Why the Little Guys Will Never Get the Respect They Deserve in MMA & the UFC

The UFC has recently incorporated featherweights and bantamweights into the UFC.  There are also plans on a flyweight division, but even when that does happen, don't expect fighters below the 155 pound lightweight mark to take up too many slots in the UFC.

The truth is that many fans just don't care about the smaller fighters.

The UFC didn't even care until recently when Dana White and the rest of the company experimented with trying to keep the WEC around and found it didn't work.

The WEC cards were some of the most exciting in all of MMA, but they weren't a familiar brand and the fights centered around smaller fighters, which made them less appealing to the masses.

Even when the UFC tried to put on a WEC pay-per-view, it supposedly didn't even break 200,000 views.  

And the main event for that card was Urijah Faber, a proven WEC draw.

While that number might have been good for other MMA companies, or for the UFC a few years ago, it is paltry now.

Even after the WEC merged with the UFC, it didn't mean a bigger stage for the smaller fighters.

At UFC 128, 129, and 136, featherweights or bantamweights were the co-main event and that was only because it was either for the title or because Urijah Faber was on one side of the fight.

At UFC 132, bantamweights were in the main event and that was only because Urijah Faber was fighting for the title.  It didn't hurt that B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch had both had to leave a scheduled rematch because of injuries.

Many times when featherweights and bantamweights fight on a UFC card, they have gotten at least one of the bonuses.  Even when they haven't, they usually put on entertaining affairs which leave the crowds cheering for more.  

And even with all of this, they still don't get paychecks commensurate with their heavier counterparts.

In Cain Velasquez' fifth fight with the UFC and under Zuffa contract he was paid $35,000 to show up and $35,000 to win.  He had won one award for knockout of the night.

In Miguel Torres' last fight at UFC 130, he was paid $30,000 to show up and would have most likely been paid $30,000 as a win bonus.  He had won two fight of the night bonuses in the WEC and one submission bonus there as well.

It was his 10th fight under Zuffa contract.

The problem has to do with marketing and fans.  Most casual fans don't look at Miguel Torres and fear about running into him in a dark alley.

Fans might realize how dangerous he is, but they don't fear him like they would Brock Lesnar.

And that is the problem.  Small men just aren't imposing.

They may be skilled.

They may be fast.

They may put on the best fights of the night.

But they are also less daunting and just like their weight and height, their paychecks will always be just like they are.

Small.