The UFC is a privately held company, and thus has no obligation to reveal salaries. Athletic commissions in many states require that a fighter’s win and show money be public, but there is no requirement that contracted points on a PPV, locker room bonuses, apparel sponsorships, etc be made public. This has led to widespread speculation about what fighters actually make.
There was some shock when Jon Jones brothers, each of whom is a successful NFL player said that Jon makes more than they do. But it still comes a shock that Jon Jones would have made in excess of $10,000,000 for fighting at UFC 200.
The news comes from Jones’ manager, Malki Kawa, during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour.
“You’re talking about an eight-figure payday,” said Malki Kawa, as transcribed by Anton Tabuena for MMA Fighting. “Eight figures. Conor can talk about whatever he gets and all of that, Jon is by far the highest paid guy in the UFC, and the numbers that were shown that day for everybody from Brock and the way down, Jon was making more than all of that.”
Kawa also discussed Jones’ failed drug test.
“Jon, at no point in time, was a cheater, has never cheated, has never taken any substance that he knowingly knew of that was on the banned list,” said Kawa.
“You take supplements, it could be anything. You could take freaking protein powder in a basic form, BCAAs, anything, and if it’s tainted with anything — the thing is people don’t understand, these supplements get made in manufacturing plants, and although it’s just supposed to be protein, the batch before that might’ve been some sort of testosterone booster that had some something illegal in it. So, if they don’t clean the machines out and all of a sudden that can be in that batch.”
“It came from something. I can tell you that much, whether it’s a supplement, there’s medication that he took that was prescribed to him by a doctor — it could’ve from there. There’s a whole bunch of different things that lead to these things across all athletes. So as this point right now, I don’t know. I have an idea, but I have to get that tested before I can sit there and say it.”
