Red Panty Fail: No PPV Money For Cerrone

Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images

Everyone assumed Donald Cerrone’s fight with Conor McGregor would result in a life changing payday. That may not be the case.

The red panty night.

It’s been a running joke since Conor McGregor brought it up in a press conference during the leadup to his eventually cancelled lightweight title bout against Rafael Dos Anjos.

“I can make you rich,” McGregor said back in 2015. “I change your bum life. You fight, it’s a celebration! When you sign to fight me, it’s a celebration! You ring back home, you ring your wife. ‘Baby, we’ve done it. We’re rich, baby. Conor McGregor made us rich, break out the red panties. We’re rich, baby.’”

Alas, there may be an important caveat to that: you have to hold a UFC belt to apply.

In the comments of an Instagram post, McGregor’s latest opponent Donald Cerrone revealed that he didn’t get a massive slice of pay-per-view goodness for being the B-side of one of the biggest fights in UFC history (hat tip to /R/MMA).

Now consider how much money the UFC made for themselves and their business partners ESPN…

And then consider how long “Cowboy” Cerrone has been a loyal soldier to the UFC, accepting fights to fill out cards whenever the UFC called. Even when it was clearly not in his best interests. Again and again. For years. Yet the UFC has always been pretty adamant that only champions and a tiny exceptional select few get PPV points. Somehow Cerrone didn’t make that cut, not even for a tiny slice.

Donald Cerrone’s reported paycheck for UFC 246 as per the official Nevada State Athletic Commission documents: $200,000 plus a $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus.

Did he make a lot more than that in various hidden payments? Possibly. The UFC keeps that kind of thing purposefully opaque. At this point everyone assumes there’s big money being handed out behind the scenes. We certainly hope that’s the case this time (even if we’ve heard that was more of a Fertitta era thing). If Cerrone didn’t clear more than a million dollars off that fight, he got seriously ripped off.