I read a few months back that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria was making between $300,000-$400,000 per fight in PRIDE. But then I read that his contract expired and that K-1 offered him $750,000 to fight on their New Years Eve show, but then Nogueria obviously ended up resigning with PRIDE. So does anyone know what he's making now?
I've read that Royce Gracie is getting paid $1 million (or maybe a little more) to fight Akebono at the K-1 New Years Eve show. I assume that Akebono is getting about the same, correct?
I read that Rulon Gardner signed a 3 fight contract with PRIDE for $600,000, so that comes out to $200,000 per fight. Does anyone know if that is all that he'll be making win, lose, or draw, or is that just his appearance fee and does he get a bonus if he wins, and if so, how much?
I read that that Egyptian Olympic wrestler, Karim Gaber Ibriham (or whatever his name is) signed a $1.2 million deal with K-1. Is this just for one fight or is this for multiple fights? Also, does he get win bonuses?
How much do the following figheters make?
Kazushi Sakuraba
Vanderlei Silva
Fedor Emelianenko
Hidehiko Yoshida
Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic
Mark Hunt
How much do the top K-1 guys make these days (Bojasky, Hoost, LeBanner, etc..)? What's the grand prize for winning the K-1 World Grand Prix up to now? I read a few years ago that the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals grand prize purse was $500,000.
How much does Kazuyuki Fujita make per fight? How about Bob Sapp?
Word has it, that K-1 will focus really hard on MMA in 2005 and possibly start K-1 events (all MMA) They will be on a separate show from the KickBoxing events.
If true, they will be throwing huge money at Pride stars trying to get them to come over. Should get very interesting as to who they "target".........
K-1 already had an all MMA show in May 22nd of 2004 in Romanex. I think that a good name for K-1's MMA division would be MMA-1.
Good point about the UFC paying peanuts in comparison to PRIDE and K-1. These are some of the pay scales that I've read for UFC fighters.
Randy Couture got either $200,000 or $225,000 for beating Vitor Belfort. I think that either $125,000 or $150,000 was his gaurentee and the rest was his win bonus.
Ken Shamrock got $180,000 for beating Kimo. I think that his gaurentee was $100,000 and his win bonus was $80,000.
Tito's gaurentee is $125,000 and his win bonus is $50,000.
I think Vitor's gaurentee is $100,000 and his win bonus is like $50,000.
I think that Chuck Lidell's gaurentee is up to like $100,000 and his win bonus is up to like $75,000.
Matt Hughes' gaurentee is $75,000 and his win bonus is $75,000.
If I was a fighter I'd definitely trying to get into PRIDE or K-1 rather than the UFC since there's more money to be made in Japan.
Frank Mir's gaurentee is $45,000 and his win bonus is $45,000.
Anyone know how much Chuck Lidell got paid for his PRIDE fights? That would be funny if he got paid more for his PRIDE fights than he gets paid in the UFC.
How much was the grand prize for winning the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix back in 2003? How much was (is) the jackpot for winning the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix this year?
I think that Mark Coleman got paid either $200,000 or $250,000 for winning the finals in the PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix in 2000.
I think that Dan Henderson got paid $200,000 for winning the finals of the RINGS King Of Kings Tournament '99 (the finals of which were actually held in February of 2000).
Anyone know what Dan Hederson is getting paid by PRIDE?
The UFC is not the biggest stage in MMA. Maybe it is the biggest stage for MMA in the USA, but in Japan and internationally PRIDE & K-1 are bigger. MMA needs to become more popular in the UFC before the UFC will be able to pay as much as PRIDE & K-1.
There are still fighters who get paid $1,000 (or less) in smaller promotions like King Of The Cage, Super Brawl, Rage In The Cage, etc... The lower card fighters in the UFC don't get paid a whole more more than that.
Lammy, I'd say the UFC is more of a world-wide company
then Pride.
Pride has done very little to promote itself outside
of Japan. They show their events in America, but the
UFC has an audience 20 times the size of Pride's in
the U.S. I don't think Pride even shows their events
anywhere else.
UFC is or has been shown in Canada, England,
Australia, Brazil, and Japan.
Pride pays on average slightly more then the UFC...but
it isn't that big of a difference.
A real good reason for a fighter to stick with the UFC
is the UFC also has the potential to bring way more
fame and money then Pride if the UFC can come anywhere
near mainstream acceptance in America. Oscar De La
Hoya can make $20 million for a boxing match and
boxing isn't as popular in America as Pride is in
Japan.
Yeah but all UFC fans in the west know all about Pride and know all the fighters.
Whereas not many Pride fans in Japan know anything about UFC or the fighters in it (in my experience), except maybe its in a cage and Royce won a lot.
So amongst MMA fans Pride is better known and I am sure the amount of casual fans Pride has in Japan out numbers the amount of casual fans UFC has in the west.
UFC could be great - it is just horribly ran and promoted.
To see how much the fighters are getting paid in Japan, wait untill the fight is over and look at the giant cheques they hold up - normally has the price on it.