It’s fight week, and that means Conor McGregor boasts about his latest monster payday. McGregor will make his awaited MMA return against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of this weekend’s October 6, 2018) UFC 229 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. When he does, he’s claiming a record-setting payday for the […]
It’s fight week, and that means Conor McGregor boasts about his latest monster payday.
McGregor will make his awaited MMA return against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of this weekend’s October 6, 2018) UFC 229 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
When he does, he’s claiming a record-setting payday for the sport of mixed martial arts. McGregor revealed on this week’s episode of “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” that his purse would set a record for the most ever made in MMA. He said the deal wasn’t quite on par with his haul to box Floyd Mayweather, but it was getting here:
“The deal I’m on now, it’s breathtaking what we have achieved,. It’s a tasty, tasty, record-breaking deal. It’s give or take [nine figures]. The Mayweather [fight] was nine figures but we’re almost there. It’s a good, solid eight figures, halfway there. We’re very happy with the deal.”
The Irish crossover star made a disclosed $30 million to box Mayweather in August 2017. He lost the bout by 10th-round TKO but made himself MMA’s richest fighter as a result. McGregor is rumored to have ultimately earned between $85-100 million when all pay-per-view figures were taken into account.
It’s come at a price to his MMA domination, however. McGregor will have been out of action for almost two years when he steps into the Octagon to face Khabib this weekend. He’ll also be facing arguably his toughest test in the undefeated “Eagle.”
All that means McGregor will most certainly bank his biggest MMA payday of all-time, yet it could come for his biggest beating as well.
Will he buck the odds like he has so many times before?
Three-and-a-half years ago, in the early fall of 2011, the present-day reality of the UFC’s light heavyweight title picture would have seemed outlandish, ridiculous and utterly impossible. “Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson will never fight Jon ‘Bones’ Jones,” you would have said. Bones was coming off a fourth-round destruction of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in his first title defense; […]
Three-and-a-half years ago, in the early fall of 2011, the present-day reality of the UFC’s light heavyweight title picture would have seemed outlandish, ridiculous and utterly impossible. “Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson will never fight Jon ‘Bones’ Jones,” you would have said. Bones was coming off a fourth-round destruction of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in his first title defense; […]
Chad Mendes proved Saturday that he is far and away the second-best featherweight in the world. Unfortunately for him, Jose Aldo still proved that he’s the best. Despite a visibly better performance against the champion in his second shot at the UFC title, Mendes ultimately came up empty yet again. UFC on Fox tweeted out […]
Chad Mendes proved Saturday that he is far and away the second-best featherweight in the world. Unfortunately for him, Jose Aldo still proved that he’s the best. Despite a visibly better performance against the champion in his second shot at the UFC title, Mendes ultimately came up empty yet again. UFC on Fox tweeted out […]
After almost every UFC event, the UFC will hold a post-fight press conference. One of the first things mentioned at these get-togethers are the winners of the Fight Night Bonuses. These $50,000 pay-bumps are (usually) handed out to four fighters per event: Two combatants take home Performance of the Night awards, and the individuals that were deemed to have the best fight on the card take home Fight of the Night.
Performance bonuses are a nice little perk that the UFC hands out. However, much like that fuzzy block of cheese in the back of the refrigerator, they may have reached their expiration date.
On a recent edition of the Co-Main Event Podcast, host Chad Dundas suggested that the UFC do away with Fight Night bonuses, and instead use those funds to provide a monthly stipend to every fighter on the UFC roster. Not only is this a good idea, it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right time for the UFC to do it.
The last time a proposal such as this was floated, it was UFC president Dana White that offered up the suggestion. Ignoring the fact that the majority of the 500 plus fighters on the UFC roster are underpaid as professional athletes, White puffed out his chest, and focused on “the lower level guys,” telling the Las Vegas Sun, “(Expletive) yeah, it could happen (doing away with Fight Night bonuses). That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the (expletive) lower-level guys think they need their money boosted. Everyone thinks it’s not enough money, so that’s easy to do.”
It was not surprising that many UFC fighters balked at the idea as presented by the bombastic UFC chieftain, and White gladly returned to the status quo.
It was a predictable outcome because it pitted UFC newcomers against long tenured and established fighters. White used a basic dirty management style when he floated the idea, pitting the two factions against each other. Since the UFC veterans outnumber the promotional newbies it was a foregone conclusion that the idea would fail to gain traction.
(Would veteran bonus-grabbers like Joe Lauzon [right] give up their extra cash to help the little guy? / Photo via Getty)
After almost every UFC event, the UFC will hold a post-fight press conference. One of the first things mentioned at these get-togethers are the winners of the Fight Night Bonuses. These $50,000 pay-bumps are (usually) handed out to four fighters per event: Two combatants take home Performance of the Night awards, and the individuals that were deemed to have the best fight on the card take home Fight of the Night.
Performance bonuses are a nice little perk that the UFC hands out. However, much like that fuzzy block of cheese in the back of the refrigerator, they may have reached their expiration date.
On a recent edition of the Co-Main Event Podcast, host Chad Dundas suggested that the UFC do away with Fight Night bonuses, and instead use those funds to provide a monthly stipend to every fighter on the UFC roster. Not only is this a good idea, it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right time for the UFC to do it.
The last time a proposal such as this was floated, it was UFC president Dana White that offered up the suggestion. Ignoring the fact that the majority of the 500 plus fighters on the UFC roster are underpaid as professional athletes, White puffed out his chest, and focused on “the lower level guys,” telling the Las Vegas Sun, “(Expletive) yeah, it could happen (doing away with Fight Night bonuses). That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the (expletive) lower-level guys think they need their money boosted. Everyone thinks it’s not enough money, so that’s easy to do.”
It was not surprising that many UFC fighters balked at the idea as presented by the bombastic UFC chieftain, and White gladly returned to the status quo.
It was a predictable outcome because it pitted UFC newcomers against long tenured and established fighters. White used a basic dirty management style when he floated the idea, pitting the two factions against each other. Since the UFC veterans outnumber the promotional newbies it was a foregone conclusion that the idea would fail to gain traction.
Dundas’s idea, unlike White’s, shares the wealth across the entire roster, a much easier sell.
Doing the math on the 47 fight cards the UFC scheduled for 2014, the Fight Night bonus budget is a healthy $9.4 million. If you divide that equally across the approximately 500 fighters on the UFC roster, that equals almost $19,000 per fighter over the course of a year. The salary is the equivalent of a $9 an hour full-time job. Not great, but it’s better than nothing, and it would be guaranteed income as long as the fighter remained an active part of the UFC roster.
If you make that a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly paycheck, it becomes even more attractive for the fighters. That stipend would help cover some of the expenses a full time professional mixed martial artist incurs.
If you think those expenses are insubstantial, I point you to the comments of John Cholish and Tim Kennedy, who both broke down the huge costs associated with being a professional fighter. For Cholish, a fight night purse of $8,000 amounted to an estimated loss of $6,000 for the fight he broke down. Meanwhile, Kennedy revealed that approximately 59 percent of his pre-tax fight earnings are earmarked for somewhere other than his bank account. A monthly stipend, generated by the Fight Night bonuses that benefit a lucky and arbitrarily chosen few, would clearly benefit each and every fighter on the UFC roster.
As an added bonus of this stipend, fighters would not be forced to accept the crumbs offered by some sponsors. In fact, if fighters weren’t so desperate for any amount of sponsorship money they could be pickier about the sponsors they represent, and the cost of sponsorship may actually rise over time.
The much discussed, but never publically disclosed locker room bonuses would remain in effect in this scenario. Well, that is to say it would remain in effect barring any vindictive moves from the UFC.
There’s no doubt that some fighters will still balk at this idea; Joe Lauzon and Donald Cerrone immediately come to mind. However, the fact is that sometimes the individual has to take a small hit to serve the greater good. It may be a tough pill to swallow for some, but it’s a pill that will serve the sport and those who are trying to make living inside the Octagon in the present, as well as the future.
WBA (Super), WBC and The Ring welterweight and WBC light middleweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather says, in no uncertain language, that he will be entering the MMA aspect of the fight game in the very near future. In an interview with Fight Hype, “Money” explained that Mayweather Promotions is looking to sign MMA fighters, and he is […]
WBA (Super), WBC and The Ring welterweight and WBC light middleweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather says, in no uncertain language, that he will be entering the MMA aspect of the fight game in the very near future. In an interview with Fight Hype, “Money” explained that Mayweather Promotions is looking to sign MMA fighters, and he is […]
Yoel Romero spent much of the last 18 months establishing himself as the UFC middleweight division’s most wonderfully weird newcomer. Romero is the hulking Olympic wrestling silver medalist who prefers flying knees and standing elbows to double-leg takedowns (though he’s got those, too). At 37 years old, his physique looks carved out of granite, and […]
Yoel Romero spent much of the last 18 months establishing himself as the UFC middleweight division’s most wonderfully weird newcomer. Romero is the hulking Olympic wrestling silver medalist who prefers flying knees and standing elbows to double-leg takedowns (though he’s got those, too). At 37 years old, his physique looks carved out of granite, and […]
