“We aren’t here to take part, we’re here to take over!”
Those words were spoken by UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor after one of his early victories. Since then he’s set the record for largest UFC gate at the MGM Grand Garden Arena twice, will most likely break the UFC PPV record with his 13-second KO performance at UFC 194 and will challenge for a title in a second weight class in 2016.
“At 27 years of age, I stand here as the unified world champion [with] back-to-back gate records at the MGM. This is trending as the highest pay-per-view of all time for UFC. I’m 27 years of age with every record in the book.” – McGregor
Gate records, PPV records & possible titles in multiple divisions; does that sound familiar to you?
It’s the exact formula used by Floyd Mayweather to gain success. Mayweather could’ve stayed at 140 lbs for much longer than he did but he knew that the big money fights were at 147lbs, so he madet the jump. We saw it again when he captured several titles at 154lbs. That flexibility allowed Mayweather to take the right fights at the right times and skyrocketed his earning potential.
Floyd was well into his 30’s when he figured that out, McGregor sees these dynamics at 27 years old.
“A $72 million gate [for Mayweather-Pacquiao]?” McGregor asked. “We did $10.1 [million]. I’m catching up. I’m only 27. Them f***ers are 40. I said to Lorenzo and I said to Dana, I’m bringing these big numbers. I’m bringing these half-a-billion revenue numbers like Mayweather and Pacquiao have done.”
“Mystic Mac” has been predicting KOs and big checks during his entire UFC career. For UFC 194 he made his guaranteed $500k and an additional $50k performance bonus. These figures seem small but where Conor truly cleans up is his undisclosed bonuses and endorsement deals. The UFC is cutting McGregor a portion of the PPV shares and most likely a cut of the record $10.1 million gate.
His endorsement checks from EA Sports, Monster, Reebok and others round out the money earned by McGregor for a 13-second fight. It’s not beyond reason to believe McGregor left UFC 194 with a $5 Mil cash out.
Sure, it’s far less than the $350 million Floyd reportedly made against Pacquiao but it’s not to shabby compared to what Floyd was making at 27 years old.
Zuffa owner and UFC executive Lorenzo Fertitta feels as though Conor is on pace to become the highest earning athlete in UFC history. Fertitta told ESPN that he thought McGregor would be “our first $100 millionaire.”
McGregor believes he can earn much more than that.
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