Have you seen the purses that popular MMA fighters are fighting for?
Probably the most popular MMA fighter, Randy Couture, fought for a salary of $250,000 in his last fight against Gabriel Gonzaga (who fought for $45,000.00) in UFC 74. He also received a portion of the PPV revenue, and sources say he made approximately $1,000,000.00 total for the fight. The total PPV revenues for the fight were appox 40 million. Percentage wise, the headline fighters brought home less than 3% of the revenue from the fight.
The biggest boxing fight in history (money wise) was the De La Hoya - Mayweather fight. In that fight, De La Hoya made $52,000,000.00!! Mayweather made $25,000,000.00!! The fight brought in $120,000,000 from PPV. Together, the fighters brought home more than 64% of the PPV revenue.
Am I missing something or are MMA fighters hugely underpaid compared to fighters on the boxing side?