One of the early shifts in mixed martial arts came when dominant American wrestlers entered the game, nullifying strikers and often being able to smother jiu jitsu specialists with their size, strength and dominant top games. Former interim Bellator welterweight champion and current PFL contender Logan Storley believes MMA’s future will see far fewer wrestlers make the transition to the sport thanks to name, image and likeness (NIL) deals at the collegiate level.
The ability of college athletes to make significant money through NIL deals has caused a massive shift in how sports operate at the university level. While splashy deals around “revenue sports” such as basketball and football, oft-overlooked sports have seen an influx of cash for athletes.
Take, for example, NiJaree Canady, the softball player who transferred to Texas Tech and signed a $1 million NIL deal (she just signed a second such deal for next season). Texas Tech made the investment into their program and it paid off with a run to the finals of the Women’s College World Series.
With programs expanding their push for championships to “non-revenue sports” through NILs for elite athletes, Storley — himself a four-time NCAA Division I All-American for the Minnesota Golden Gophers — thinks college careers could be enough for wrestlers to avoid moving to a high-risk career in MMA.
“Right now we’re in a weird time with MMA with NIL money coming in and we’re not seeing as many wrestlers come over,” Storley told MMA Fighting. “NIL has changed a lot. Guys are getting paid a lot of money. So we haven’t seen a ton of wrestlers come over. … Some of these guys are making a million, $1.5 million-with your top recruits, do you come fight after that?”
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MMA has never been a guaranteed path to financial security, even if you prove to be a very good fighter, and that has not changed in the current landscape.
Building yourself up on the regional scene to get experience means small purses while also paying to train, and the better the training, the higher the cost.
With the UFC as the end goal for most fighters, with the most prestige and the highest potential pay, most fighters now come into the UFC through competing on Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS). Impress enough on DWCS and you’ll be offered a UFC contract which pays $10,000 to fight, with a $10,000 win bonus. Assuming three fights per year, all victories, that’s $60,000 annually. And that’s before taxes, fees paid to managers and coaches, specialized diets, basic training costs and gear. Oh and then whatever is left you get to live off of.
Two-time former GLORY light heavyweight kickboxing champion Artem Vakhitov split a pair of kickboxing fights with former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and earned a contract on DWCS with the hopes of meeting Pereira in a big-money UFC clash in the near future.
Vakhitov then walked away from the UFC contract when UFC officials were not willing to budge on their entry-level contracts, even for a fighter with a built in rivalry with one of their biggest fighters that could be used to sell tickets and pay-per-views.
Secondary promotions have also continued to fall under the UFC’s dominance. Pride, EliteXC, Strikeforce, Bellator, and so on, have all folded over the years, with just PFL and ONE standing as potentially valid places for a top athlete to ply their trade outside of the UFC’s Octagon. And PFL purchased Bellator before not using many of the top athletes that came with the deal, releasing many of them with one, or even zero, PFL fights.
“I think the landscape of MMA has changed,” Storley, who fights in the 2025 PFL welterweight tournament semifinals on Thursday, said. “With Contender Series and less guys on the roster with PFL, Bellator’s gone, it’s changed a little bit. Wrestling has some money, and there’s no security in your early career in MMA. That’s just the truth of it. The first few years are very, very tough, and I think with guys making money over there and going into coaching and coaching roles, you have a little more security.”
