It was widely reported on Sunday that the UFC’s anointed women’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, could make up to $150,000 for her fight against Liz Carmouche in February—an unprecedented sum for someone fighting for the first time for the promotion.
On Monday, an authority no less than UFC president Dana White went on the Underground forum to dismiss the rumour.
MMAinterviews quoted an unnamed source close to the Carmouche camp who said Rousey would earn $75,000 to show and $75,000 to win, plus a cut of pay-per-view, for her UFC 156 title defence. Carmouche’s pay, by contrast, would be a meagre $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win.
White had one sentence for MMAinterviews.
“[M]ma interviews whoever the hell they are is full of s***,” he posted under his username, dfw jr, on Underground.
A paycheck of $150,000, or more, is nothing compared to what most UFC champions make. Junior dos Santos, for example, made $400,000 for his heavyweight title defence against Cain Velasquez, who made $200,000 at UFC 155 last month himself. Similarly, welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, on his return to the Octagon at UFC 154 in November, is said to have made $470,000 to beat Carlos Condit, who only made $125,000—including the Fight of the Night bonus.
However, despite being a UFC champion, Rousey’s purported pay of $75,000 to show and $75,000 to win is unheard-of for someone making her debut in the Octagon.
This would be especially true for Rousey considering she never had to beat anyone to become champion but was given the belt based on her dominant performances in Strikeforce.
Jose Aldo is another UFC champion who was given the belt on signing with the promotion. In his first title defence against Mark Hominick at UFC 129, which also happened to be his promotion debut, he was given just $24,000 to show and $24,000 to win.
But, with the Fight of the Night bonus on top of that, Aldo did end up walking away with a cool $177,000. Which means, depending on the kind of fight Carmouche puts up, Rousey’s pay could still top $150,000.
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