First time I met Curtis Demarce he was a rough and tough 14 year old hockey player here in Brandon. And now a decade later Curtis is living and training in San Jose California in an attempt to be the next big household name in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
Blood sweat and money makes MMA exist and training three times a day currently for Curtis is now not only a passion, but perhaps a way to become a contender in UFC.
Hard to explain really where Curtis is at in his career. In hockey of course you have the NHL then AHL, then ECHL, and SPHL. Same in baseball where you have AAA, and AA and A level ball. For Demarce he states it is all about opportunities to fight in different organizations and it boils down to the relationship the promoter and the fighter have. He says lots of young guys won’t sign with UFC today because you are working for basically minimum wage.
Now here is the money breakdown:
20% to management
20% to taxes
10% to the gym and trainer
Adding in diet, food, medical expenses, plus one on one training maybe leaves the fighter only 10 – 20% of the prize payout.
More interesting facts that McGregor made $15,000,000 from his last UFC fight and WWE / UFC star Brock Lesnar made 2.5 million whereas UFC legend Anderson Silva made $500,000.
Dana White and the UFC and other big promotion companies know that minimum wage fighters are always hungry to be part of the business.
One interesting item that Demarce mentioned is that a MMAFA union is being created and operated by Randy Couture and Shamrock, two legends in UFC ,to help promote MMA fairly and that all fighters get paid a fair amount.
As it stand Curtis says his body has taken a beating for the last 6 years and he feels it is time to go where the money is at. And that place could be in Poland – Russia or Asia where they get crowds of 70 – 80,000 people.
The current goal for “The Demon” as he is known in MMA circles is to be in the top 5 or 6 in his weight class. Right now Curtis feels he is in the top 5 percent in Canada for his weight. He also says that he feels Brandon has lots of talent in many sports but you have to leave the small town mentality behind and reach your goals by making huge sacrifices.
One important thing is sponsors and he says without them it is almost impossible to survive due to the breakdown of payouts from fights. He said that anyone who might be interested to reach out to him on his Facebook page.
