UFC 194 is The Big One. Two title fights and three main card bouts with elite divisional talent, and each one of those matches could arguably headline any Fight Night or UFC Fight Pass event.
As far as MMA cards go, it doesn’t get much better than this. UFC 194 is worth it just for the long-awaited battle between featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo and superstar Conor McGregor alone. But thanks to the Las Vegas setting, we’re about to get a rare peek into the money behind some of the UFC’s biggest names. Let’s roll up our sleeves and dive right into previous UFC fighter salaries and most-recent Reebok sponsorship payouts for each athlete on Saturday’s main card.
Note: Divisional rankings via Fight Matrix. UFC salaries and Reebok figures via MMA Payout and MMA Junkie.
Jose Aldo [#1 FW]
$240,000 = $120,000/$120,000 [UFC 156]
Conor McGregor [#3 FW]
$530,000** = $530,000 + $30,000* [UFC 189]
Analysis: Jose Aldo has loudly and repeatedly stated that he’s vastly underpaid by the UFC brass, often to equally loud criticism. Judging by the paper trail alone, he’s 100-percent correct.
For a man who has a legit claim to being the world’s #1 pound-for-pound fighter, his reported salaries are underwhelming to say the least. It’s also been nearly three years since Aldo’s last public paycheck, so win or lose, we’ll at least have a better grasp on his worth to the UFC.
Conor McGregor is much harder to figure out. While his last disclosed salary at UFC 189 looks high, it was a one-time deal also given to Chad Mendes to compensate for some very late emergency matchmaking.
UFC Fight Night 59 was actually the last time we got “show” and “win” salary numbers for McGregor, where he made $170,000 ($85,000/$85,000) for beating up an overmatched Dennis Siver. All his bragging aside, the Irish phenom is clearly making six figures in base pay, even before factoring in that exclusive Reebok deal he signed quite a while ago.