Former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson insists he never got the massive payday that fighters like Conor McGregor enjoyed.
Johnson, who held the UFC flyweight title for over five years, revealed that he was denied pay-per-view points, which meant he missed out on the chance to cash in on blockbuster events.
Johnson is universally regarded as the best 125lb fighter everCredit: GETTY
This comes in light of a new report that shows WWE superstars, even those at the lowest rung of the ladder, earn a minimum of £159,000 ($200,000) per year—far surpassing the UFC’s standard £9,900 ($12,500) per fight.
“The minimum pay for a WWE talent on the main roster is in the range of $200,000 to $300,000, with a number of talent earning in the millions per year,” Fight Select revealed last week.
UFC star Paddy Pimblett shocked fight fans in 2022 when he revealed his pay was just £9,000 before performance-related bonuses.
This is not uncommon for a UFC athlete and is something that doesn’t sit right with a lot of people.
Johnson’s comments, therefore, have reignited the highly-discussed debate over fighter pay and the financial struggles of even the sport’s most accomplished athletes.
“I finally got a new contract as champion, and I think it was ($125,000 to show) and ($50,000 to win), but I couldn’t get pay-per-view points,” Johnson said, speaking on the low UFC pay in 2023.
“And that’s where a champion makes most of their bang for their buck, is the pay-per-view points.
“Because if you get on a card with a Conor McGregor and he does 2.1 million buys, then you just do the f***ing math.
“You’re going to make a s***load of money. I never got the opportunity to do that.”
It has been reported the UFC pays out less than 20 per cent of revenue to its athletes, compared to the 50 per cent the likes of the NBA, NFL and MLB do.
McGregor often made more money in one fight than Johnson made in his careerCredit: Getty
Even thought Johnson was one of the sport’s biggest stars for a long timeCredit: Getty – Contributor
Johnson called it quits on his lucrative MMA spell in September last year, bursting into tears as he thanked friends and family for a career that spanned 18 years between 2006 and 2024.
He is widely regarded as to be one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time and has a record that rivals that of names like Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and McGregor.
‘DJ’ reigned supreme over the 125lb division for 2,142 days after he first won UFC gold for the first time by defeating Joseph Benavidez in September 2012.
However, reflecting on his career the 38-year-old stated he was ‘f***ing gutted’ when he found out how little earnings his earnings were from that period when he had 17 fights.
Johnson revealed that he made just over $250,000 (£198,000) in the UFC before signing a champion contract, which he had to make three defences of his flyweight title to earn.
Based on his eight further defences of the 125lb title, ‘Mighty Mouse’ would have made around $1.4million (£1.1m) until his very last UFC fight, which was a defeat to Henry Cejudo in 2018.
McGregor made more than £20m from his fight with CerroneCredit: Getty Images – Getty
WWE stars, like Roman Reigns, are on seven-figure contractsCredit: WWE
This brings his total estimated earnings in the UFC to just shy of $1.7m (£1.35m), which is dwarfed by the likes of McGregor’s earnings – from a single fight.
According to Forbes, McGregor got a base salary of £2.5m ($3.15m) for his famous UFC 229 bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The record PPV buys and other endorsements helped push his total take home pay to more than £45m ($57m).
McGregor also reportedly earned more than $29m (£23m) from his comeback fight against Donald Cerrone.
Going back to WWE, the majority of their top superstars, including Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk earn at least seven-figures.
Fight Select also confirmed women’s star Becky Lynch earned ‘far more’ than the £1.6m ($2m) a year she was reportedly getting.
WWE and UFC are now under the same ownership of the TKO Group, who acquired World Wrestling Entertainment in 2023.
It was April of that year when it was announced that Endeavour would acquire WWE and merge it with UFC to form TKO Group.
According to Deadline, TKO’s COO Mark Shapiro received a pay package valued at a whopping $65billion in 2022, with a base salary of $911K, cash bonus of $24m and $40m in stock awards.
Dana White will continue raking racking in similar amounts UFC President, but fighter pay doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon.
He claimed in 2022 the UFC fighter pay model will never change as long as he’s around, as it is fair and prevents the sport he helped build from becoming corrupted by greed.
“Listen, there aren’t too many things you can talk s*** about the UFC about, if you look at what we’ve done with the business in the last 22 years, it’s incredible, never been done, ever,” he told GQ Sports.
UFC President White has been criticised about fighter pay in recentCredit: AFP
“The things we’ve done in the fight business, you always have to have something to b**** about, I guess.
“Fighters always want to make more money. Boxing has been absolutely destroyed because of money and all the things that go on.
“It’s never going to happen while I’m here. Believe me, these guys get paid what they’re supposed to get paid, they eat what they kill.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is one of the most famous examples whose lower-than-expected salary drove him to leave the company.
He left the UFC after it was revealed his contract, which was worth $600,000 (£495,000) per fight, had expired.