Based in Las Vegas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company that has become the world’s largest organization of the full-contact combat sport.
Since 2016, the UFC has been majority-owned by Zuffa (which means “fight” in Italian), a sports company that belongs to billionaire brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who made their fortune in the casino business and bought the Championship as a hobby.
Together, the Fertitta brothers own 17 casinos in the state of Nevada and several companies in the online gambling market, mostly poker and video poker platforms. The brothers have said several times that their goal in life is to take things they love and make them profitable ventures, and they are up for any challenges.
Dana Frederick White, Lorenzo Fertitta’s high school friend, owns the remaining 9% of UFC shares and serves as the organization’s president. He shares the Fertitta brothers’ intense passion for gambling at Safe Betting Sites.
White’s net worth is currently estimated at US$500 million. He and the Fertitta brothers have worked hard to grow UFC into a thriving business.
With the fights occurring almost every weekend, UFC’s audience is constantly expanding. MMA is one of the planet’s fastest-growing sports, with a higher rating audience and more ringside seats than actual boxing.
Currently, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has a partnership with Fox network to air live content, including prime-time Pay-Per-View (PPV) events, Fight Night, and the reality television series The Ultimate Fighter, where two squads must fight against each other to avoid elimination.
Today, the UFC has almost 450 fighters from 38 countries under contract. Based on their popularity among the MMA community and the number of viewers they attract in each fight, they can earn up to two or three million dollars per fight, taking into consideration those official payouts for UFC events are never released by the organization, the calculations and analysts just for public information often make statistics.
With the huge risks the fighters take in every event, the salaries should match that danger. They are paid for their training and experience. With this in mind, we made a list to inform you who the three highest-paid MMA fighters under the UFC banner are currently. Check them out!
Connor Mc Gregor
Know as Notorious, Conor McGregor is the UFC fighter with the highest career earnings, leading the group and ahead compared to other fighters in the championship. Since its debut in 2013, the Irish athlete has increased in popularity and created an utterly successful side business, being the “most popular” person in Ireland. Notorious has lost 3 of his last 4 fights, but knowing him, he will win the fight when he makes a comeback this year.
Francis Ngannou
Second, in ranking, the now-former scary heavyweight champion started in the UFC in 2021, when he barely made any money. Now known as the hardest puncher in the competition and finishing his opponents comfortably, “The Predator,” who was born in France with Cameroonian roots, is on the higher end of the pay scale.
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Known as “The Eagle, Khabib Nurmagomedov is a Russian MMA fighter and UFC champion that attracts millions of viewers worldwide in every appearance inside the Octagon for his insane knockouts.
Nurmagomedov has a record of 29 victories and no losses, including wins over UFC star Conor Mc Gregor, the highest-paid fighter in the competition. He turned PRO in 2013 and, since then, has been among the best athletes of all time. In June 2022, the UFC announced that he achieved the recognized UFC Hall of Fame.
Final Considerations
The list above shows the previous year’s top three highest-paid MMA fighters. All of them have experience in the full-combat sport and earn millions of dollars annually, which makes sense, as they are the main attraction, and make the organization win big. As the audience of the UFC is increasing yearly, experts say their winnings will likely grow annually.
