UFC vs SOCCER(Football) - comparing salaries of the top athletes from every country

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Inspired by Dana's comment that UFC is bigger than the NFL and is neck and neck with soccer, also because of this thread where the discussion turned into a "surely MMA could beat soccer in this country" debate so I decided to draw up some stats

http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f2/showthread.php?t=2739849

Here is a list of the highest paid fighters in the UFC per country compared to the highest paid Soccer player of that same country. The finds are interesting...(and hilarious)

Note - Some of the fighters listed have only fought once in the last year so i tripled their show bonus as technically UFC have to pay you a minimum 3 times a year even if you only fought once or twice. GSP, Anderson and Jone's income also includes PPV bonuses based off of Couture's contract, everyone else is based on show, win and fight bonus money.

Does not include sponsorship money

Spoiler-ed as it is pretty long
USA
Clint Dempsey - $6.7m
Jon Jones - $4m

Brazil
Neymar - $20m
Anderson Silva - $7.7m

Canada
Georges St-Pierre - $7.4m
Atiba Hutchinson - $2m

UK
Wayne Rooney - $25.5m
Michael Bisping - $700k

Australia
Luke Wilkshire - $6m
Anthony Perosh - $134k

New Zealand
Winston Reid - $3.2m
Mark Hunt - $510k

Sweden
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - $20.6m
Alexander Gustafsson - $450k

Netherlands
Robin van Persie - $16.7m
Alistair Overeem - $570k

Mexico
Javier Hernandez - $6.5m
Erik Perez - $51k

Russia
Yuri Zhirkov - $5.5m
Khabib Nurmagomedov - $90k

Japan
Shinji Kagawa - $8.3m
Takeya Mizugaki - $120k

South Korea
Song Heung Min - $4.7m
Dong Hyun Kim - $246k

Iceland
Gylfi Sigurdsson - $4.7m
Gunnar Nelson - $48k

Czech Republic
Petr Cech - $8.8m
Viktor Pesta - hasn't fought yet, but is on 10/10k

Turkey
Nuri Sahin - $4.2m
Alptekin Ozkilic - $35k

Ireland
Robbie Keane - $4.5m
Conor McGregor - $104k

Nigeria
John Obi Mikel - $5.7m
Anthony Njokuani - $36k

Belgium
Eden Hazard - $14.9m
Tarec Saffiedine - $150k

Poland
Robert Lewandowski - $15.1m
Piotr Hallman - $80k

South Africa
Kagisho Dikgacoi - $1.1m
Ruan Potts - 36k

Singapore
Sharil Ishak - $280k
Royston Wee - $48k

The Philippines
Stephan Schrock - $800k
Mark Eddiva - $36k

Israel
Yossi Benayoun - $4.2m
Noad Lahat - $30k

German
Philip Lahm - $13.7m
Denis Siver - $149k

Iraq
Younis Mahmoud - $1.4m
Alan Omer - $36k

Finland
Teemu Pukki - $1.1m
Tom Niinimaki - $48k

Cuba
Hector Lombard - $300k
Osvaldo Alonso - $185k

Croatia
Luka Modric - $11.4m
Igor Pokraiac - $76k

Ukraine
Marko Devic - $3.2m
Nikita Krylov - $48k

Armenia
Henrikh Mkhitaryan - $4.8m
Gegard Mousasi - $220k

Bulgaria
Dimitar Berbatov - $6.5m
Stanislav Nedkov - $40k

Cyrpus
Constantinos Makrides - $900k
Costas Phillipou - $69k

France
Frank Ribery - $15.1m
Francis Carmont - $88k

Jamaica
Marlon King - $1.8m
Uriah Hall - $40k

Afganistan
Zohib Islam - $90k
Siyar Bahadurzada - $34k

Argentina
Lionel Messi - $27.4m
Santiago Ponzinibbio - $30k

Vietnam
Cung Le - $340k
Le Cong Vinh - $240k

Denmark
Daniel Agger - $7.8m
Martin Kampmann - $150k

Dominican Republic
Heinz Barmettler - $450k
Alex Garcia - $45k

Bahamas
Yves Edwards - $63k
No professional players

China
Zheng Zhi - $2m
Zhang Tiequan - $30k

Iran
Ashkan Dejagah - $3.4m
Beneil Dariush - $30k

Bosnia
Edin Dzeko - $11.6m
Mirsad Bektic - $30k

Venezuela
Juan Arango - $3.4m
Maximo Blanco - $38k

Haiti
Jeff Louis - $500k
Yves Jabouin - $55k

Guam
AJ De La Garza - $157k
Jon Reyes - $36k


I highlighted in red, the instances where a UFC fighter from a particular country was earning more than any given Soccer player.

And of those 4 it was GSP - one of Canada's most famous athletes in general, Hector Lombard (no professional local league in Cuba), Cung Le (movie star) and Yves Jabouin (due to Bahamas having not produced a single professional player - ever!)

So in general, UFC pays nowhere near as much as Soccer clubs do to their personnel in respects to individual talent vs the rest of the market largely because UFC is nothing but a dot compared to Soccer in wholesome terms.
 
So...you're saying Canada is the only country on the planet that has its priorities straight?

This requires readjustments and possibly a few phone calls to apologize.
 
This thread is seriously lacking in substance and facts. I will wait for OP to start making sense and then return to contribute to the discussion.
 
riitzni said:
So...you're saying Canada is the only country on the planet that has its priorities straight?

This requires readjustments and possibly a few phone calls to apologize.
Click to expand...

Ironically, Canada had professional MMA long before they had professional soccer. None of this discussion makes any sense lol but I want to see where this goes.
 
Barcelona may have paid more for Neymar than a year of salary for the whole ufc.
 
All this tells us is that those 4 countries produce shit football players haha.
 
Why is this even a discussion? Soccer>>>> Anything
 
So fighters should of learned to kick a ball if they wanted more money.
 
vanzella said:
Barcelona may have paid more for Neymar than a year of salary for the whole ufc.
Click to expand...

Barcelona paid more for Neymar than Spain produces in GDP.

(I obviously kid, but it's funny that a Spain is nearing bankruptcy and Neymar, Messi and Ronaldo make what they do)
 
You should probably compare either Rugby or Cricket... in terms of total population popularity, that would be about right.
 
I can't possibly be good for the MMA community to see the salaries of the biggest UFC draws first those of the highest paid members of the NFL, pro boxing, MLB, NBA or soccer. That shows just how far MMA has to go before it is as socially accepted as we want it to be.
 
Average NBA salary is like $5million/year
 
Shouldn't compare this to international soccer. Try comparing UFC salaries to the MLS.
 
Biggest sport in the world vs fringe sport struggling to crack the mainstream. Nothing to see here people.
 
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