Here is Canelo Alvarez’s take on the massive pay disparity between Boxing and MMA.
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Alvarez gives his view on the underpayment of the UFC roster
As probably the top earner in Boxing today, Canelo Alvarez’s opinion surely counts in the debate over the Pay disparity in two of the most popular forms of combat. In fact, Canelo is set to bag a healthy $60 million for his trilogy match against Gennady Golovkin this weekend. Even his opponent Golovkin will bag upwards of $45 million for this fight.
Canelo is currently on a 3-fight deal with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing, that will guarantee him at least $160 Million in total payouts. This is in fact the case with most Canelo fights that he normally earns a purse higher than the combined payouts of all the fighters on a UFC PPV.
On a recent appearance at GQ sport, Canelo Alvarez would appear on the “Actually Me” segment where athletes answer fans questions on the internet. While many of the questions were regarding his boxing career and upcoming fight with GGG, one of the earlier questions focused on the pay disparity between the two sports.
Canelo Alvarez feels all boxers “earn differently”
Boxing is a free market sport, where it was agreed on early at the start of the century that there can not be just one league under whom all the guidelines are enforced. Hence, the United States government stepped in and passed the Ali Act or Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act which safeguarded the interests of the fighters while also helping them avoid being exploited by their promoters/managers.
“In think in general boxers don’t earn the same, They don’t all earn the same, each one earns differently, but yes I think Boxers earn more.I don’t know why, I really don’t know why, I think in MMA , there is only one promoter, one company that I think controls them more, so I think that’s why” said Canelo in his native language.
“The fighters know why they are paid less, I don’t think it is a fighter that asked this question”, said Canelo as he switched to English. While part of the answer is true, the main factor comes down to bidding. In Boxing, two promoters have to keep offering competitive purses for the fighters to accept whatever seems favorable.
Contrast this to MMA or much rather the UFC, (Who holds an 85-90% share of the market) and fighters have no option but to fall in line with the structured pay scales. In the past the fighters always had the option to compete for PRIDE FC or the many other organization that were yet to be taken over by the UFC, in today’s time the options are limited and hardly any more favorable.
While other organizations may offer a larger share of the revenue towards purses it doesn’t amount to much without the UFC’s brand recognition.
Even keeping this aside, just the sponsorship money made by boxers could compete with that of the total purses of MMA fighters. After the UFC introduced Uniform Kits under the reebok deal, another avenue of earning was taken away from the fighters.For example, GGG who will headline the boxing event alongside Canelo Alvarez this weekend made upwards of 2.3 Million for his DIOR sponsorship on his shorts during the last two Canelo fights.
Compare this to Khabib Numragomedov who earned $2 Million in total for beating Conor McGregor at UFC 229, the promotion’s highest-selling PPV to date and you realize no single factor can be blamed for the pay disparity.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)