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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

What are Conor McGregor & Nate Diaz doing?

Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz both announced on Twitter yesterday that they are retiring.  Within about an hour of each other.  Which is beyond interesting for 2 guys that were supposed to be the headline fight for UFC 200, which, in turn, was supposed to be the biggest PPV event in UFC's history.

We're talking about 2 guys in their prime.  Who just headlined the 2nd biggest fight in the history of UFC at the beginning of 2016.  Why the hell isn't anyone digging any deeper into this?

Dana White, owner of the UFC, stated yesterday, after the 2 fighters announced they were "retiring" that, in actuality, "the decision was made by the promotion after McGregor informed UFC officials that he would not participate in any promotional activities, including a commercial shoot and press conferences."

UFC 196 drew over 1.5 million PPVs, according to White (http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/3/11/11208196/dana-white-claims-mcgregor-vs-diaz-did-1-5-million-pay-per-view-buys).  The biggest was UFC 100 with Lesnar, GSP, and whole cast of characters, which turned 1.6M PPVs.

If you were in the middle of negotiations, and were unhappy about the amount of money being paid, would you pick up in the middle of training - in ICELAND - would you pick up and make a 20 hour trip to Vegas to do a press conference?

Here's more from White (http://fightland.vice.com/blog/dana-white-conor-mcgregor-out-of-ufc-200-wouldnt-appear-at-press-conference):


“Is Conor McGregor retiring? Only he can answer that question. I don’t know, but Conor McGregor is not fighting at UFC 200,” Dana White said tonight.

“He didn’t want to. He’s in Iceland training and he felt leaving right now would hurt his training and getting ready for this fight,” Dana explained. “But every other fighter on the card was coming. I get accused of coddling Conor all the time, but at the end of the day, I respect Conor.

“But it doesn’t make you exempt for showing up for the press conferences and all the promotional stuff that we have to do. We spend a lot of money with this stuff, and you have to do it, man.

“Obviously we still have a good relationship with Conor. I respect Conor as a fighter and I like him as a person. But you can’t decide to not show up for these things.”

There are some people talking about how McGregor felt that it would affect his training for this fight, and he's more cautious than ever since witnessing Joao Carvalho die following a fight that appeared to not be stopped quickly enough at the end. This is a dangerous sport, and what happened in that fight can happen to anyone, if you're not prepared.

That explains McGregor's side.  But why in the world would Diaz announce he's retiring as well? 

I think this has more to do with money than anything.  And the fact that there's been even a little talk about what a McGregor / Mayweather fight would be like, along with the gate that it would pull, has to have these guys finally looking at the numbers.

UFC 196, which drew 1.5 million PPVs at, let's just say $50 a purchase, earned the UFC $75 million.  Out of that $75M, McGregor took home $1.09M, and Diaz took home $620K.  And those totals include sponsorship money, but we won't even worry about that.  So after the 2 fighters' earnings, what happened to the other $73.371 million?  And that's just off pay-per-views, not including gate revenue and sponsorships... so we'll just leave that part off.  We're talking about $73M that is sitting in the organization, before the PPV contracts are dealt. 

Before we completely dive into that, let's take a look at what just these 2 fighters have earned over their careers in the UFC, just based on performance guarantees.

According to  http://mma-manifesto.com/ufc-fighter-salary-database/salary-main/conor-mcgregor-career-earnings.html this is Conor McGregor's earnings for each fight since joining the UFC. 

UFC on Fuel TV: Mousasi vs Latifi – Apr 6/13 – W (Brimage) – $76,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus, $60,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)*
UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Sonnen – Aug 17/13 – W (Holloway) – $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus)
UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs Brandao – Jul 19/14 – W (Brandao) – $82,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)*
UFC 178 – Sept 27/14 – W (Poirier) – $200,000 ($75,000 to show, $75,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)
UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs Siver – Jan 18/15 – W (Siver) – $220,000 ($85,000 to show, $85,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)
UFC 189 – Jul 11/15 – W (Mendes) – $580,000 ($500,000 to show, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $30,000 Reebok sponsorship)
UFC 194 – Dec 12/15 – W (Aldo) – $590,000 ($500,000 to show, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $40,000 Reebok sponsorship)
UFC 196 – Mar 5/16 – L (Na. Diaz) – $1,090,000 ($1,000,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $40,000 Reebok sponsorship)

Total Career Earnings: $2,862,000

Those totals are what he is guaranteed, but there's a difference between those numbers and how much he's actually made.  According to the UFC PPV contract, the champion gets $1 per PPV buy if the fight reaches 100k, jumps to $3 per buy if it hits over 500k, and $5 per buy if it reaches over 1M PPV buys.  So, according to VineReport, McGregor earned over $12M for his win in UFC 194

Let's take a look at Nate Diaz's earnings (http://mma-manifesto.com/ufc-fighter-salary-database/salary-main/nate-diaz-career-earnings.html):

TUF 5 Finale Jun 23/07 – W (Gamburyan) – $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus)*
UFC Fight Night: Thomas vs Florian – Sep 19/07 – W (Assuncao) – $30,000 ($15,000 to show, $15,000 win bonus)
UFC Fight Night: Swick vs Burkman – Jan 23/08 – W (Robinson) – $70,000 ($15,000 to show, $15,000 win bonus, $40,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
UFC Fight Night: Florian vs Lauzon – Apr 2/08 – W (Pellegrino) – $50,000 ($15,000 to show, $15,000 win bonus, $20,000 Submission of the Night bonus)*
UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs Neer – Sep 17/08 – W (Neer) – $70,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus, $30,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
UFC 94 – Jan 31/09 – L (Guida) – $85,000 ($20,000 to show, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
TUF: U.S. vs U.K. Finale – Jun 20/09 – L (Stevenson) – $45,000 ($20,000 to show, $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)*
UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs Guillard – Sep 16/09 – W (Guillard) – $78,000 ($24,000 to show, $24,000 win bonus, $30,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
UFC Fight Night: Maynard vs Diaz – Jan 11/10 – L (Maynard) – $24,000
UFC 111 – Mar 27/10 – W (Markham) – $49,000 ($24,000 to show, $24,000 win bonus, $1,000 from Markham for missing weight)*
UFC 118 – Aug 28/10 – W (Davis) – $120,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 win bonus, $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
UFC 125 – Jan 1/11 – L (Kim) – $33,000
UFC 129 – Apr 30/11 – L (MacDonald) – $33,000*
UFC 135 – Sep 24/11 – W (Gomi) – $141,000 ($33,000 to show, $33,000 win bonus, $75,000 Submission of the Night bonus)*
UFC 141 – Dec 30/11 – W (Cerrone) – $149,000 ($37,000 to show, $37,000 win bonus, $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs Miller – May 5/12 – W (Miller) – $147,000 ($41,000 to show, $41,000 win bonus, $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus)*
UFC on Fox: Henderson vs Diaz – Dec 8/12 – L (Henderson) – $50,000
UFC on Fox: Henderson vs Melendez – Apr 20/12 – L (Thomson) – $15,000
TUF: Team Rousey vs Team Tate Finale – Nov 30/13 – W (Maynard) – $80,000 ($15,000 to show, $15,000 win bonus, $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
UFC on Fox: dos Santos vs Miocic – Dec 13/14 – L (dos Anjos) – $16,000 ($20,000 to show, fined $4,000 for missing weight)
UFC on Fox: dos Anjos vs Cerrone 2 – Dec 19/15 – W (Johnson) – $110,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $20,000 Reebok sponsorship)
UFC 196 – Mar 5/16 – W (McGregor) – $620,000 ($500,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $20,000 Reebok sponsorship)

Total Career Earnings: $2,031,000

According to Total Sportek article, looking at how much the 2 fighters made for UFC 196, McGregor pulled in between $8M-$10M, while Diaz only walked away with about $1.6M because his contract is significanly lower regarding PPV buys.  McGregor knows his worth... Diaz hasn't had the push yet.

So what are they fighting over?  A bigger payout for the PPVs from this fight.  They both want to make sure they get paid for what should have been the biggest fight in the history of the UFC, with the promotion, etc, that they're expected to draw.  These 2 are the biggest male draws for the organization right now, and they want to be paid as such.

Take a look at the money that Floyd "Money" Mayweather has brought in (http://heavy.com/sports/2015/11/floyd-mayweather-net-worth-2015-record-pacquio-fight-boxing).  This format works well for the fighter - but not necessarily the organization.

McGregor is a household name now.  Not on the same level as Mayweather, especially after a loss, but still the biggest draw in all of MMA.  Period.  Rousey is big, but not to this level.

How much fun would McGregor / Diaz be if they split from UFC and did their own PPV?  People don't care if it's UFC, so long as it's done correctly.  Could you image McGregor Promotions?  We could see something that's never been done before - like the McGregor / Mayweather fight we've talked about in fantasy land for so long.  Imagine the numbers a fight like that does - could it top the 4.6M PPV buys that Mayweather / Pacquiao pulled last year?  Mayweather pulled in almost $300M for that one fight alone - McGregor could easily pull $150M-$200M for a fight like that... especially if Mayweather is going for the record, 50-0, beating out Rocky Marciano's record of 49-0.

For more, check out USA Today's article regarding the McGregor situation: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/martin-rogers/2016/04/19/conor-mcgregor-retire-ufc-200-nate-diaz/83249000/

1 comment:

  1. i knew whether or not connor truly won the fight or not he would have gotten the decision if it went 5 rounds. If nate wins again fight number 3 dont make any since and you lose all that money. mc gregor v diaz UFC Fighter . see the video

    ReplyDelete