UFC Fighter Salaries: How Much do Fighters Earn?

UFC Fighter Salaries: How Much do Fighters Earn?

In recent years, the UFC promotion has made a significant contribution to the development of mixed martial arts, bringing its popularity closer to the level of boxing. Many fans of the promotion are wondering how much do UFC fighters earn? However, MMA fighters have not yet caught up with professional boxers in terms of fees, but the salary of UFC fighters is getting higher every day. Of course, the most popular fighters of the promotion receive impressive amounts, but this only applies to stars and long-term champions.

Salaries Depend on the Popularity of Fighters

UFC fighters’ salaries depend on their personal promotions, hype and fan base. How much UFC fighters earn depends on the shares of an individual fighter. A UFC fighter enters into a contract with a promotion on certain conditions and for a certain amount. If he achieves success during the contract period, wins, or simply generates hype around his person, he will be able to renew the contract on more favorable terms. Recently, more and more fighters are demanding more money from the UFC, and the bosses of the best league in the world only repeat that the salary of UFC fighters is growing every year and a fighter with his performances can earn more money by earning various bonuses.

Obviously, first of all, the increase in fees concerns popular fighters. Using the example of the highest paid UFC fighter Conor McGregor, you can see that with each of his fights he earns more and more. For last year’s fight with Donald Cerrone, the Irishman received a guaranteed fee of $3 million, which was a record for how much UFC fighters earn in one fight. And for the rematch with Dustin Poirier, he received $5 million, breaking the record for this indicator once again. 

As we can remember this was a match that draw massive popularity in the world of MMA. the fight was highly anticipated and a lot of online casinos on the Internet started offering deposit codes & bonus spins by placing bets on the following event. It comes as no surprise that various factors affect the salaries of top MMA fighters.

Average Salaries of UFC Fighters

Now let’s try to figure out how much UFC fighters earn on average. The average UFC fighter earned $147,965 in 2020, up from $146,673 in 2019. Consider some interesting facts that will help you understand how high the salary of UFC fighters is. Basically, UFC fighters make money from the fixed fee they receive from the UFC for fights. 

Payouts per fight range from an initial $10,000 to $3,000,000. In general, you can divide the payouts per fight into three categories depending on the contracts of the fighters received from the UFC.

 

Low: $10,000 to $30,000

This is the type of contract that is provided for new fighters who have signed a contract with the organization. The salary of UFC fighters in this case depends on the track record of the fighter and his potential.

Intermediate: $30,000 to $80,000

When new fighters win in the octagon, have winning streaks or spectacular fights, they get a better contract when their original contract expires. MMA veterans and experienced fighters can also count on more favorable conditions. Based on these conditions, payouts for each fight range from several tens of thousands of dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. The salary of UFC fighters when concluding a new contract depends on the quality of performances, the number of new subscribers on various social networks and the ability to promote their own fight.

High Level: $500,000 to $5,000,000

UFC champions and fighters with the biggest fan bases get the best type of contract. Based on their popularity with fans and the number of viewers they attract to the UFC, they can earn anywhere from half a million dollars to five million dollars per fight. The salaries of UFC fighters who have reached the top level depend largely on the number of paid broadcasts.

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