Masvidal saved the UFC’s big Fight Island debut during the COVID-19 pandemic after it’s original main event fell out. It made him a lot of money, but may have cost him his dreams of a title.
While boxers like Ryan Garcia are celebrating $50 million paydays for fights, UFC fighters are just grateful when they can pull a $5 million payday out of the promotion.
Jorge Masvidal may have never won a proper UFC title, but he did become a bona fide star that could move the needle pay-per-view wise. In the UFC, you rarely get a cut of the PPV unless you hold a belt. Jorge Masvidal found a way, though. He fought Nate Diaz for the first ever BMF belt title fight in 2019. Then when COVID hit and the UFC needed to make a big bang for their Fight Island debut, he agreed to fight Kamaru Usman on six days notice.
“We ended up selling right under 1.3 million pay-per-views,” he told VladTV in a recent interview. “If I hadn’t struck that deal with the UFC, I wouldn’t have gotten nowhere near $5 million. I would have sold the same amount and gotten no nowhere near $5 million. And I would have just felt like I got taken advantage of.”
Should have been 10
Sounds like most of it was from ppv sales. Good on him for getting a piece of what he brought in.
$0.10