UFC reveals new pay tiers for fighters under Venum partnership after Reebok era comes to an end

The UFC officially kicks off a new partnership with Venum starting with the event on April 10 after several years spent with Reebok and the pay tiers for the fighters have been revealed.

New promotional guidelines were sent out to the fighters on Thursday and MMA Fighting has obtained details from the updated agreement made between the UFC and athletes on the roster. The details were first reported by ESPN.

Much like the previous deal with Reebok, the fighters will have their promotional pay from Venum determined by the amount of fights they’ve had with the promotion as well as separate tiers for champions and athletes competing for titles.

Here’s how the new breakdown will work according to the UFC’s promotional guidelines:

Overall, the fighters are seeing a slight increase in promotional pay under the deal with Venum.

For instance, fighters just starting in the UFC with one to three fights have been bumped up from $3,500 to $4,000 under the new program. Meanwhile, defending champions will see an increase from $40,000 to $42,000 under the Venum partnership.

These new pay tiers were made effective as of April 1.

While most of the other requirements for fighters under the UFC’s promotional guidelines are the same now as previously when the promotion was with Reebok, one change is fighters are now required to gain clearance for mouthpieces used during competition.

According to the promotional guidelines, fighter mouthpieces “must be submitted for review and approval upon check-in during fight week.”

“Mouth guards may not have any commercially identifiable logos or trademarks other than UFC logos and trademarks; however, athletes’ names, their children’s names, spouse’s name, athletes’ nicknames, country flags, or those approved by UFC and documented in the system and other Unbranded designs may be permitted if approved by UFC.”

Just like the new pay tiers, all changes to the UFC’s promotional guidelines go into effect on April 1.