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The subject of UFC fighter pay is one that’s never far from the news, and with a number of current fighters seemingly unhappy with the money they’re making, UFC legend Georges St-Pierre has now spoken out.
In an interview with Wealthsimple magazine, former UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre opened up about his time with the UFC and the money that he earned. Some of the revelations dropped by GSP in this interview are truly eyebrow-raising, giving fans a glimpse inside the workings of the UFC.
Here are five things we learned from Georges St-Pierre’s interview with Wealthsimple.
#1 GSP only earned $6k for his UFC debut win over Karo Parisyan
While the usual complaints over fighter pay in the UFC center around how big names like Jon Jones and Conor McGregor should be making more money – putting them in line with boxers like Floyd Mayweather – less is usually mentioned about the UFC’s entry-level pay.
Right now, it appears that UFC debutants who don’t bring a big reputation in with them are paid $12k to show, and a potential $12k to win – giving them a potential $24k overall. While that doesn’t sound like much, it’s a far cry from what Georges St-Pierre made in his UFC debut back in 2004.
According to GSP, he made just $6k for his octagon debut against Karo Parisyan at UFC 46; $3k to show and $3k for winning the fight. St-Pierre also states that he was paid $1.3k for his MMA debut in Canadian promotion TKO – meaning the step up to the UFC hardly paid out in terms of money.
In a sense, then, the UFC could portray this as a small win. The money paid to debutants has basically quadrupled in the last 17 years, which is a much bigger raise than the average wage.
#2 GSP only made $9k for his first UFC title shot
Just nine months and two wins into his UFC career, Georges St-Pierre was elevated up the card and found himself in a fight with UFC legend Matt Hughes for the vacant UFC welterweight title. But if St-Pierre had thought that a UFC title shot would mean much more money, he was unfortunately mistaken.
According to his recent interview, GSP made just $9k for the fight with Hughes at UFC 50, and would’ve made another $9k had he won the title. This would’ve been treble the amount he made for his UFC debut, but in terms of the bigger picture, it was still a paltry amount of money to make for a UFC title shot.
However, the UFC’s detractors should probably remember that at the time, the promotion was bleeding money and was about to use the TUF reality series as a last attempt to help it succeed. Again, payouts for fighters in their first title bout have improved dramatically over the years that have followed. Brandon Moreno, for instance, made a reported $180k for his shot at UFC flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 256.
Can the UFC pay its fighters more? Definitely – but that doesn’t mean the fighters aren’t doing better than their counterparts two decades ago.
#3 GSP used the potential of free agency to squeeze more money out of the UFC
Perhaps the most interesting part of Georges St-Pierre's interview with Wealthsimple was the revelation that he used the threat of free agency to squeeze more money out of the UFC in 2008. According to St-Pierre, after he defeated Matt Serra for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 83, he had just one more fight on his contract.
And before his first title defense against Jon Fitch at UFC 87, he informed the UFC he wouldn’t be re-signing with them, as he intended to test the market. GSP states that “other organisations” wanted him as their poster-boy, and the UFC knew that. So who were these “other organisations”? Based on the timeline, it’s likely that the ill-fated Affliction promotion was St-Pierre’s most likely suitor.
Affliction had already sponsored GSP at that point, and 2008 was the year that saw them throw mega-salaries at the likes of Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski. However, in St-Pierre’s case, the UFC decided not to call his bluff. According to GSP, they came back to him prior to the Fitch fight with a “big, crazy contract” worth far more than the reported $400k he was paid for the bout.
GSP claims that he made millions of dollars from then on out. Essentially, what he describes as a gamble of sorts paid off handsomely.
#4 GSP left the UFC in 2013 due to concerns over drug testing
When Georges St-Pierre stepped away from the UFC in 2013 following his ninth successful UFC welterweight title defense against Johny Hendricks, there were plenty of theories floating around.
Most fans – as well as UFC President Dana White – were happy to accept the idea that GSP was simply burned out after so many years at the top of the UFC. Basically, the theory was that the Canadian was struggling under the pressure and needed a break. However, according to this recent interview, that may not have been the case.
St-Pierre states candidly that the reason he stepped away was because of the problem of performance enhancing drugs in the UFC. According to GSP, he was “disgusted” with the drug problem in the sport, and accuses the UFC of “protecting their athletes instead of looking for the truth”. GSP doesn’t name names in this interview, but given that Hendricks was his final opponent, it’s hard not to suspect something was amiss there.
At any rate, GSP states that he only returned to the UFC once they’d installed USADA to test their athletes properly.
#5 GSP made around $10m for his comeback fight with Michael Bisping
Following his quasi-retirement in 2013, Georges St-Pierre made a comeback to the UFC in 2017 after USADA had been brought in to properly drug test the promotion’s fighters.
St-Pierre explained in the interview that he didn’t want to return to fight for the UFC welterweight title, and so instead, he challenged Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight title. GSP would win their subsequent fight at UFC 217, becoming one of the UFC’s only two-division champions – although he would relinquish the title rather than defend it.
And interestingly, St-Pierre claims he made far more money for his fight with Bisping than fans may have initially realized. According to reports at the time, GSP made a disclosed $2.58m for the fight, with a $2.5m base pay, a $50k bonus cheque and $30k in sponsorship money from Reebok.
However, in his recent interview, GSP outright states that he made around $10m for the fight, with the discrepancy coming in undisclosed pay due to other sponsorships and a cut of the UFC’s pay-per-view revenue. GSP later states that he “got out” of the sport in 2019, avoiding both brain damage and financial issues.
Given the fate of other UFC legends such as Mark Coleman and Chuck Liddell, it’s safe to say he made the right decision.
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