Combat sports are drawn to the number 1,000,000. In 1921 boxing got its first $1,000,000 live gate, when Jack Dempsey fought Georges Carpentier at Jersey City, New Jersey. Nearly 100 years later, there is a new ascendant combat sport, with a new ascendant champion.
And according to UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, the undisputed featherweight champion Conor McGregor will be the first fighter to be paid $100,000,000 by the company.
Fertitta said Tuesday night that he thought McGregor would be “our first $100 millionaire.”
Fertitta said that number, which assumes McGregor will continue to dominate, would be from fight earnings, bonuses and pay-per-view revenue, and would not include his outside income from the likes of Monster, his autograph deal with Fanatics or entertainment deals. On Tuesday, TMZ reported McGregor was offered a part in Vin Diesel’s “XXX” sequel.
Fertitta, who declined to predict a final number for McGregor’s earnings Saturday, said McGregor’s quick work of Aldo “left people wanting more.”
It is also possible that McGregor’s popularity is such that the tail wags the dog, and he ends up making more than $100,000,000. ‘Notorious’ is expected to next fight the winner of this weekend’s lightweight title fight between Donald Cerrone and Rafael Dos Anjos. Fight after that, win or lose, could be vs. top flyweight contender Frankie Edgar, who knocked out Chad Mendes in a featherweight bout on Friday.
If Dana White is the heart of the UFC operation, Lorenzo Fertitta is the head, strategizing far into the future, and memorably identifying why the UFC is popular.
“… there’s the holy s— factor,” said Fertitta in an interview with The Atlantic magazine. “Actually, they said ‘the holy f—ing s— factor.’ It happens at every fight. At least one or two times in every show, whether you say it out loud or you say it to yourself, you go, ‘holy shit did that just happen?’ I mean, you might see somebody do a flip, get kicked in the head, get knocked out with a punch. At some point, you’re going ‘whoah, did that just happen? Did I really just see that?’ That’s the nucleus of what our product is.”
At UFC 194 Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds and millions of people, as one, gasped HOLY F@$%ING $#!^.” And that is why he is going to make $100,000,000.
Below, Fertitta and the entire Clan McGregor celebrate with a shot of whiskey after UFC 194.
