Mike Tyson, boxing’s most enigmatic figure, let rip with a few expletives in his quest for MMA fighters to earn more money akin to the millionaire status afforded some of the sweet science’s elite pugilists.
Tyson made his points to the MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani (h/t Usatoday.com):
Nothing personal to nobody, they gotta be (expletive) millionaires. They gotta get the (expletive) money they deserve. How is (MMA) going to be bigger than boxing if they don’t have cash? These guys need to be multi-multimillionaires. They need to have their big (expletive) mansions, their big cars and if not, they should be able to take care of their family. They should be able to live without fighting no more.
It’s been well-documented that most professional combatants are paid a pittance in comparison to their pugilistic contemporaries, especially those on the undercards.
However, depending on pay-per-view sales, main attraction fighters like Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre are more or less guaranteed several of millions.
That said, for UFC 129, St-Pierre’s overall salary amounted to $2.5 million.
Nevertheless, that still pales into significance to what two of boxing’s pound-for-pound kingpins Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao accrue for a night’s work.
In his last outing against Miguel Cotto, the recently incarcerated Mayweather took home in excess of $30 million dollars.
Conversely, Pacquiao was handed a handsome cheque of $26 million following the recent loss of his WBO welterweight title to Timothy Bradley, who himself wasn’t left out of pocket as he amassed a career-high $5 million.
Now contrast that with the payouts for UFC 126 (PPV non-inclusive) below:
Anderson Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus)
Vitor Belfort: $275,000
Forrest Griffin: $275,000 ($125,000 to show, $150,000 to win)
Rich Franklin: $75,000
Jon Jones: $140,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 to win)
Ryan Bader: $20,000
Jake Ellenberger: $32,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 to win)
Carlos Eduardo Rocha: $8,000
The former undisputed heavyweight champion, who squandered the millions he earned during his boxing career, is an enthusiastic supporter of MMA, and if going by his recent advocacy for better pay, it must be said, has the sport’s best interests at heart.
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