Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano salary figures revealed: What every fighter earned for Netflix's MMA debut
Rousey and Carano made it clear they needed to look outside the UFC to secure the kind of paydays they wanted for their MMA comebacks. Now we have our first sense of what those numbers look like.
Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano made it clear they needed to look outside the UFC to secure the kind of paydays they wanted for their MMA comebacks. On Saturday, we got our first sense of what those numbers may look like. Following Rousey’s first-round submission over Carano atop the first MMA card ever broadcasted live on Netflix, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) released the event’s salary figures to Uncrowned.
Per CSAC, Rousey earned a $2,200,000 purse for her performance, while Carano took home a $1,050,000 purse in the losing effort. It is important to note that these commission figures often do not represent a fighter’s total earnings, especially for the sport’s bigger stars; rather, they represent only the purses contracted to appear on the commission’s publicly available salary report. Sponsorship revenue, signing bonuses, contracted incentive clauses and other off-book bonuses are not publicly disclosed by CSAC.
Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) co-founder Nakisa Bidarian told Uncrowned ahead of Saturday’s MVP MMA debut that all fighters for the event would be paid a minimum purse of $40,000 — more than UFC’s typical introductory fighter salary of $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win. Unlike the UFC’s show-win pay model, Bidarian confirmed MVP’s payouts were also a flat rate for every fighter, with bonus incentives available as well. "That's guaranteed,” Bidarian said of the card’s unique purse structure on “The Ariel Helwani Show.
” “And then every fighter has a performance bonus in addition to that, which, there are different levels depending on the fighter. "We will have a Fight of the Night [bonus]. Jake [Paul] and I need to kind of discuss it, and we'll announce it at the right time.