The 20 Highest-Paid UFC Fighters of All Time...

[Fight Professor]

Damn. Mark Hunt made out like a bandit.

And yet he is acting like the most underpaid fighter.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

Looks like plenty of money to me

 

[pick999]

Honestly seeing this makes me understand jones hardballing the UFC as much as he does.

There is no way Khabib should have made more money than jones.

Conor skyrocketed khabibs stock.after that fight the whole world followed khabib

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

kind of underpins where people can make the most money, and this is just fighters pay, and not what promoters are earnings

@TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle thoughts on the pay disparity and how you, and i, dont know what promoters are earning, there is no doubt UFC is earning more than "Boxing", because boxing isnt a monopoly

Not sure what your point is? werent we discussing popularity as a spectator sport? not fighter pay, something that does not directly correlate with how many people are watching your product. A pretty obvious case of that is Canelo being paid $35 million for the Kovalev fight, only for his fight to be delayed so they could air the Nate/Jorge fight in the arena to his own fans first.

I will never understand the attempt to flex over how ridiculously overpaid boxers are relative to their drawing power. The UFC could put together 5 stacked cards for the same price that it took to make Fury/Usyk 2, and get a much bigger return. There is nothing positive (from a fan or business perspective) about a sport being full of overpaid divas who hold promoters to ransom.

Same applies to boxing not being a "monopoly", from a fan perspective how is the sport being fragmented across a bunch of different promotions with a bunch of different champions and no clear hierarchy of who is the best a GOOD thing? it makes it harder to follow for one. There is nothing wrong with there being a clear no1 proving ground in a sport a la the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, WWE etc. The only truly big sport that ISNT monopolized by one league is football (the soccer kind), but the difference is the Champions League brings the best from all of them together regularly anyway. The top teams dont just refuse to play each other for 5 years until someone can bribe them to finally do it.

Lets not act like there arent MMA promotions of significance outside of the UFC either. Oktagon did a crowd of 60,000 the same night Bivol/Beterbiev 1 happened, them and KSW hold the two biggest post-WW2 attendances for a combat sport in mainland Europe. Then theres Rizin, One, ACA, PFL etc.

 

[Brandino]

There is no way the UFC was paying its top stars "under the table" in the millions.

The IRS exists.

That is exactly why they pay under the table. The disclosed salaries are always significantly lower then the real salaries for the main stars.

I'm really sure the IRS visits the UFC in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and inspects the money transactions to ensure taxation is paid.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

That is exactly why they pay under the table. The disclosed salaries are always significantly lower then the real salaries for the main stars.

I'm really sure the IRS visits the UFC in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and inspects the money transactions to ensure taxation is paid.

Those fighters would never be able to deposit 'under the table money' into their bank account.

The reason we even know about disclose pay is because the athletic commission releases that information. Well they did, untill recently. Somebody got the athletic commissions to stop releasing pay all together.

The UFC isn't going to risk it at this stage because some Bozo fighter all these years later could have snitched on them out of retaliation

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

Honestly seeing this makes me understand jones hardballing the UFC as much as he does.

There is no way Khabib should have made more money than jones.

Well he fought Conor in the highest PPV buys for a UFC event.

I'm guessing he did a good deal to make a lot of money in that fight.

 

[djacobox372]

Highest paid fighter gets 1/3rd in his entire career what a boxing champ gets in one fight.

 

[cmw43]

Those fighters would never be able to deposit 'under the table money' into their bank account.

The reason we even know about disclose pay is because the athletic commission releases that information. Well they did, untill recently. Somebody got the athletic commissions to stop releasing pay all together.

The UFC isn't going to risk it at this stage because some Bozo fighter all these years later could have snitched on them out of retaliation

They don't get paid "under the table" but they get paid things like "bonuses" for signing a new contract or signing up to a fight and Bisping has said that his PPV share would come through as a cheque months later which is why it wouldn't need to come through the athletic commission but would be coming legally through UFC accounts.

I know Overeem got a huge signing bonus when he joined.

It also helps UFC with negotiations if fighters don't know exactly what each other are making although I'm sure and the managers talk.

 

[cmw43]

Highest paid fighter gets 1/3rd in his entire career what a boxing champ gets in one fight.

Supposedly Conor made something between $50m-$100m for the Floyd fight, don't think anyone knows for sure but considering it did over 4m buys I can believe it.

 

[HHJ]

JDS is doing something right

It's the list that's doing something wrong lmao

 

[HHJ]

And yet he is acting like the most underpaid fighter.

Dude fought like 100 professional fights. He should have way more

 

[blunttruth]

They are all way overpaid

 

[Ginja_Ninja]

Just for comparison here are the top 16 highest boxing payouts for 1 fight:

16. Anthony Joshua $25M vs Andy Ruiz
15. Jake Paul $30M vs Tommy Fury
14. Mike Tyson $30M vs Holyfield 2
13. Canello $35M vs Kovalev
12. Evander Holyfield $35M vs Tyson 2
11. Jake Paul $40M vs Tyson
10. Canello $45M vs GGG 3
9. Joshua $50M vs Ngannou
8. De la Hoya $52M vs Mayweather
7. Fury $60M vs Wilder 3
6. Mayweather $80M vs Canello
5. Fury $100M vs Usyk
4. McGregor $130M vs Mayweather
3. Pacman $150M vs Mayweather
2. Mayweather $250M vs Pacman
1. Mayweather $280M vs McGregor

So Mayweather in one fight on two occasions earned more than the entire top 20 UFC fighters ever.

Why just boxing...

How does it compare to kickboxing, karate, bbj, muay thai, sumo etc. ?

 

[tgv976]

Why just boxing...

How does it compare to kickboxing, karate, bbj, muay thai, sumo etc. ?

Sounds like a job for you, let us know

 

[Ginja_Ninja]

Sounds like a job for you, let us know

I'm just gonna take a guess and say significantly lower than both lol.

 

[tgv976]

I'm just gonna take a guess and say significantly lower than both lol.

Probably. But I bet if you calculated the % of money they take in compared to what they pay the fighters, it probably beats the UFC.

 

[Bubzeh]

Numbers don't seem trustworthy.

 

[Istryker]

LOL at mark hunt

 

[Ginja_Ninja]

Probably. But I bet if you calculated the % of money they take in compared to what they pay the fighters, it probably beats the UFC.

I would say you are right on that because operating costs most of these sports would not compare to a full time league like the UFC.

From what I see, in 30 years the UFC has built a entire league that is number 2 in combat sports fighter pay. Not bad