The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest MMA promotion with some of the highest-paid athletes. Read on to know the top paid UFC fighters of 2021
UFC fighters can go on to earn six to eight figures in every fight. Moreover, some hotshots who attract the audience earn so much more that despite losing a fight, chances are that they went on to earn more than their opponent. Here are the top ten highest-paid UFC fighters in career salaries, excluding all other sources of income.
Top 10 Highest Paid UFC Fighters And Their Biggest Payouts 2021
10. Donald Cerrone ($7,025,800)
Cerrone has been around UFC for almost a decade with the most records. His biggest payday came as a 40-second lost to Conor McGregor at UFC 246 in which he earned more than $200,000. Cowboy is also the winner of the most Fight of the Night bonuses in UFC.
9. Georges St-Pierre ($7,037,000)
GSP has made over $7 million in disclosed paychecks. He earned around $2.6 million in the last fight of his career against Michael Bisping in 2017. ย He retired four years, as one of the rare multi-division champions of UFC.
8. Junior dos Santos ($7,110,000)
Ever since Cigano debuted in 2008, he has fought 21 fights, six of which helped the veteran Heavyweight take home six figures. His earned the most at UFC 211 when he unsuccessfully challenged Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight Championship. Santos took home around $830k for the fight.
7. Michael Bisping ($7,135,000)
The Count made a ย made a whopping total of $540k against his fight with Georges St-Pierre. Bisping has over 25 UFC bouts under his feet and made the same amount for each of his fights from November 2009 until he became the champion seven years later.
6. Jon Jones ($7,230,000)
Former lightweight champion Jon Jones has headlined almost 15 PPVs, most of which were title fights and defenses. Bones’ biggest payday came after UFC 214 when he beat Daniel Cormier and retained his LHW title. He took home $580k for this fight.
5. Anderson Silva ($8,732,000)
While Silva was the face of UFC and MMA once upon a time, he only started making real money during his post-championship reign. He made the highest figure against Derek Brunson at UFC 208, where he bagged a sum of $820k total.
4. Andrei Arlovski ($9,844,000)
Andrei “Pitbull” Arlovski may come as a surprise to young fans but around $3 million of his career earnings came from a few fights in between his UFC gigs.ย He has earned over $300k in his last ten career bouts and even without PPV numbers, he’d retain his list in this list.
3. Alistair Overeem ($10,204,500)
The Reem is one of the few fighters in UFC who have managed to surpass the ten million mark in disclosed pay. He signed a huge contract with UFC from May 2016 to November 2018. He fought seven bouts in this span and earned at least $800k for each of them.
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov ($14,770,000)
Most of The Eagle’s career earnings have come from his last three fights. Khabib earned almost $2,540k against Conor McGregor and more than $6,000k against Dustin Poirier. He then pocketed more than $5,000k against Justin Gaethje and announced his retirement afterward.
1. Conor McGregor ($20,102,000)
Forbes named The Notorious One as the highest-paid athlete in the world this year and it’s no surprise. McGregor claimed that he earned $50 million from his fight with Khabib and another $80 million against Donald Cerrone. It’s even safe to say that every fighter had their highest payday when they fought McGregor.
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