How hard it is to make a living with MMA ?

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why do you say that?

It is representative of how willing someone is to make a business work. You could make the same analogy with eating a 50 lb bag of shit. Most people starting a business have an unwillingness to see the project through.
 
It is representative of how willing someone is to make a business work. You could make the same analogy with eating a 50 lb bag of shit. Most people starting a business have an unwillingness to see the project through.

SOrry, I meant why do you say you need to kiss ass to make a gym successful? 'm not seeing the correlation, and Im interested in what your experiences are
 
SOrry, I meant why do you say you need to kiss ass to make a gym successful? 'm not seeing the correlation, and Im interested in what your experiences are

His analogies are dumb and he appears to have fetish issues. Maybe his business experience is as a sex worker? Who knows.

In real life, running a successful gym is based on marketing, retention, operations, and accounting.
 
Hi guys,
I'm actually looking to make a living with MMA, and I'm young and healthy. Right now i think it is best for me to pursue an amateur fighting career to taste the water, and then to go pro if successful. My goal is to become a trainer but with having some fighting experience first and then to keep rolling until i die. Opening a gym will be fine too. What is your advice to achieve this objective ?

I will be absent here for a moment, better moving my ass right now or living with regret later on. I will re-post later on. And if i can't be the new P4P, at least i can be the best sherdoger on the planet, that achievement may speak for itself.
It is a very bad idea to pursue MMA as a career. Fighters are fighters usually for two reasons:
1. They had no choice and it was a way to escape from hardships when they were younger
2. They love fighting
The first usually has no choice but to succeed e.g. Pacquiao. To them, fighting is their lifeline, and whether they make millions, or chump change, as long as they're fed and their family gets by, they will be fine with it. The second isn't in it for the money and is there because of a genuine desire to be the best, either the best in the world or the best version of himself.

You don't get to choose which one you are - given that you are lucky enough to be able to access the internet and ask questions on forums, I would gather you're the second. You have to face the reality, that fighting isn't something one does as a career. I too train with the desire to compete, and get to the top, and open a gym in the future. However, money doesn't even factor in my decision to do this. I just love doing it, and have always loved to outwork others in the gym since I began.

There are only two reasons for you to be fighting - passion or survival. Money is a fickle reason, and if that is your sole reason, you won't survive. The average salary for a boxing coach in the UK is £20,000 yearly. I am fine with that, and others who wish to fight or train others are too. Are you?
 
Hi guys,
I'm actually looking to make a living with MMA, and I'm young and healthy. Right now i think it is best for me to pursue an amateur fighting career to taste the water, and then to go pro if successful. My goal is to become a trainer but with having some fighting experience first and then to keep rolling until i die. Opening a gym will be fine too. What is your advice to achieve this objective ?

I will be absent here for a moment, better moving my ass right now or living with regret later on. I will re-post later on. And if i can't be the new P4P, at least i can be the best sherdoger on the planet, that achievement may speak for itself.

First piece of advice, DO NOT LISTEN TO THE CLOWNS TELLING YOU IT ISN’T POSSIBLE. It absolutely is, and there are successful fighters out there that make a living who have been in your shoes. Randy Couture started in his 30s and we all know how successful he was. In boxing Bernard Hopkins got started boxing in fucking prison of all places and was highly successful. Gabriel Rosado started late and was told repeatedly by trainers that he was too old until his current trainer gave him a chance.

May I also point out that in the cases of Couture and Hopkins, there starting late in the game actually helped them stick around competing at a high level when most people were beat to shit and burnt out on fighting. Think of it this way, starting late means you don’t have the years of wear and tear on your body that fighters who started in youth have. Listen to Couture or Hopkins talk. They don’t sound punch drunk like someone like James Toney does.

You will absolutely have to have another job while you train so you can make ends meet. Try to do something that isn’t physically taxing, so that you aren’t putting unessary stress on you body. Example, delivery driving or being an equipment operator where you can sit all day and the work is relatively mindless so you can dream about fighting and get yourself in mental preparation. Also, these jobs pay more than the typical “low skill” jobs out there. Things like Uber/Lyft/Uber eats etc are really good because you can set your own hours and can manage schedule your training easier than if you have a job with a set schedule. Again, Uber and all these jobs pay very good for what they are, especially now. If you wanted to you could even pull doubles for like 3 days a week and spend the rest of the week training and still come away with good money.

There are tons of great jobs that you can have in combat sports. It doesn’t just need to be a fighter, so even if that does fall through guess what? You could become a cutman and make exceptional money. Seriously, look at what cut men make. You would be surprised. Very good salary and you can have a great lifestyle if you make to Stitch Duran’s level. Hell, being a referee is a route that pays big money. Google what people like Herb Deen make. They easily can break half a million per year. You coul create a podcast and like you said, coach. Or you could do multiple things. The Yamasaki’s are referees and they own gyms for example. Do not listen to the doubters. If you need more encouragement and not negativity feel free to PM me.
 
First piece of advice, DO NOT LISTEN TO THE CLOWNS TELLING YOU IT ISN’T POSSIBLE. It absolutely is, and there are successful fighters out there that make a living who have been in your shoes. Randy Couture started in his 30s and we all know how successful he was. In boxing Bernard Hopkins got started boxing in fucking prison of all places and was highly successful. Gabriel Rosado started late and was told repeatedly by trainers that he was too old until his current trainer gave him a chance.

May I also point out that in the cases of Couture and Hopkins, there starting late in the game actually helped them stick around competing at a high level when most people were beat to shit and burnt out on fighting. Think of it this way, starting late means you don’t have the years of wear and tear on your body that fighters who started in youth have. Listen to Couture or Hopkins talk. They don’t sound punch drunk like someone like James Toney does.
.

Its an optimistic way of looking at it and some people who are the exception will pull it off-particularly in the heavier weight classes where the divisions are more shallow than the light divisions. I will say this however-everyone who was successful at a late start age started late in life because they already had an established and storied career in another combat sport, which made them elite in one element of MMA
 
Yup, people forget that there sister doing ballet for a few years is not the same as being an actual professional ballet dancer on stage in terms of conditioning or athletic abillity

I highly doubt some fker in tight pants and a lifetime choosing ballet could be an effective fighter or even hit the bag right.

Mentality and mindset are the first thing that make a potential athlete choose his sport. Not his speed / balance / conditioning.
Otherwise every NFL / NBA reject would be making millions in the ring.
 
Only the elite make real money, as for opening a gym that’s a tough gig financially.
 
It's super hard.
I've been "family" to the CM System camp since 2010.
From all the guys that trained here since 2010 only a few went to the UFC or other big orgs

- Cristiano Marcello (retired)
- Felipe Silva (retired, teaches in the USA now)
- Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos
- Junior Albini (left to train with Ocimar Santos)
- Gabriel Miranda (left to train with MMA Masters in the USA)
- Matheus Scheffel fighting in the PFL finale
- Walter Pereira fighting in ACA
- Ariel Machado fighting in GLORY (left to open his own gym, CWB fight club)
- Bruno Carvalo fought once in Bellator and lost (left for Nova Uniao and now retired)
- Vitor Petrinho fighting in contenders tomorrow.

That's ten guys over a timespan of 12 years. We probably seen between 500 to 1000 fighters since then.
Most these guys didn't even have a good run besides Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos and Ariel Machado.
Cristiano and Ariel made smart business decisions.

Talent isn't just gonna cut it. You need to be focused, away from the distractions. You also need to spend your fight money wisely, and not every athlete is an accountant. Many dudes blow half their purse on dumb shit. And you have to be lucky not to get injured all the time.
 
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The problem is guys like TS have this starry eyed idea of being a pro and making hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars as a pro fighter, then starting a gym. But people usually only have this idea before they've trained. Once they start training the reality of it hits - Fighting hurts and is a lot harder than it looks on TV.
I competed in boxing and Muay Thai from the age of 12 until I was 28. But I was taught boxing from the age of 6. I realised at the age of 18. Being a pro and making millions was more who you knew not how good you were. so I never bothered pursuing it.
If you're good enough the right people will find you. That's a fact. So while it is true that one needs to have connections in order to make big money in any combat sport. It is also true that if someone is good enough the "right" people will find them. Any potential world beaters out there always eventually get discovered.
 
A lot of the problem is an actual base that is considered 'MMA' in todays vernacular is incredibly rare.

Fuck, Ballet is probably a better base for MMA than BJJ or wrestling.
 
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