After solely making $80,000 for his first struggle with Jon Jones, UFC CEO Dana White despatched Daniel Cormier a $1 million bonus verify.
Jones vs. Cormier is undoubtedly one of many fiercest rivalries in MMA historical past. Squaring off towards each other on two separate events, the animosity between the consensus GOAT and the previous two-division titleholder stays as sturdy as ever.
Trying again on their first-ever assembly at UFC 182 in January 2015, ‘DC’ revealed that he’d solely made a paltry $80,000 to indicate. That matched with sponsorship cash earned him roughly 150k for one of many largest occasions of the yr. In response to Tapology, Jones vs. Cormier introduced in 800,000 buys at $59.99. That interprets to roughly $48 million even earlier than you issue the gate and what the promotion took in through sponsorship offers of their very own.
Understandably, Cormier was pissed off with the payday after all of the work he’d put in and the amount of cash the UFC raked it. Fortunately, White was fast to make it proper with ‘DC’ and despatched the Corridor of Famer 1,000,000 greenback verify the very subsequent day.
“Again in 2015, I fought Jon Jones for the primary time,” Cormier stated on The Pivot. “I used to be making $80,000 to indicate up and $80,000 to win. I misplaced. All that, and I made $80,000. And I made like $80,000 on sponsorships on that night time. I used to be like, ‘Man, for all that, I’m gonna make $150,000, it’s loopy.’
“Dana White calls me two days later, ‘Y’all killed it. The numbers had been out of this world; we’re going to ship you $1 million. Dude despatched me a verify for $1 million the subsequent day” (h/t Bloody Elbow).
Daniel Cormier insists fighters are sometimes taken care of behind the scenes
UFC fighter pay has been underneath scrutiny for years because the group usually shares 15-20% of its whole income with fighters — an particularly low quantity when in comparison with different skilled sports activities organizations just like the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL who frequently hover round a 50% income share.
Nevertheless, Cormier careworn that fighters typically obtain bonuses behind the scenes that aren’t disclosed to the general public.
“After which, it was Lorenzo Fertitta on the time; he was the proprietor. Lorenzo preferred his champions making $1 million. So, even when your struggle purse was $350,000, and also you bought one other $300,000 in pay-per-views, he’d ship you one other $400,000 to be sure to made $1 million each time you bought in there.”
“So, they attempt to defend the athlete a bit bit by not exhibiting precisely what you make. A whole lot of it’s hidden. And also you additionally earn cash on the pay-per-view facet. So, should you grow to be a man like Conor McGregor, like Jones, like Israel Adesanya — you begin promoting pay-per-views, man, you get $2 a purchase, $3 a purchase, $4 a purchase. Then that cash actually begins to go.”
