Luke
04-20-2011, 06:00 PM
In the major sports, stories about athletes' salaries generally draw derision and jealous reactions. In the case of mixed martial arts, fans probably have a more supportive stance for the fighters. The combatants aren't making a killing relative to athletes from the NFL, NBA and MLB yet they're putting the safety on the line.
According to ESPN the Magazine (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6391391), the highest paid MMA fighter in 2010 was Lesnar at ONLY $5.3 million. Boxer Manny Pacquiao led the way in the other major combat sport at $32 million.
On the surface, that makes MMA look pathetic. Should MMA stars like Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva be making $15 million-plus a year? Maybe, but the argument from MMA promoters is that the gap between boxing's haves and have-nots is massive while MMA can boast of dozens of fighters making in excess of $500,000 per year.
The Star Phoenix's Dave Deibert points out that Lesnar is actually a bigger draw (http://communities.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/blogs/mma/archive/2011/04/20/brock-lesnar-is-mma-s-highest-paid-star-how-do-his-earnings-compare-to-other-top-athletes.aspx) than 99.9 percent of the fighters in the modern history of combat sports:
Lesnar has recently become the biggest pay-per-view draw in the world. In 2010, he joined Mike Tyson as the only athletes to twice draw more than one million buys on pay-per-view in a single year — Tyson did it three times in 1996
According to ESPN the Magazine (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6391391), the highest paid MMA fighter in 2010 was Lesnar at ONLY $5.3 million. Boxer Manny Pacquiao led the way in the other major combat sport at $32 million.
On the surface, that makes MMA look pathetic. Should MMA stars like Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva be making $15 million-plus a year? Maybe, but the argument from MMA promoters is that the gap between boxing's haves and have-nots is massive while MMA can boast of dozens of fighters making in excess of $500,000 per year.
The Star Phoenix's Dave Deibert points out that Lesnar is actually a bigger draw (http://communities.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/blogs/mma/archive/2011/04/20/brock-lesnar-is-mma-s-highest-paid-star-how-do-his-earnings-compare-to-other-top-athletes.aspx) than 99.9 percent of the fighters in the modern history of combat sports:
Lesnar has recently become the biggest pay-per-view draw in the world. In 2010, he joined Mike Tyson as the only athletes to twice draw more than one million buys on pay-per-view in a single year — Tyson did it three times in 1996