Derek Brunson believes leaving the UFC is the best decision in his MMA career, especially after PFL welcomed him with the “biggest payday ever” during his debut fight.
Brunson made his debut versus Ray Cooper III in November at PFL Finals card, where he received his pay. While the fighter shared no exact figures of how much he earned, Brunson shared how huge the difference was compared to how much he got from the UFC during his stay. The mixed martial artist also recalled how he never got any post-fight bonus from his previous promotion, making his first PFL pay more memorable.
“For sure, my biggest payday ever,” Brunson told MMA Fighting. “It’s pretty good. It’s a lot more than the UFC, I would say that.
“It’s crazy. It’s kind of disheartening when you hear guys like Kevin Holland say, ‘The fight with [Khamzat] Chimaev, I got paid crazy money.’ Like I would imagine he got $600,000 or something like that, short notice. Who else, I think Sean Strickland fought somebody on short notice, it was [Nassourdine] Imavov or somebody, but he fought him on short notice and got paid a lot of money. I’ve never been able to say that.
“I fought everybody. Even like [Israel Adesanya] — I didn’t have to fight Izzy. I did it because it’s a big fight and I wanted to put on for the fans and put on a big fight. These are fights that I didn’t have to takem but I took those risks and I really wanted to put on a good fight and give the fans something good.”
Brunson is one of the latest fighters to highlight the huge difference between an MMA fighter’s earrings and opportunities under UFC and other promotions like PFL. And while the former UFC talent wants to stress that his former promotion became a significant part of his life, he knows he had to move on to a place where he is “wanted and appreciated.”
“I enjoy fighting, but we definitely want to be able to be comfortable, take care of our families with it, be able to buy what we want to buy,” Brunson said. “We put our lives, our livelihoods on the line, our brains. We can’t get that stuff back. If you’re out here putting on big fights and fighting these high-level fights, you want to be taken care of.”
