MMAVu

Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports has an interesting article up on UFC vs Boxing salaries. Here are some snips:

So I called the Nevada Athletic Commission and got the payment verification sheets for the last two major boxing shows (Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe on April 19 and Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez on March 15) as well as for the last major UFC show in the state, UFC 81 on Feb. 2.

According to state records, Hopkins and Calzaghe were each paid $3 million for their work. The next highest-paid fighter on that card was Audley Harrison, who made $20,000. There were nine fighters who made $5,000 or less, including two men, Marcos Mendias and Jermell Charlo, who made but $1,500.

Pacquiao made $3 million and Marquez $1 million for their epic rematch, but there were five fighters of the 14 on that show who made $3,500 or less.

At the UFC show, the lowest base pay for any of the 18 fighters on the card was the $4,000 that Kyle Bradley made.

The UFC also paid out $60,000 bonuses that night for knockout of the night, submission of the night and fight of the night. Plus, most of the fighters had bonuses for winning, so the opportunity was there for them to double their pay, which was not for the boxers.

While boxing appears higher-paying because of their incredibly skewed pays between the haves and the have-nots, after reading this article, it appears the UFC is more in line than I thought. All we ever hear about boxing is what the Main Eventers are hauling in and nothing much about the guys slugging it out on the undercard. Here’s more:

Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre reportedly received a $500,000 bonus and a Hummer when he knocked out Matt Hughes at UFC 65 in Sacramento, California. Additionally, fighting in the UFC makes an athlete significantly more attractive to a sponsor. Frank Mir made $85,000 for the logos he wore into the cage for his fight with Brock Lesnar that night.

Wow, that’s quite the nice bonus “Rush” got. And $85,000 for wearing some logos on your shorts? I don’t even remember what shorts Mir was wearing, just that he was getting smashed (HULK, SMASH!!) for 87 seconds of his 90 second fight. Maybe people have been too harsh on the UFC and its salaries, but there’s no disputing the undercard fighters need to be paid more so they can at least make a living in this sport. After all, the UFC is the Major Leagues, right? Are there any 3rd stringers in Baseball or 4th liners in Hockey working weekends at a club to make ends meet?

You can read the entire article here.