Bisping has earned more than GSP also Anderson Silva and Randy Couture!
MMA fighters as a Majority still lag way behind almost all pro sports in wage terms.
HERES THE TOP TEN
OK first let's put what this does and does not include so that I don't get the dumb answers the readers of MMA Manifesto got. These figures include: Earnings from UFC 46 onwards. Only cover reported salaries, fight of the night, knockout of the night and submission of the night bonuses. It does not include "Discretional Bonuses" Nor does it include any pay per view percentage deals. And of course it does not include Sponsorship Money from any source which could easily outstrip any numbers shown here for the top names in the sport.
Some of the numbers shown are accurate guesstimates because certain athletic commissions don't report fighters salary info, so the numbers were based upon previous and future purses.
The list was updated up to the recent UFC on Fuel in Macau Card - Franklin vs Le.
The list covers some 772 fighters ~ Here's the Top Ten:
Top of the tree is #1 Chuck Liddell with US$4,320,000
#2 Tito Ortiz $4,075,000
#3 Quinton Jackson $3,240,000
#4 Michael Bisping $3,135,000
#5 George St-Pierre $3,102,000
#6 Randy Couture $3,045,000
#7 Anderson Silva $2,871,000
#8 Brock Lesnar $2,825,000
#9 Rashad Evans $2,697,000
#10 BJ Penn $2,650,000
The obvious question to be asked is how the hell did Brock Lesnar earn only lightly less than Anderson Silva one of the greatest fighter in MMA history? Lesnar may have made it to Champion, but let's be totally honest he wasn't a good champion, more of a school yard bully who gave up once he got hit back!
Of course the other thing to note is that top Boxers will still earn more than these numbers in ONE fight and often ten times more. MMA may be the fastest growing sport in the world but it is nowhere near Boxing in earning terms. Imagine what Manny Pacquaio earned last weekend!
Of course the other call is that boxers at the lower end of the scale don't earn much. Well people, I know many MMA fighters who live hand to mouth, there is NO money at the bottom of any sport.
At #29 is Brandon Vera the last on the list to break six figures with $1,051,000 That means that 96% of fighters at the UFC have earned less than $100,000.
At #70 is Takanori Gomi on $500,000
At #253 we find Steve Cantwell with $100,000. Below him are those who have yet to break the six figure earnings barrier that's 67% of UFC fighters!
At #349 is the joke that was Kimbo Slice on $50,000 it's shocking to find that 54% of the fighters on this list earned less than him!
At #447 is Reza Madadi the last fighter to break $20,000 that means a shocking 42% of the fighters on this list earned less than $20,000.
At #589 comes Wagner Campos with just $10,000 - that means that almost 183 of 772 UFC fighters on this list have earned less than $20,000 that's 23% of all UFC fighters.
However considering the fact that the UFC is the "top of the tree" in the sports terms and that many of the fighters on this list would have been battling for years in small regional events to think that 50% of UFC fighters have only managed to earn $36,000 total, is shocking in the extreme.
For all the coverage that MMA gets, take it from me people your Son would earn much, much more playing almost any other professional sport.
A soccer player in the fourth tier of the English football league would earn more than 50% of the fighters on this list annually and yet be practically unknown beyond his own club and for every step up the ladder their wages would rise massively, plus think on this there are approximately 4500 spots for professional footballers in England alone, world wide that figure is massive.
A top professional in the English Premier League would earn in one season more than Chuck Liddell has earned through out his UFC career.
Not to mention what an American NFL, NBA or MLB player would earn annually. MMA fighters are still very much doing it because they love the sport it's not a great career choice for a massive majority of the fighters out there.
