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.

 

UFC pays the least percentage of profits of any sports organization in the world - not just in combat sports, but in any sport. Boxing on the other hand returns a higher percentage of profits back to the athletes than any sport. Boxing doesn't neccessarily generate more money than MMA as a sport, but the amount of money returned to the fighters is vastly different between the two sports. That's something you'll never hear spoken of in the media. They will go on and on about 'too many belts' and 'ducking fights' in boxing, as if these things matter more than the UFC ripping off their athletes at astronomical levels.

 

To the consumer? yes it absolutely does. If anything its weird that fans preoccupy themselves with fighter pay so much when the priorities of a fighter (make as much money as possible while mitigating risks and taking as little damage as possible, protecting their record and image as much and as long as possible) often directly opposes what fans want.

The Ngannou situation is a perfect example of this. The PFL rolled out the red carpet and paid him boxing money only to get one fight out of him in 2 years that generated very little interest. It hasnt made them as a promotion any more of a player now than they were before they signed him. The money they paid him hasnt done anything to increase his entertainment value, drawing power or activity level. Now he doesnt even turn up for the PFL Africa events that they made him chairman of as part of his original contract lol.

 

PFL also started an African venture because its something Ngannou asked for. They set up shop in Africa for him, giving the local fighters a chance to shine and move their careers to new heights.

The two events they held? Ngannou didn't bother showing up for either. (he will show up for boxing matches in Dubai tho)

 

It was better in the beginning. It doesn't stay that way. Once people trust the UFC brand theres no quality controls there. They only have to spend to get all the talent at the start when fight fans have an independent understanding of who the best are. If fans consider Fedor the best Fedor not signing with the UFC doesn't change that. Later on this changes and the UFC brand becomes a stamp of credibility. They have their own belt they have their own ranking and they can literally control who you care about. The overall cards are still better then boxing but not by very much. People still are watching UFC PPVs for the main event and maybe the co main event. Same as boxing. Its just in MMA the fighters work for the company and are tools to get a few pennys on the dollar for the fat balding shareholders.

Successful business model usually means bad for society. But I do not think Disney was happy with the UFCs performance. The UFC did not do great financially over the course of the Disney deal, Disney was basically subsidizing a massive decline in PPV buyrates. The UFC got the money in their pocket because it was in the contract but it wasn't because they performed well quite the opposite. Dana White used to publically shame PPV underperformers. Hes stopped doing that. And the reason isn't because hes learned human decency its because almost everyones an underperformer now. In 2019 ESPN was the UFCs desired partner. Paramount was not their desired streaming partner. Paramount+ is losing money. Theres a chance Paramount+ and Paramount does not survive the length of the contract.

The PFL does not have a roster of fighters for Ngannou to fight. There aren't many good MMA HWs and even the UFC has historically struggled to get fights out of their HW champs because you need 2 to tango and they just don't have the people. One of Ngannous main complaints with the UFC was they didn't have enough fights for him. That was going to happen anywhere but the UFC wasn't letting him box while the PFL is letting him box.