Canelo’s $150M payday vs Crawford is bigger than the ENTIRE UFC roster combined ($140M) in 2025

Max should have mentioned this multiple times on broadcast

 

“Dana White is the greatest combat sports promoter in my lifetime,”

“He built an institution.

“You know why boxing’s not as popular as it used to be anymore, right?”

“UFC is really popular. That’s because of Dana White. He built something like the NBA. He’s about to do it for boxing again, for boxing now.

“You want an NBA or an NFL in boxing? Here it comes. Because he knows how to build an institution. And how do you do that?”

 

That's because Dana is a tight ass and it's sad to see his fans defending it.

 

UFC is for poor people

 

I believe that is the greatest example of financial parity I can remember, I just hope that those UFC fighters are grateful.

 

Its actually really sad considering the popularity of the UFC and the comparatively short shelf life of its figters vs boxers. Shorter window to be at the top, shorter window to earn payday and just as much risk.

 

B-but I thought Boxing was dying bros?

 

We can talk about the ethical factor but the harsh reality of it is the UFC model is better for the consumer and just better as a successful business model. They're generating far more money while spending far less, which makes them more attractive to investors and partners. They can have deeper cards because the purses are lower. They've been having EA produced video games for a decade plus after EA dropped Fight Night because developers dont need to get separate licences for every fighter like with boxing. They build as much around their brand and overall cards as individual fighters, and put out cards on an almost weekly basis, which means interest in their product is more stable and consistent. And thats why even during a leaner period they're still having networks sign 7 year deals with them worth billions of dollars while ESPN isnt renewing Top Rank at $80m a year. Their product as a whole, while being much cheaper to produce, is better than boxing for the most part in terms of entertainment value, getting the relevant fights made in a timely fashion etc etc.

Boxing pay would not be sustainable with the UFCs model. Just look at the Ngannou situation, the PFL bent over backwards to bring him in. Now 2 years on from the deal they've gotten one fight out of him, which cost $10m+ in purses but generated virtually no money or attention. It hasnt done anything to make the PFL a player, hasnt increased their overall audience at all, and they probably wont even be in business a few years from now.

 

No one knows how much Canelo is making per fight. Most of the "sources" are some clickbait websites that seemingly make up these numbers, and people on social media run with it.

However, OP´s points is clearly still valid.