Mma Wages

Its not too disimiliar to Boxing, only difference is the top level guys only make about 1.5-2 million a fight as opposed to 8-20 million. The low end and mid level guys are about the same ranging from the hundreds to 30,000. While Mid-level make about 50,000-400,000.

 

Its very dissimilar to boxing. Those numbers are nonsense. Randy Couture, the biggest star in the sport at the time, was paid $250, 000 to fight Gabe Gonzaga.

 

He made far more than that for his fight with Gonzaga, remember he gets a big cut of PPV sales, and several secret bonuses the UFC gave him. I hope you understand the figure he gave in his press conference have been proven false. Randy made about 2.2 million in 2007 from the UFC.

 

Anderson Silva, arguably the biggest star in MMA right now, was paid $70,000 to fight Dan Henderson, widely seen as his biggest challenger and most dangerous threat. MMA fighters are criminally underpaid.

 

Ooow wow, fighters are occasionally given 'secret bonuses' if they keep their heads down, win knockout of the night and do as their told.


Those numbers you made up are complete garbage, the absolute top guys at the UFC (CHuck Liddell a year or so ago) Randy, Arlovski in his UFC prime are making -500,000. You're very uninformed if you think "mid-level" fighters are being paid "400,000".

 

Yeah that WAS bull****. Also Keith Jardine getting paid 14,000 for beating Chuck Liddell. But they probably do get hidden back door bonuses.
A guy like Silva though is probably worth 1 million a fight.

 

Okay, the 400,000 figure for mid level guys was probably too generous.
But its well known the UFC gives plenty of secret bonuses to competitors that impress. I don't know why the UFC does do that but they do.

 

Silva got paid 70,000 to beat Hendo (the biggest fight of his career). At the whim of Dana White and the UFC he may make some more if they deem fit. The UFC at that time claimed to have paid him an additional 60,000 in undisclosed "bonuses".



Chris Lyttle was paid 14,000USD to have his face re-arranged agaisnt Kos. Kos was probably paid something similar (himself having fought for 12,000USD on a UFC card). These are not low level guys - theyre at the threshold of the top of the foodchain of mma, in the biggest and best organization, and theyre not being paid (in Lyttle's case) enough to cover medical expenses. In fact, that is a big part of why a lot of MMA fighters have based themselves in Canada- the health insurance alone is a big chunk of a fighters salary.


This is really one of the main differences between boxing and MMA - a lot of fighters in this sport are fighting purely for the love of the game; its impossible to be a mercenary when only the few at the absolute pinnacle of the sport can command the sort of pay that would make one 'rich'. If youre not Randy Couture or Fedor, youre not in MMA for the money :deal

 

Guys like Keith Jardine are still making 15K per fight. It's a ****ing joke really. The biggest guys are making about 200K per fight at UFC.

 

Until I see teachers w/ better wages, I could give a **** about someone that earns 40k/year from fighting.

 

Bear in mind that these fighters get large sums of money due to sponsorships etc. It's not as if they are dirt poor.

Also a lot of those Ultimate Fighter alumni like Jardine etc. are on long term contracts that they got when they first got into the UFC hence the small purses for them. It seems fighters are better off getting into the UFC the hard way rather than The Ultimate Fighter.

 

also dont forget that 14 years ago no one was paid anyhting(out of the 8 ppl ifhgitng) except the winner who was paid 15k (i think thts the number)

 

Klitchsko got $12m for Thompson so that puts Coutures possible $1.5-2m in perspective.