopoly” in MMA by hoarding top talent. The former fighter theorized that having “one or two top-tier names” still isn’t enough for new promotions to make money. Rather, there needs to be access to a large variety of fighters to make the industry flourish.

“You can’t have restrictions to competition,” Fitch argued. He added that one of the ways the UFC keeps fighters locked into lengthy contracts is with non-compete clauses and holding them to certain commitments such as a requirement to defend a championship if they win one.

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