Francis Ngannou will make his long-awaited MMA return later this month. He faces heavyweight Renan Ferreira, headlining the PFL Super Fights: ‘Battle of the Giants’ event. Ngannou will be making big bank against the Brazilian giant in his PFL debut. He was also part of two boxing bouts recently, in extension with quite a purse. However, UFC CEO Dana White finds it annoying that there’s a misnomer about boxing and MMA pay differentials.
Francis Ngannou, the ex-UFC heavyweight champ, will take a break from pro boxing following his KO loss against Brit Anthony Joshua. Dana White was recently asked about his former Heavyweight champion’s foray into pro boxing. He also fielded questions about the million-dollar boxing paydays he has earned. White strongly denied that Ngannou’s “life-changing” two-fight, $30 million boxing paydays are any different than that of MMA purses.
That’s not necessarily true, …It’s not really true. That’s the bullsh*t that the public believes, but that’s not the truth. Total bullsh*t! …That’s…that’s that whole myth that makes everyone go, ‘ahh, let’s fu*king go to boxing’. It’s fu*king bullsh*t — Boxing don’t work. That model doesn’t work. Boxing doesn’t fu*king work … it takes a fu*king Saudi trillionaire to make boxing work!
Dana White to MMA columnist Kevin Iole for his YT Channel (@KevinIole)
According to Forbes, Ngannou’s controversial October 2023 fight with Tyson Fury banked him $10 million. That was for the extended Riyadh Season ceremony opener. He also earned a $20 million purse against Joshua just a few months ago. For what it’s worth, Dana White has gone on record to say that ‘Predator’ would have been the highest-paid MMA heavyweight ever. That is – had he not quit and opted for free agency.
Dana White says it’s a myth that fighters get paid more when they transition from MMA to boxing:
“That’s the bullsh*t publicly that people believe, but that’s not the truth… boxing don’t work…
It is the most f***ed up business, and all these sound bites are all so full of… pic.twitter.com/KpgrU2HW8z
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 1, 2024
However, a defiant long-time representative Marquel Martin said his boxing debut made more than his entire UFC career. The Cameroonian made a disclosed payout of $600,000 experience-based pay for his final fight in UFC. PFL co-owner Donn Davis also claims that his PFL pay-per-view event will make substantially more returns since surpassing $20m production costs. So it’s a UFC vs. Ngannou thing; not UFC/MMA vs. boxing.
No White Lies: Does Boxing make more than MMA?
It’s a “eat what you kill” world, per the UFC Bossman and CEO. Perhaps there is no single combat sports entity ‘100-percent’ satisfied with their bank. Yes… Even Conor McGregor, who posts an Nth amount of boats and brand whiskey posts weekly. However, other than the McGregor and said “McGregorism” of the industry, there’s a weird and wide disparity between fighter pay in boxing and MMA.
This has caused some like Matt ‘Meathead’ Mitrione to lash out gruntingly, while others like Cung Le to Kajan Johnson going for lengthy decade-long lawsuits for fighter compensations. Others like Francis Ngannou, who were perhaps hoping for a bit more on his contractual rehash or bigger pay stubs per the Guidelines Compliance payouts, went packing to boxing. However, Dana White said that the glaring disparity is the nature of the MMA beast, but in no way does boxing make more.
There’s different level fights, …When you fight on pay-per-view and you’re a star — basically in this sport you eat what you kill. So the guys that bring in the majority of the revenue, make the majority of the revenue. If you look at where the UFC came from and where we are today, the one number that’s gone [up] is fighter purses…
Dana White to Fox Sports; H/T: foxsports.com/stories/ › Damon Martin; back in Nov. 15, 2016
As White points out, a fighter can very easily go from an eight-fight deal contractual snub to becoming a “McGregor” of the sport. Being in the right place at the right time, or having that “it” factor that promoters like, also helps. The boxing grind is full of unilateral rivalries serving the thirst for blimp and commission payouts. Accordingly, to White’s point, they do not promote “it” factors like MMA.
This is something even multiple boxing legends have picked on as of late. Speaking to Fox 11 Sports, Dana White once also said that some basic boxer payouts can sometimes hedge as low as a meager $600,000 compared to someone making multi-millions. It’s similar to MMA, where bonuses, incentives, and royalty payments make it far greater than disclosed payments. The payout paradigm might not just be as black and “White” here.
