Overeem doubts McGregor, Mayweather money talk

In mixed martial arts, the goal was long “Anderson Silva Money.” No one knew how much that was, but it was millions per fight.

The new standard is “Conor McGregor Money.”

Last year, on episode 300 of Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, the Irishman reported he was negotiating an eight-fight, nine-figure contract.

Four figures and you are an actual thousandaire. Five figures and you are in UFC debut territory. Six figures is the contract you get for winning TUF. Seven figures is a million dollars. Eight figures is Anderson Silva money.

Nine figures is $100,000,000, or more.

McGregor reported he made $10,000,000 for his last two fights.

And that money is eclipsed by Floyd Mayweather. ‘Money’ Mayweather’s money is reported to be extraordinary – most notably $250 million for the adrenaline short but defensively genius fight vs. Pacquiao.

However, in a discussion with MMA H.E.A.T.‘s Karyn Bryant at a Monday media lunch at Palm Restaurant in Downtown LA Downtown LA, UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem said isn’t buying it.

“My answer to that, to Mayweather and to Conor, let me see some bank statements,” said Overeem, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “You can talk, you can say it, you can put it out there in tweets, but let me see a bank statement that says UFC wired X amount of money, because it’s always going to be this way. People lie. It’s the 21st century. Social media is fake.”

“I’m from Holland. In Holland, we like to dress up, we like to do our thing, we like to be cool. But we what we don’t like is to have stacks of cash on the table and the cars. To us, in our culture — and in that respect I’m very proud to be Dutch — that’s just attracting problems, attracting difficulty.”

“I am my own guy and I’ve always kind of followed my own path. I do what I think is right. That brings me happiness. If I’m going to do something because somebody else is doing it, I see that as fake. Again, you look at these other guys and they’re making the stacks of cash. Who was the first doing that? Muhammad Ali was doing that. So you’re copycatting another guy. I’m just being me. I feel very comfortable being me. I don’t feel obliged to be somebody else at all. I’m very proud of being me.”

“People lie all the time. Personally, I have a hard time believing both of them about their income.”

Alistair Overeem fights UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic on September 10, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.