UFC 94 Fighter Salaries: St-Pierre Earns $400,000
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Feb 1, 2009 at 1:44 pm ET39 Comments
Georges St-Pierre
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre took home nearly half of the disclosed $1.057 million payroll at UFC 94, earning $400,000 for his fourth-round TKO of BJ Penn, according to figures today released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Other top earners included Penn, who received $125,000 for the loss, light heavyweight contender Lyoto Machida ($120,000), and Karo Parisyan ($80,000).
UFC 94 attracted a sell-out crowd of 14,885 for an estimated live gate of $4.3 million.
The official salaries exclude some bonuses (including “fight night” bonuses), taxes, fees, sponsor payments, and other miscellaneous payments and fees.
The official salaries for UFC 94 were:
- Georges St. Pierre ($400,000 – includes $200,000 win bonus) def. B.J. Penn ($125,000)
- Lyoto Machida ($120,000 – includes $60,000 win bonus) def. Thiago Silva ($29,000)
- Jon Jones ($14,000 – includes $7,000 win bonus) def. Stephan Bonnar ($22,000)
- Karo Parisyan ($80,000 – includes $40,000 win bonus) def. Dong Hyun Kim ($26,000)
- Clay Guida ($40,000 – includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Nate Diaz ($20,000)
- Jon Fitch ($68,000 – includes $34,000 win bonus) def. Akihiro Gono ($28,000)
- Thiago Tavares ($26,000 – includes $13,000 win bonus) def. Manny Gamburyan ($14,000)
- John Howard ($6,000 – includes $3,000 win bonus) def. Chris Wilson ($15,000)
- Dan Cramer ($16,000 – includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Matt Arroyo ($8,000)
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so if you win you get double the original payout? or is that just a coencidence
It seems that the UFC generally pays double as a win bonus, although I believe GSP’s next contract will have the flat salaries and no win bonus that Chuck had towards the end of his title reign.
Sometimes you will find someone who gets (for example) 125k for salary and 75k win bonus. It all depends on what is agreed to in the contracts.
Its not double if you win. It is the standard fighter pay which is:
X amount to show and X amount to win..
For example GSP probably got 200k to show and 200k if he won
BJ was 125k to show and 125k to win..
Plus the main event guys like Bj and gsp get a cut from gate proceeds and payperview earnings..
Read it again. The double includes the bonus. You know, 2×200k = 400k. Standard mathly stuffs.
That is the general rule of thumb. However sometimes, some of the high-end salaried fighters do not get a bonus for winning. I have seen this with Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, and Chuck Liddell if memory serves me.
Depends on the original payout. In these fights, that’s the way it worked out, but as the original payout increases, over 250k, I think they limit the win bonus.
Kris,
What about O’Brien and Wellisch?
ahhh ic. yeah pretty shocked that gsp only gets a base salary of 200k. kinda weak imo.
He may be near the end of a multi-fight contract. I expect him in the 300k range for base when he renews.
You have to also consider the undisclosed, which is what percentage of proceeds from gate and payperview they are getting. Maybe his split on proceeds is more agressive than most but he takes a little less in the ring. Relies on turning out large crowds where some guys would rather get payed more without having to count on drawing a big crowd.
Also stop calling them salaries they are not employees and are not payed a salary. They contract their fights and are not payed a “base salary”.
UFC hardly pays anything compared to the money Afflication doles out. Google what Arlovsky’s been making with his last two Affliction fights. You know UFC is making the money .. but does it all go to Dana? Or, to the rest of the UFC production – ie. Ultimate Fighter, etc? There’s additional revenue streams for their other productions .. so, who gets the bulk of that PPV $$ for this event?
Most of these guys ain’t lucky like BJ to come from a wealthy family. So, why doesn’t UFC get more serious about its payouts? it’s a joke compared to Affliction.
Only the top 4 on an Affliction card make more than in the UFC. Here’s my post from the Affliction payday post to clarify my point:
After the first Affliction, everyone talked about how great it is that Affliction is RAISING salaries for fighters. Really? Are they?
# Albert Rios ($6,000 – includes $3,000 win bonus) def. Antonio Duarte ($3,000)
# Brett Cooper ($10,000 – includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Patrick Speight ($2,000)
# Bobby Green ($4,000)
There’s 5 guys out of 22 making 5k or less guaranteed salary (22.7%). Let’s contrast that with UFC 92. 3 out of 20 fighters had 5k or less guaranteed (15%). And none less than 4k. How about UFC 91? 3 out of 18 with 5k or less guaranteed (16.7%). Hell, at UFC 88, 1 out of 18 had 5k or less guaranteed (5.5%) and that was a 5k fight. Can’t find salaries released for 93, so no comparison there yet.
Hell, this ought to sober everyone up on where the UFC stands on fighter salaries as opposed to Affliction…
The Ultimate Fighter 8 Fighter Salaries
* Efrain Escudero ($16,000) def. Phillipe Nover ($8,000)
* Ryan Bader ($16,000) def. Vinny Magalhaes ($8,000)
* Wilson Gouveia ($36,800) def. Jason MacDonald ($35,200)
* Anthony Johnson $18,000 def. Kevin Burns ($7,000)
* Junie Browning ($16,000) def. Dave Kaplan ($8,000)
* Krzysztof Soszynski ($16,000) def. Shane Primm ($8,000)
* Eliot Marshall ($16,000) def. Jules Bruchez ($8,000)
* Shane Nelson ($16,000) def. George Roop ($8,000)
* Tom Lawlor ($16,000) def. Kyle Kingsbury ($8,000)
* Roli Delgado ($16,000) def. John Polakowski ($8,000)
Where are the higher salaries in Affliction? Oh, it’s for the top-end only. SURPRISE!!!
*****
And now a breakdown from this PPV. 1 out of 18 fighters with 5k or less guaranteed (5.5%). Almost a quarter of Affliction’s card was guaranteed 5k or less. Less than 10% of the UFC’s was. Can we end the myth that Affliction pays more for anyone but the top end yet?
i agree, those guys deserve to be stars.
i’d promote some of those guys rather than any of the weird music or entertainment misfits we see on people’s mag.
the mma guys are the real stars for my side!
i think they present an untapped market!
break the UFC monopoly!
break the UFC monopoly!
break the UFC monopoly!
break the UFC monopoly!break the UFC monopoly!break the UFC monopoly!break the UFC monopoly!
Do you want to break the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB monopolies as well?
If this was such a huge fight like hagler hearns like dana white is always sayin how come the fighters don’t get paid like it. Ever.
$4.3 million at the gate.
I’m guessing at least 800,000 pay per view buys.
800,000 x $50 = $40,000,000
Live gate = $4,300,000
Total revenue = $44,300,000!!!
Fighter payroll = $1,057,000(WHAT A JOKE)
Zuffa LLC gross profit = $43,243,000!!!!
Dana White and the Fertitta brothers are the scum of the earth. They are laughing all the way to the bank, while our fighters are getting paid peanuts for the risks they take.
Anderson Silva and George St Pierre, the two pound for pound fighters in the world making $400,000 per fight is lunacy. Each of these guys should be taking at least 2 million a piece, at least.
This company of crooks has got these fighters by the testicles.
Thats why I hope that Affliction with the help of Golden Boy succeeds. They at least are paying their fighters closer to what they deserve.
If some of these fighters would just get together and bail on zuffa, maybe others would follow.
The UFC earns significantly less than $50/PPV. They don’t release exact numbers but that is a known fact that exists for all PPVs as the companies that distribute them take a hefty cut.
It is absolutely ridiculous to call them scum as they’ve resurrected the UFC from its deathbed to the verge of mainstream and it’s their business model that has worked while other companies, such as EliteXC and likely Affliction, have or will fail because of the way they pay their fighters and operate their businesses. Players in other major sports league make considerably more because those leagues generate more revenue.
Also, to address your other comment, GSP and likely Penn as well do receive a portion of the pay-per-view revenue. St-Pierre easily banked 1,000,000 for this fight, without a doubt.
Obviously they don’t keep the entire $50 for the pay per view. There are distribution expenses, just as in boxing. Hint, why i said “Gross Profit” But their profit margin is huge. There’s no other promoter that’s taking any cut of the revenue. It’s all zuffa. And if Randy Couture was making so much money. Why did he want to bail?
The rest of the fighters are content to get what they can.
Why do you think Anderson Silva is talking retirement? So he can get the hell away from zuffa!
Example: The Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton fight
This fight will generate somewhere around 600,000 pay per views at $50. And a live gate of around $10 million. These numbers are pretty close to the revenue UFC 94 pulled in.
The Difference: Manny Pacquiao gets paid $12 million guaranteed plus pay per view revenue. Ricky Hatton around $8-10 million plus pay per view revenue. Mind you there is an undercard and I can guarantee you that none of those fighters are getting paid a ridiculous $7000.00 That is pathetic.
My point is, that the fighters are taking home the majority of the revenue in boxing. It should be the same way in the UFC. These guys are becoming household names already. I mean its not even close right now. Zuffa and Dana White are crooks.
I would love for someone to prove to me that GSP is taking home a cut of the pay per view revenue. Then I will shut my mouth. I just think that these guys deserve WAY more. Maybe you don’t feel that they do Kris?
“My point is, that the fighters are taking home the majority of the revenue in boxing.”
—–
No they aren’t ( http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=Ani1iir1tqEv64twmcKA8Bg9Eo14?slug=ki-mmamailbag042908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns ). Boxing has more whorish sponsors than the UFC (see: Budweiser). No one is paying the UFC 20 million to be the main sponsor for a PPV. As far as undercard fioghters not making 7 k…you’re right. They generally make less.
De la Hoya didn’t set up Golden Boy out of the goodness of his heart to enrich fighters. HE did it because he’ll make 10 times what he did as a fighter.
“Example: The Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton fight
This fight will generate somewhere around 600,000 pay per views at $50. And a live gate of around $10 million. These numbers are pretty close to the revenue UFC 94 pulled in.”
—–
Last night’s UFC gate doesn’t even crack the top 35 gates in Nevada for boxing ( http://boxing.nv.gov/New_Gates.htm ). Not even top 35. It barely cracked the top 5 MMA gates in Nevada ( http://boxing.nv.gov/New_MMAGates.htm ). Comparing boxing to MMA is ridiculous. You can compare then when MMA has been licensed continually for 120 years as boxing has.
TP,
re: “My point is, that the fighters are taking home the majority of the revenue in boxing.”
Except for the money that their managers and promoters get, because most boxers have their own promoters, how do you think Don King got so stinking rich? I know of at least one former world champ, or championship contender (name escapes me right now) that had to go to work as a janitor to make ends meet after his boxing career was over, because Don King stole most of his money.
See also Marcus Davis (former pro boxer)’s take on this issue: http://www.mmauniverse.com/news/SS3858
Thanks for the links, dbiz.
thanx 4 being the voice of reason here
I’m looking for a link but I read that 2/3 of the money from a PPV never comes anywhere near the company holding it. The gate never actually makes money, either. It usually barely covers the arena/security/staffing costs.
dbiz, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. the “events center” at Mandalay Bay will cost you $300,000 for one night, thats it. You people are funny. You need to wake up and smell the coffee.
So TP, with your extensive knowledge of what a PPV costs, tell me off the top of your head what security and associated planning costs for 15000 are? How about the crew to set up and take down all the electrical systems?
Finally, please explain how boxers are left penniless after their managers (like Don King) rip them off for over 80% of their purse and why the same doesn’t happen in MMA?
You’re a fool, man. Yes, the UFC is making money. They also spend a lot more than you and your buddies here think they do. Hell, you claim Zuffa made 43 million gross off this fight. Don’t you think the cable companies get a BIG cut of the PPV take? That’s the majority of the 2/3s Zuffa will never see.
Don’t paint Zuffa as the bad guys. They pay, on average, more than Affliction does. Why aren’t you jumping on their backs?
1. Where did you get your $300,000 number, I’ve looked for information on the cost and can’t find it?
2. My Larry’s Beans Frank Sumatra coffee smells quite good, thank you.
3. If your $300,000 is accurate, that probably only includes the empty facility, for one night. You then get to pay to staff it, plus rent the lights, buy a canvas for the octagon, pay someone to set up and take down the lights, the production truck, the engineers to do the production, the cameras, camera guys, general UFC staff. I assume that the UFC is paying for the fighters rooms while they’re in town, as well as their trainers and other entourage, pay for the venue to hold the weigh ins, if they are some where else…. its a long list, and of course you have to account for the fact that ZUFFA rents the venue for 2-4 days prior to the event to get everything set up just right.
In short, you’re funny, you need to wake up and smell the coffee.
And by the way badnews, these guys don’t get any percentage of the gate or pay per view. Are you frickin kidding me! This isn’t boxing. Although they should get payed that way, they don’t.
What makes you think that a fighter of St. Pierre’s caliber who is getting paid a measily $200k is going to get a cut of the pay per view??? And what would that cut be, .009percent. You’re living in la la land badnews.
Dana has said before that fighters get a cut of both PPV and live gate. I’ve seen him say that fighters have made 4 mil on a night. I know that when randy got in his money dispute Dana said that Randy was making $1 mil + and chick was getting $2 mil + after all bonuses were factored, based on GSP’s base pay I would say that he is probably in the right range to be getting a cut of the PPV too. Also, as Kris said, the PPv companies take a cut of the money, then the satellite/cable providers do the same.
just a coincidence. it is what the fighters agree on
Diaz is a ultimate fighter winner, i thought he would be getting paid more than that. he has to fight five times to get the “six figure contract” that the UFC brags about. unless there is some behind the scenes payments that were not allowed to see.
THe heat defintily doesnt deserve that kind of money either.
It’s possible that there are non-fight payments. Think what a 2k a month stipend from the UFC for living/training costs could do (speaking purely theoretically since no one with any clue what’s in those contracts is saying). All it says is that he is guaranteed a 6 figure contract. Does it even specify that that is per yer, or over the life of ____ fights? It could be a 5 fight, not time-limited contract.
I mean, Diaz doesn’t need a job while he trains for 3 months. He gets 20k from the fight and has to pay taxes on it, so I don’t imagine that’s the only money he’s making.
Im salty that Fitch was on the under card. Bonnar should have been on the under card and Fitch on the main card. If this was a result of the Fitch not wanting to sign the video game crap, its bogus for the UFC to do that. Show the fights for the fans not the fighters.
Fitch was paid his normal rate (same as when he fought gsp) so only his sponsors got pwned. He’ll be back on the main card next time. Dana is fair, and he had to clamp down on the rebellion and make an example so it doesnt happen again. Theres a reason why he does that, the 20M$ payouts you see in boxing are what brought it down. Money shouldnt be the reason people fight for a living, there are actually easier ways to make 200K a year.
Maybe my comment was in the wrong thread. I am not complaining about Fitch’s pay, just that I didnt see his fight.
I’m normally not critical of the UFC, I think the fighters make decent wadges. Only a few fighters have complained about pay (Randy, Tito, who else?).
I wish someone would draw comparisons from something other than Boxing. Boxing is extreemly corrupt and has steadily produced a worse product year after year. I think the UFC does a pretty good job at staying LEGIT and has improved their product.
we need MUCH MORE COMPETITION & VARIOUS FIGHTING VENUES, LOCAL, REGIONAL, ETC…
yea, u get beaten up for free. what a tipesh!
I couldn’t agree with TP more. I cant understand why most of the people on here blindly defend a horrible pay system. Its crazy and if you think that GSP is only worth 200k just to show then your blind, or you work for Zuffa
You’ve been on here long enough to have read where many of us have stated that the fighters make a lot more than their disclosed pay.
Example. Mir made 40k to show against Lesnar. Got 40k for a win. Another 40 or 45k for submission of the night. And 85k from sponsors.
He disclosed that in response to complaints about the UFC pay scale. If you win and win impressivle, you have a chance to more than triple your pay right there. Add in sponsorships and all of a sudden your disclosed pay is nothing.
Chuck pulled a total of around 2 million a fight from his sponsors, his disclosed, and his % of gate and PPV when he was the champ. Why are we crying about pay again? Because the UFC can’t pay as much as a sport which has had 120 years to mature?