The legendary Georges St-Pierre recently revealed financial facts about his time with the UFC. The Canadian wrote an essay titled “UFC Won’t Pay You Fair Unless You Make Them,” for Wealthsimple magazine.
There, Georges shares some figures he received from UFC during his career. For example, in his UFC 46 debut back in 2004, St-Pierre earned $3,000 for fighting and $3,000 more for beating Karo Parysian. In his first championship fight against Matt Hughes, he only received $9,000 as he was defeated by the champion.
Georges St-Pierre reveals how he finally got UFC to pay him well
It wouldn’t be until 2008 that St-Pierre would finally earn what was considered a big payday in MMA. But before he did, he had to take a big risk and bet on himself. After regaining the title by defeating Matt Serra, Georges had only one more fight on his UFC contract. When the promoter wanted to renew it, the Canadian refused.
“It was like a bluff in poker, we said, ‘we don’t want to re-sign before the fight, we want to finish the contract.’ We took a big risk, because it’s like the stock market. Your value can go up if you succeed, but it can also go down if you lose. But that’s what we decided to do. I always believed in myself, so we took the big risk.”
St-Pierre’s strategy worked, as just before what would be the final fight of his contract, UFC made him a generous offer.
“The day before my fight with Jon Fitch, UFC came in with a big, crazy contract because they didn’t want me to become a free agent. Did you guys read that I was making $400,000 a fight? No, I was making a lot more than that. Much more than that. Millions. When I was at the top of my career I was making millions of dollars.”
St-Pierre’s revelations come just when there’s the most talk about the amounts UFC pays. Guys like Jon Jones, Francis Ngannou and Paulo Costa have all questioned the salaries they’re getting paid. Georges himself has been affected by the issue, because even though he is retired, he still “owes” fights on his UFC contract. That is why he was unable to face Oscar De La Hoya in a boxing match.
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