UFC great Demetrious Johnson has revealed he was guaranteed just $14,000 for his 2011 title fight against Dominick Cruz.
Johnson, who is widely considered as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time, fought in the UFC for seven years and now competes for Singaporean promotion ONE Championship. When the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) merged with the UFC in 2010, Johnson challenged Cruz for the promotion's inaugural bantamweight title.
The former UFC fighter shocked fans on a recent Twitch stream by revealing his $14,000 purse for the fight, which is just $4,000 more than the lowest salary UFC fighters are paid today. “When I fought Dominick Cruz, I was under contract fighting for $14,000 to show and $14,000 to win. I lost to Cruz, so I made 14k. Then I fought Ian McCall in Australia and I was on the same contract. When I fought Ian McCall for the second time, I got a new contract that was bumped up to $20,000 [per show] and $20,000 [per win]," Johnson said.
It wasn't until after three years with the UFC and four fights into his reign as flyweight champion that Johnson was guaranteed a six-figure purse. “I beat Ian McCall and then I fought Joseph Benavidez. I was still on that $20,000 and $20,000, so when I fought John Dodson I made $23,000 and $23,000.
"Then when I fought John Moraga, I think it was $23,000 and $23,000, so it probably went $26,000 and $26,000. Then when I fought Joseph Benavidez [in a rematch], I think it was $30,000 and $30,000. Then I finally got a new contract as champion, and I think it was $125,000 and $50,000, but I couldn’t get pay-per-view points."
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Johnson admitted that pay-per-view points - when a fighter is awarded a percentage of an event's sales - are one of the driving factors for taking home a big fight purse. Only certain UFC fighters are given pay-per-view points and despite being one of the longest-serving champions in UFC history, Johnson was never awarded the privilege during his stint in the promotion.
"That’s where a champion makes the most bang for their buck, the pay-per-view points," Johnson added. "If you get on a card with Conor McGregor and he does 2.1 million buys, you just do the f****** math. You’re going to make a s***load of money. I never got the opportunity to do that."
