In a recent article in Esquire magazine, Dana White made a statement that he has 18 fighters making over $1 million a year:
"White estimates that eighteen of his ultimate fighters earn in the millions per annum. Many others make in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. New guys make fifty to seventy-five, depending where you are in the pecking order."
This made me very curious…who are making over a million a year? I thought there were a few that were obvious, but 18 seemed, to me at least, a little high. So I spent way too much time researching this to figure out who these 18 fighters are.
First, I figured out who make the most disclosed pay and bonuses in 2009:
George St. Pierre: $800k
Lyoto Machida: $585k
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: $460k
Brock Lesnar: $400k
Quinton Jackson: $385K
Randy Couture: $310K
Now there were a few in the $200k range, but I'm not going to include them just yet.
The biggest problem I had while figuring disclosed pay is that UFC's 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, and 107 had no disclosed pay. So for this, I went back and figured an average of what a fighter was making in 2008 and use that as their base pay for an event in which they fought that did not have a disclosed pay amount.
Please note that these are estimates. All fighters who had an included estimated pay is denoted with a *.
Now here is when things get a little tricky. It is widely accepted that the main draws on any given card are given a cut of the pay-per-view revenue. According to FighterLinks.com, this is how the PPV bonuses are distributed:
Up to 100K buys: $0
100K-175K: @ $1 = $75K
175K-300K: @ $1.50 = 187K
300K-330K: @ $2 = 60K
330K+ = (# of buys -330K) X $3
So to make it a little simpler, if a PPV hits more than 330K buys, which all of the events in 2009 did, the fighter would automatically get the first three bonuses ($332K) plus $3 for every buy in excess of 330K. Since nobody knows for sure who gets these bonuses, I am going to assume that if the main event featured a title bout, the champion, or champions in some cases, receive their cut based on the table above. The title challenger or a "name” fighter on the card would receive a $332K bonus. Using this theory, these are the fighters who made the Millionaire's list:
George St. Pierre: $6.684M
Brock Lesnar: $4.542M
Frank Mir: $4.232M
B.J. Penn: $3.554M
Anderson Silva: $2.024M
Lyoto Machida: $1.759M
Rashad Evans: $1.447M
Shogun Rua: $1.229M
Rich Franklin: $1.206M
Forrest Griffin: $1.099M
Other notables:
Dan Henderson: $932K
Randy Couture: $892K
Chuck Liddell: $832K
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: $792K
Quinton Jackson: $777K
Tito Ortiz: $582K
Diego Sanchez: $557K
Wanderlei Silva: $542K
After spending three days digging up information and crunching numbers (my head hurts), the ten millionaires I came up with doesn't surprise me too much, although the dollar amounts for a few are probably a little inflated. The other eight, with the exception of Diego Sanchez, I could see being in the Millionaire's Club as well. However, with Dana White being as tight lipped as he is about what he pays his fighters, we'll never truly know who is making the big bucks and who is getting hosed.
So who do you think? Are there any fighters who don't belong on the list? Are there names that you think should be there? Do you have any extra Tylenol? As always, give us your feedback on our Facebook page and JasonSchielke@gmail.com!
[Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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Wow! You did an awesome job in the research department and i feel your
pain. I am also a bit surprised with how much actualy the top guys can make
as i had no idea about the ppv shares :)
When calculating the total income of best fighters and athletes in general
not only their direct contracts are important but their sponsorhip
agreements too and maybe even more so.
Jeremy
23 Jan 2010, 06:26
Couture, Ortiz, Liddell, Franklin, GSP, Lesnar, Griffin, Penn, Silva,
Jackson, Nog, Machida, Evans all get it. I have no doubt some others do as
well, but I am not going to speculate. These guys get that cut regardless
of whether or not it is a title fight. The idea is that if they draw, they
make the money. The negotiations with Fedor made it clear that it is not
simply champions that get the full cut.
The problem is that you gave guys like Chuck credit for ONLY 330k buys. He
seems to think that only champions get more than that. Most headliners have
it built into their contract. Chuck would have made another 885k. Nog and
Couture are thought to have done 425k buys and would each get another
285k.
Forrest's bout with Silva did 750k buys, how do you have his pay so low?
Again, using the scale listed, he would have made a LOT more. Penn had buy
rates of 800k (94), 750 (101) and 500 (107). Again, using the scale, he
made more than what you have listed. The buy rate of 102 is thought to be
about 450ks so Couture and Nog both made more than you listed.
In addition, it is generally accepted (based on writings of guys like Dave
Meltzer) that most headliners that don't get a ppv cut do get a bonus for
the big fights. Jardine had one headlining bout and one co-headlining bout
in 2009 and thus likely made some solid change.
I don't mean to belittle the work you did, but your numbers are off in many
cases. I would guess, and this is only a guess, that Dana would estimating
based on guys getting ppv cuts and whatnot. Since some shows did less than
strong numbers (106, 96 for example) we have guys like Jackson and Ortiz
making less than expected. Normally these guys are a lock to hit seven
figures. Did 18 get that in 2009? Maybe not, but I don't think that number
is too far off.
Jason Schielke
23 Jan 2010, 15:16
Hi Jeremy,
Like I stated, everything is just an estimate. Everyone will form there
own opinion and I don't take offense to anybody who doesn't agree with my
figures. It's something that I decided to do to get people debating.
Nobody knows for sure who is making what besides the disclosed pay released
by the Athletic Commissions and disclosed bonuses for fight, ko and
submission of the night.
The only thing that can be 100% proven besides disclosed pay and bonuses is
that the PPV cut formula I found was from the contract of the
Couture-Lesner fight. I estimated that since they, as champions, got that
cut, then the other champions would as well.
We could debate this topic all day long, but at the end of the day only
Zuffa and the fighters know how much money is getting thrown around, and I
don't hear them talking.
Boles
23 Jan 2010, 16:49
I don't mean to be rude or dismissive (when I mean to be, I just am), but
why should anyone give a damn what anyone in the UFC earn? Other than
people in the industry, or relatives of the fighter, the only people this
is relevant to would be up and coming fighters who want an estimate of
their earnings ceiling.
Jeremy
23 Jan 2010, 18:16
Couture had the ppv cut built into his contract prior to beating Sylvia.
That was not part of him being champ, but part of his fight contract.
Since then, many others have gottena cut. Rich Franklin, prior to signing
his last contract, mentioned that would be a part of his next deal.
It is not something that gets removed it they lose. Remember that it was
said in the Fedor/UFC discussions that a cut of the ppv was part of his
proposed deal.
That forumula actually came from Randy's disclosed fight agreement for his
return to face Tim Sylvia. It was part of his deal at that time.
Lorenzo Fertitta has publicly said that Tito Ortiz made six million in
2006. That is including Tito's cut of the ppvs. That number jives with that
ppv scale and was at a time when Tito was not a champ, but merely a main
eventer.
Simply from talking to folks, I know that most of those I mentioned do get
a cut of the ppv. And those, as I said, have also been confirmed from
people like Dave Meltzer.
The ppv cut is a pretty standard part of the contracts of the main
eventers. Again, this also comes from talking to some fighters and some in
various fight camps. Do I know the numbers? Certainly not, but have heard
enough to be certain that that much of the speculation is accurate.
Frank
23 Jan 2010, 19:37
This is a great piece of work and analysis with what little information is
available. Kudos.
