TOP 30 UFC Career Fighter Earnings

here's a "cribs" segment of Josh Koscheck, who apparently made slightly more than $1 million in his career. He sure stretched those dollars! Learn from boxing. Promoters often pamper their fighters and spoil them with gifts to keep them pinned down. First of all we don't know how much of that he actually owns or what he bought, secondly that show is produced by the UFC for the sake of showing off what the fighters make. It's not an impartial show and they can make you see what you want. The only impartial sources out there are those numbers either leaked or put out by the athletic commission. Other sources tend to get tainted by UFC what is essentially UFC propaganda. E.G UFC pres Dana White says GSP gets paid 50 million so it must be true. Why would he lie? When the UFC is able to keep their numbers under wraps they leak out big numbers, when the numbers are public they're not that big. E.G TV ratings are released but are quite small. The pay that is released is small but the UFC say their SECRET wages are higher. PPV buys aren't released but they say they're huge, yet we have heard from fighters claiming PPV numbers aren't as high as they let on. Dana White tells us Brazil TV ratings are watched by 90 million people, but when they are found out they're actually doing much much lower than that. Dana said they were one of the biggest sports in the US, that hundreds of millions watch the UFC. Then they start putting their biggest fights on FOX and the TV ratings are actually pretty lousy. Boxing and WWE actually have to release their numbers. The UFC keeps everything secret but tells everyone their huge. You can't ****ing do that. You wouldn't play cards with someone who won't show their hand.

Thanks for this, very informative breakdown. Can you provide a link to that study? http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/10/4/3451586/mma-analysis-fan-data-shows-bright-future-ufc-combat-sports A big key is the emergence in numbers of the Hispanic audience, where boxing is the second biggest sport next to soccer (Meltzer's opinion, they don't mention race in the study). Those numbers have increased over the past decade from 37.4 million to 50.7 million, and will continue to increase over the next decade. What makes that strange is that pro wrestling is twice as popular with the Hispanic audience in the U.S. than the white audience, so whatever growth boxing should have because of it should be mirrored by wrestling. It’s hard to say why that isn’t the case. Boxing hasn’t had that superstar Hispanic since Oscar De La Hoya, and wrestling really hasn’t had one in decades. Eddy Guerrero was close before his death and was the biggest since the heyday of Mil Mascaras (who was a superstar only regionally in the U.S.), but to really draw from that type of audience, the guy has to be No. 1, not No. 5 when it comes to being pushed as the serious top star of the brand. http://mmapayout.com/2010/11/the-ufc-fan-base/ from 2010 The size of the UFC fan base in the United States is estimated to be approximately 31 million people. You can see below how this compares to the size of the general fan base of the other major sports played in the US over the last three years. Note that the UFC was the only property to experience growth in its fan base of the last three years. UFC decline through 2011-2012 http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/7/11/2270785/the-ufc-post-peak-the-brock-bubble-has-burst What is going on? How does one explain what seems to be a nearly 25% drop in payperview sales in a year’s time?

here's a "cribs" segment of Josh Koscheck, who apparently made slightly more than $1 million in his career. He sure stretched those dollars!

WOW MMA/UFC number one PPV attraction only gets $400,000 for UFC 158 fight. If they were an MMA fan on here, they would come and say how he still will get paid $10,000,000 million through sponsorship and endorsements. Come on now. Georges St-Pierre: $400,000 ($200,000 to show, $200,000 win bonus) Nick Diaz: $200,000 Jake Ellenberger: $134,000 ($42,000 to show, $42,000 win bonus, $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus) Carlos Condit: $105,000 ($55,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Johny Hendricks: $102,000 ($26,000 to show, $26,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Nate Marquardt: $45,000 Patrick Cote: $42,000 ($21,000 to show, $21,000 win bonus) Rick Story: $38,000 ($19,000 to show, $19,000 win bonus) Darren Elkins: $28,000 ($14,000 to show, $14,000 win bonus) John Makdessi: $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus) T.J. Dillashaw: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus) Mike Ricci: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Chris Camozzi: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) George Roop: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Dan Miller: $15,000 Jordan Mein: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus) Colin Fletcher: $8,000 Nick Ring: $8,000 Daron Cruickshank: $8,000 Issei Tamura: $8,000 Reuben Duran: $8,000 Bobby Voelker: $6,000 Antonio Carvalho: $6,000 Quinn Mulhern: $6,000

This is without undisclosed bonuses, sponsors and most importantly PPV cut. GSP said himself he makes about 5 million per fight.

Do you think Boxers in the late 1800's/early 1900's got paid millions per fight? Of course not. MMA is still in it's infancy when compared to Boxing. Taking the assumption you failed Economy Class.

Let's take a look at Georges St. Pierre specifically. The UFC publicly declared that they paid Georges St. Pierre $400,000 for his fight against Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto. This payout was structured like this: $200,000 to show $200,000 to win That means that Georges St. Pierre, otherwise known as "GSP", received $200,000 to just step into the Octagon, and another $200,000 for winning the fight. On top of that, as one of the UFC's biggest stars, Georges St. Pierre gets a cut of the money that the UFC makes from their PPVs (Pay Per Views). The UFC charges, on average, $50-$60 for a PPV. A "baseline" UFC PPV will normally attract between 200,000 - 300,000 buys, while a UFC PPV with Georges St. Pierre as the headliner will usually attract between 750,000 - 900,000 buys. Let's do the math. Assuming that the UFC gets half of the PPV money (after paying out the providers), a "baseline" PPV is worth approximately $8.25 million to the company. A Georges St. Pierre headlined card, on the other hand, will likely bring in around $20 - $25 million for the company. On top of that, a card with GSP in the headlining fight will have a much higher "gate" (money from ticket purchases), usually in the $2-$3 million range. So, Georges St. Pierre on a card likely means an extra $13 - $18 million for the UFC in total revenues, assuming a 50/50 revenue split with PPV providers (I'm betting the UFC gets a higher cut than this). Based on these numbers, paying St. Pierre millions in the form of a cut of the PPV revenues is a very smart business decision for the UFC. Georges St. Pierre became a true star when he defeated Matt Serra for the Welterweight title in front of a home crowd in Montreal at UFC 83, and has fought seven times (as of the time of this article) since then. Those are some big pay days for GSP, including UFC 100, which ended up doing over 1.5 million PPV buys. On top of that, Georges St. Pierre also has a growing list of sponsors. Everybody wants to attach their brand to the squeaky clean St. Pierre. Just some of his sponsors: Under Armour NOS energy drink Poker 888 Affliction St. Pierre also had a one year sponsorship deal with Gatorade in the past. Now, St. Pierre almost certainly doesn't earn the $10-$15 million per year from his sponsors that some people claim, but he is certainly making millions from them. Thanks for this, very informative breakdown. Most of GSP's PPV buys come from Canada. So if he's in a fight that does 700k buys more than likely 400-500k buys came from Canada. And no, there were two big things in 2012 that proved boxing is still bigger in the US. One was a study by the sports business journal which found boxing has 50 million fans in the US while MMA has 30 million. The other was Adamek vs Cunningham being able to get 3.9 million people watching in a poor timeslot. That's a small time boxing match between two guys Americans aren't meant to know about reaching similar to some of the UFC's biggest draws fighting on FOX. Made worse by the fact boxing is in a poor timeslot where not man people watch TV and the UFC is on at primetime. Can you provide a link to that study?

They don't release anything. It's not public so the numbers are likely being flubbed. They could say GSP is the highest paid athelte in the world without proof and their fan base would repeat it like parrots. There are already very strong signs that the reported PPV numbers are inflated. Just recently Rampage came out and said the numbers shown to him are much smaller than those reported by the press. More than likely the UFC is leaking out fake PPV numbers to Dave Meltzer. In my opinion, I feel like me and the rest of the UFC fighters are getting taken advantage of. I feel like the UFC is cleaning house. The pay-per-view dollars? They tell me one number, but then they tell the press another. Pay me the numbers that you tell the press! Don't tell me, 'Oh, we only sold this many,' then you tell the press, 'Oh we sold this many!' But then I'm saying, 'Hey, you only told me we sold 800,000 buys but you told the press you sold a million buys.' Then they say 'Oh, we just say that for the press.' No, pay me what you told the press because you lyin' somewhere. You either lyin' to me or you lyin' to the press about the pay-per-view numbers. If they're doing it to me, I'm sure they're doing it to other fighters." Rampage was saiyng that the ppv numbers were higher not smaller. Anyway I don't see the guys on top complaining so why should we:boxing:

In the words of Nick Diaz: "I get paid too much but not enough" WOW.

1. Those are estimates, the UFC doesn't release the base salaries 2. They don't include PPV bonuses They don't release anything. It's not public so the numbers are likely being flubbed. They could say GSP is the highest paid athelte in the world without proof and their fan base would repeat it like parrots. There are already very strong signs that the reported PPV numbers are inflated. Just recently Rampage came out and said the numbers shown to him are much smaller than those reported by the press. More than likely the UFC is leaking out fake PPV numbers to Dave Meltzer.

whats an almost equally big joke is how the money is being spread around. no way lesner should be 9th, hes a bum and he had like 4 fights in the ufc. Main reason that Lesnar was 9th because of his marketability among many age groups. Once he was on with his fight against Mir, interest from some that didn't watch UFC before came in. Still doesn't hide that UFC/MMA may not have surpassed boxing in popularity worldwide or in the states...

But the average UFC champ is more famous than the average boxing champ (in america) and they still make peanuts compared to boxers. If GSP and Canelo were walking down the street in the US, many more people would recognize GSP yet he only made 3.5 mil in his whole career while Canelo made 2 mil in his last fight. That's crazy. Because Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, has a virtual monopoly on televised MMA in the US. The UFC's buys are misleading since they count international buys while boxing only releases buys from the US. For example, a fight like Chavez vs Martinez which did 500k is actually only the buys from the US so with all the international buys counted it would actually be a bigger fight than GSP vs whoever. But this ain't the 1800s, the UFC puts on ppvs and does good numbers, it's just that fighters get the short end of the stick. Most of GSP's PPV buys come from Canada. So if he's in a fight that does 700k buys more than likely 400-500k buys came from Canada. And no, there were two big things in 2012 that proved boxing is still bigger in the US. One was a study by the sports business journal which found boxing has 50 million fans in the US while MMA has 30 million. The other was Adamek vs Cunningham being able to get 3.9 million people watching in a poor timeslot. That's a small time boxing match between two guys Americans aren't meant to know about reaching similar to some of the UFC's biggest draws fighting on FOX. Made worse by the fact boxing is in a poor timeslot where not man people watch TV and the UFC is on at primetime.

whats an almost equally big joke is how the money is being spread around. no way lesner should be 9th, hes a bum and he had like 4 fights in the ufc. and even though hes one of my favorite mixed martial artist i have to say its a head scratcher to see michael bisping is the 5th best paid ufc fighter in history. i know he has a lot of ufc fights but still, he never even had a title shot. silva had nearly a dozen title defenses and hes under bisping. Yeah it's crazy how Silva is below Bisping. He most probably draws more people to the sport and buy ppv

The UFC Is like pro wrestling when it comes to pay. If you win, you get paid more, but if you perform, you get bonuses etc. The UFC pays a ****load in taxes, but they also do enough to get huge tax write offs.

Without knowing much about UFC, I'd guess that the expenses to promotor and manager is significantly less than a boxers expenses. For boxers a general rule of thumb is that he takes home 50% of the gross purse.

What is Georges St. Pierre's Net Worth? inShare Name: Georges St. Pierre Born: May 19th, 1981 Company: UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Position: Fighter Georges St. Pierre currently has a net worth of an estimated: $25,000,000 Information: According to UFC President Dana White, Georges St. Pierre is the promotion's biggest star. So what is the biggest star of the world's fastest growing sport worth? Dana White often says that UFC fighters (especially those at the top of the promotion's food chain) get paid way more money than people think. This is definitely the case with Georges St. Pierre, as his net worth is likely quite a bit higher than you think. -- To start, Georges St. Pierre gets paid, on average, $4-$5 million every time that he steps into the "Octagon". The UFC is forced to disclose what the salaries are for each fighter on each event, but they aren't forced to disclose what the fighters receive from PPV cuts, backstage bonuses and sponsorship money. Let's take a look at Georges St. Pierre specifically. The UFC publicly declared that they paid Georges St. Pierre $400,000 for his fight against Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto. This payout was structured like this: $200,000 to show $200,000 to win That means that Georges St. Pierre, otherwise known as "GSP", received $200,000 to just step into the Octagon, and another $200,000 for winning the fight. On top of that, as one of the UFC's biggest stars, Georges St. Pierre gets a cut of the money that the UFC makes from their PPVs (Pay Per Views). The UFC charges, on average, $50-$60 for a PPV. A "baseline" UFC PPV will normally attract between 200,000 - 300,000 buys, while a UFC PPV with Georges St. Pierre as the headliner will usually attract between 750,000 - 900,000 buys. Let's do the math. Assuming that the UFC gets half of the PPV money (after paying out the providers), a "baseline" PPV is worth approximately $8.25 million to the company. A Georges St. Pierre headlined card, on the other hand, will likely bring in around $20 - $25 million for the company. On top of that, a card with GSP in the headlining fight will have a much higher "gate" (money from ticket purchases), usually in the $2-$3 million range. So, Georges St. Pierre on a card likely means an extra $13 - $18 million for the UFC in total revenues, assuming a 50/50 revenue split with PPV providers (I'm betting the UFC gets a higher cut than this). Based on these numbers, paying St. Pierre millions in the form of a cut of the PPV revenues is a very smart business decision for the UFC. Georges St. Pierre became a true star when he defeated Matt Serra for the Welterweight title in front of a home crowd in Montreal at UFC 83, and has fought seven times (as of the time of this article) since then. Those are some big pay days for GSP, including UFC 100, which ended up doing over 1.5 million PPV buys. On top of that, Georges St. Pierre also has a growing list of sponsors. Everybody wants to attach their brand to the squeaky clean St. Pierre. Just some of his sponsors: Under Armour NOS energy drink Poker 888 Affliction St. Pierre also had a one year sponsorship deal with Gatorade in the past. Now, St. Pierre almost certainly doesn't earn the $10-$15 million per year from his sponsors that some people claim, but he is certainly making millions from them. In addition, Georges St. Pierre also has his Rushfit workout DVDs which have sold well. -- Not only is Georges St. Pierre the biggest star of the UFC, but he is also one of Canada's biggest sports stars. Georges St. Pierre has the same level of name recognition as Sidney Crosby in the country, and GSP's star continues to grow with each passing day. St. Pierre is still in his early 30s and in his prime, which means that he has a number of prime earning years remaining. Given the growth of the UFC and the number of premier brands (including Nike) that are looking to attach themselves to the sport, don't be surprised if St. Pierre is worth close to $100 million by the time that he decides to hang up his gloves. Photo: scienceduck Notes: Georges St. Pierre is worth 323 times more than the median US household If Georges St. Pierre sold everything that he owned, he could fund the United States' deficit spending for 0 days.

UFC 158 Fighter Salaries, Attendance & Gate Attendance: 20,145 Gate: $3,710,000 Georges St-Pierre: $400,000 ($200,000 to show, $200,000 win bonus) Nick Diaz: $200,000 Jake Ellenberger: $134,000 ($42,000 to show, $42,000 win bonus, $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus) Carlos Condit: $105,000 ($55,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Johny Hendricks: $102,000 ($26,000 to show, $26,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) http://www.mma-manifesto.com/ufc-fighter-salary-database/ufc-158-fighter-salaries-attendance-gate.html Yeah but GSP gets a PPV cut of about 5-10 dollars per buy. His cards do between 500,000 and 1 million buys. So he gets about 4 - 4,5 million from PPV plus he gets quite a hefty sum from the sponsors (he is the most popular sportsman in Canada, in front of all the hockey players and whatnot and is sponsored by Gatorade among others). I think it's safe to say that he makes about 5 mil per fight but probably more. But yeah, that's GSP and maybe 5 or 6 top UFC guys make that kind of money today, while the majority of the rest of the fighters fights for small figures. Although th eupper echelon fighters do make decent money.

But the average UFC champ is more famous than the average boxing champ (in america) and they still make peanuts compared to boxers. If GSP and Canelo were walking down the street in the US, many more people would recognize GSP yet he only made 3.5 mil in his whole career while Canelo made 2 mil in his last fight. That's crazy. Because Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, has a virtual monopoly on televised MMA in the US. But this ain't the 1800s, the UFC puts on ppvs and does good numbers, it's just that fighters get the short end of the stick. not in the two place i have lived in the us. I have lived in Cali and texas and Canelo would be far more recognized than gsp.

1. Those are estimates, the UFC doesn't release the base salaries 2. They don't include PPV bonuses If you look at their career earning those estimates per fight sound right. It doesnt change that there getting ripped off.

UFC 158 Fighter Salaries, Attendance & Gate Attendance: 20,145 Gate: $3,710,000 Georges St-Pierre: $400,000 ($200,000 to show, $200,000 win bonus) Nick Diaz: $200,000 Jake Ellenberger: $134,000 ($42,000 to show, $42,000 win bonus, $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus) Carlos Condit: $105,000 ($55,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Johny Hendricks: $102,000 ($26,000 to show, $26,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) http://www.mma-manifesto.com/ufc-fighter-salary-database/ufc-158-fighter-salaries-attendance-gate.html 1. Those are estimates, the UFC doesn't release the base salaries 2. They don't include PPV bonuses