It's very difficult to explain this to people. Most boxers make shit money too, even many world champions never made any serious money because the fighting game is not just a sport, a lot of it is about promotion, hype etc. Other sports are structured and there are leagues and tournaments where you have very specific rules on how to become a champion. In boxing and MMA it's many times about promotion and what sells best, and it's really impossible to make it structured cause you can't fight many times in a year, and someone will always pull out cause of some reason and then you need replacements or to postpone the fight, which again makes it confusing. In other sports you have so many matches/games/whatever a year that it really doesn't matter. Also, most sports are financed to a degree by the city or by the country all over the world, you have various youth programs and so on. Ideally, the state finances amateur and youth leagues while professional teams or individuals need to be on the market and promote themselves.
Sports and sports entertainment are completely different things, it is what it is. The fight business is not just about how good you are, you gotta have some luck and well you have to know how to promote yourself or have someone else do it well.
