In June, UFC champion Ronda Rousey will appear in the film adaption of Entourage. It is one of Rousey’s many mainstream incursions, which also recently included a place on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Her bosses at UFC, as you might guess, are overjoyed by the attention. Ronda Rousey’s profile only improves their business (and she is estimated to make $3m a year in sponsorship alone). After closing a $100m-a-year deal with Fox Sports and an agreement with Reebok to uniform fighters, the UFC is with Rousey’s help poised to vault mixed martial arts into the public eye as never before.

I have observed the latest news with mixed emotions. As a former fan of MMA, I cannot help but admire the skill and dedication of the athletes. However, real labor protection for athletes is long overdue.

Watching in a bar or a big screen at home, you would think the slick production and pro wrestling-style swag would mean big money for an athlete who chooses MMA. The dollars seem great on the face of it. When you look at the base salaries in other professional sports and the risks, it’s hard to see an upside.

Consider an April card, where Dustin Poirier, an experienced, high-profile competitor, earned $68,000, which included a $34,000 win bonus. In a good year, a fighter gets three or four fights. Assuming this is an average salary, if Poirier stayed injury-free (during which time there’s no pay) and won all his fights, with maybe a bump or two, he could take home $300,000 for four victories.

This seems like a decent amount, until you consider other sports. Forbes reported that in the 2013-14 season the average NFL salary was $2m, MLB $3.82m and NBA $4.9m (admittedly these leagues create larger revenues but the discrepancy shows most MMA fighters are far from millionaires). More importantly, Poirier is classified as an independent contractor with a tax burden that is far different than an employee. Should he get injured, lose or not get a bonus, the annual compensation dips significantly. Less experienced athletes often make much less, even in a good year.

What’s more, minimum money is at the discretion of a promoter. Fighter salaries are a festering problem. Bleacher Report examined one contract, a more lucrative one than Poirier’s in fact, where a labor law professor concluded basic standards are non-existent. In a competition where serious injury is nearly inevitable, such baselines are necessary.

Fresh disputes over sponsorships, where the promotion requires athletes to wear uniforms from the UFC’s business partner while depriving themselves of valuable self-directed sponsor money, have spilled out on to social media. A series of class-action lawsuits by fighters and former stars have alleged unfair labor practices and monopolistic behavior by the UFC, which does not favor workers or fans.

The UFC staunchly defends its compensation. Underlying that defense is a tone that sneers at organized athletes. That should come as no surprise. The UFC is co-owned by notoriously anti-union casino bosses Lorenzo and Frank Fertita. Yet in a world where every athlete from tennis players to a baseball pitchers have basic labor rights, the free-for-all MMA industry is practically prehistoric. Fighters have no promise of support after their careers are over, as most professional sportsmen do. Collective bargaining, consideration as employees, unions and basic rights as professionals simply are not there.

Many fans and promoters counter that an MMA career is a choice and, if athletes don’t like it, they don’t need to fight. That’s shortsighted. One’s willingness to compete in a brutal sport for shameful pay because enthusiasm, poverty or few other options compels you to do so is not the highest moment for athletic competition. It would seem that kind of retort, which relies on the caricatures of barroom brawlers and backyard fistfights, is precisely what a professional sport should argue against.

Journalists Ben Fowlkes and Chad Dundas asked how fans can support a sport where the incomes and futures of athletes is tenuous at best. My answer is simple: you can’t.

I stopped being an MMA fan when I could no longer reconcile the disparities and lack of minimum standards. My entertainment, knowing today’s fighters could end up like pioneer Mark Coleman who is crowdfunding his medical bills, is not worth it. More fans need to abandon the sport until labor protection is prioritized.

Legislation and labor action benefit the whole and improve a sport’s potential to grow – the overall quality of competition improves when the livelihood athletes can expect improves.

MMA is at a crucial juncture. Rousey’s rise and the UFC’s television and Reebok deals are increasing the sport’s mainstream access as never before. It’s up to fans to speak now on business practices that have troubling implications.