Quote: Jon Jones Is The Highest Paid Guy In The UFC
In today’s mixed martial arts landscape, Conor McGregor is thought to be not only the biggest star in the UFC, but also the highest paid fighter on the roster. Malki Kawa, however, isn’t so sure about that.
Kawa, who manages light heavyweight king Jon Jones, recently told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour that “Bones” is the ‘highest paid guy in the UFC’:
“A lot, he will make a lot. He makes a lot already as it is. People see all that stuff that gets reported on the internet,” Kawa said. “I’ve been telling you guys for a long time, Jon is the highest paid guy in the UFC, aside from pay-per-view, just on the base guarantees, and I guess people never really believe, so I just let you guys believe what you want to. The pay-per-view (PPV) stuff is just extra.”
Jones recently returned in the main event of UFC 214 this past weekend (July 29, 2017), scoring an impressive TKO victory over Daniel Cormier to reclaim the 205-pound title. After the event, it was reported that Jones’ purse was $500,000, and while Kawa wouldn’t go into great detail, he said that Jones will likely make more depending on the pay-per-view (PPV) sales:
“Listen, I’m not going to get into all of that. I’m just letting you guys know that he is definitely up there, top two or three. Take that and run with it.”
“I don’t necessarily need to put his business out like that. He doesn’t necessarily like that. Just put it like this, he makes good money and he will be making more money and if the pay-per-view does well he will make even more money. So, you can’t beat any of that.”
UFC President Dana White had said that the event was trending in the direction of 1,000,000 buys, which would certainly make it the most successful pay-per-view of the year thus far.
Do you agree with Kawa’s comments regarding Jones’ pay and status as a draw in the UFC?
