Conor McGregor might be on the big bucks as an MMA star nowadays, but he actually earned less than Paddy Pimblett for his first UFC fight.
Pimblett surprised fans when he revealed his purse for his second-ever UFC appearance last weekend when he stepped into the ring against Kazula Vargas for Fight Night 204 in London.
The lightweight fighter revealed he made $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win at the event, with the figures proving drastically less than the millions McGregor has been known to earn during fights. However, McGregor has come a long way in terms of his payments since he first signed to the UFC in 2013.
McGregor's first fight saw him take on Marcus Brimage and secure a win with a knockout in just 67 seconds. Such a fight would no doubt earn him hundreds of thousands, if not more, these days, but at the time he was only guaranteed £6,000.
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It's a big drop from Pimblett's guaranteed £9,000, which comes as the UFC's most basic salary and has been in place since he made his debut last September, and it wasn't until McGregor's second fight against Max Holloway that he reached the same level and was guaranteed £9,000.
Still, McGregor's payouts have obviously increased vastly since then, and in 2016 he made his first seven figures when fighting Nate Diaz. McGregor's most recent fight, which took place against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, saw him secure a £15 million guaranteed purse, but it was his bout against Floyd Mayweather in 2017 that earned him his biggest figure to date - a massive £72 million.
Pimblett expressed his acceptance of the purse in an interview with Barstool Sports, where clarified he was being given '12 to show and 12 to win'.
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He commented: "It goes up after every fight, but you're in a contract, so it's whenever they want to offer me a new one, they offer me a new one. So, it's just one of those things."
Pimblett did end up taking home a bonus on top of his $24,000 as his win over Vargas saw him earn an extra $50,000 he was awarded for Performance of the Night.
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn told Boxing King Media things operate differently in the UFC, chalking the purse up to the notion that 'it's a different kind of structure in the UFC'.
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"Particularly, when you talk about the training facilities and you talk about sponsorships as well and stuff like that. I don't know enough about the business. What I can tell you is that being up close and personal to it, every one of those fighters who won, got out of the octagon, ran around and cuddled Dana White. So, the fighters appear to be happy," he said.
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