Urijah Faber Shows Other Fighters How Speak About Fighter Pay Without Looking Stupid

Urijah Faber spoke with MMAWeekly recently:

"What we have is a company that's growing right now; they're kind of putting that on the shoulders of some of the people. I feel like we should be looked at as investments," he commented. "If they're not making money right now, they're spending money on a lot of other stuff to help build their business and the fighters are part of that.

"I'd like a little bit more attention, money put into the WEC brand. It doesn't grow overnight, but they really should be making a big push. We've got a lot of guys that are extremely marketable. We've got the most exciting fights in the world for sure.

"I feel like I'm making a pretty good name for myself and I'd like to be compensated for this. I don't feel like being someone that is gonna build up something and not reap the rewards, but in all honesty, they do have the fighters interests in mind."

It seems as if Urijah Faber is trying to give subtle hints that he and others (Miguel Torres) in the WEC would like a pay increase and rightfully so.  Granted, these guys are nowhere near as popular as say Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell.  They should still be making more than a base salary of like $30,000.  I think this is the right approach with Zuffa.  He's putting the word out there that he'd like to get paid more, but is still respectful of the fact that Zuffa kind of made him the poster boy of the WEC during his title reign.

Either Faber has a good manager or a lot of common sense (or both), because he could have just used the Roger Huerta method and then get put on the bench for months with no fights.