Highest-earning fighters in boxing and UFC amid Jake Paul vs Dana White pay row

Jake Paul and UFC boss Dana White have become embroiled in a war of words over fighter pay in UFC and boxing in recent months.

YouTube star Paul became the most talked-about names in combat sports last year by pledging his future to boxing, and he has since used his platform to attack White.

Paul has even offered to retire from boxing and fight UFC star Jorge Masvidal, but only if White would increase fighter pay, guarantee fighters 50 per cent of revenue and provide them with long-term healthcare.

White has dodged Paul’s demands whilst accusing him of taking steroids and slamming his manager Nakisa Bidarian, who was formerly Chief Financial Officer for the UFC.

With the back and forth between White and Paul, we looked at the top earners for 2021 in the UFC and boxing…

UFC

The Nevada State Athletic Commission stopped disclosing fighter pay last July, making California the only US state still to do so.

Therefore these figures of basic purses are mostly estimates and do not include money earned from pay-per-view shares.

Conor McGregor has proven time and time again he is the UFC’s biggest attraction, so it’s unsurprising he sits top of the list in this year’s highest-earners.

‘Notorious’ fight tight twice in 2021 suffering stoppage losses to rival Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 in January and UFC 264 in July.

For his basic fight purse, McGregor pocketed £2.2million for each fight which took his yearly earnings to a massive £4.4m.

But that number almost certainly goes into the eight-figure range when including the pay-per-view sales for the two fights.

Welterweight king Kamaru Usman proved why he is the sport’s pound-for-pound No.1 by defending his title three times this year.

‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ earned £750,000 for his win against teammate Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 in February.

Usman took home £450,000 for his brutal knockout win against Jorge Masvidal in July and £500,000 base pay for his hard-fought win against Colby Covington at UFC 268.

It meant Usman took over £1.6m for his three fights across the year, marking a fantastic year for the 170-pound champion.

Next on the list is the man who handed McGregor those losses, the perennial lightweight contender Poirier.

‘The Diamond’ started his year off in style by earning just short of £600,000 when he became the first man to knockout McGregor.

The win earned him a new deal for the trilogy fight with McGregor and he earned £750,000 for just five minutes of work.

Poirier’s purse was considerably less for his title fight with Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 in his third fight of the year, taking home just less than £300,000 for the loss.

It was a great year for Poirier despite missing out on the lightweight title, earning over £1.6m for his three fights.

Also on the list of the UFC’s highest-earners for this year was former Bellator standout Michael Chandler.

Chandler – who has proved to be a fan favourite after just three fights in the promotion – earned over £500,000 for knocking out Dan Hooker his UFC debut in January.

The win leapfrogged Chandler above other lightweight contenders to fight for the title in just his second fight, but he was stopped by Oliveira at UFC 262.

He made slightly less than his debut for that fight, taking home just shy of £400,000.

Chandler fought again at UFC 268 and produced 2021’s Fight of the Year against Justin Gaethje and UFC boss White confirmed he made £550,000 for the fight.

Despite going 1-2 in his first year for the UFC, Chandler earned just under £1.5m for the year.

Last on the list is middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who defended his title once this year but also fell short in his efforts to win the light heavyweight belt.

Adesanya cruised past rival Marvin Vettori in their rematch at UFC 263 in June, with the Nigerian-born Kiwi earning £350,000 for the title defence.

‘The Last Stylebender’ was paid slightly more for his failed bid at the 205-pound belt against Jan Blachowicz in March, earning just shy of £500,000 which took his yearly earnings to £850,000.

Boxing

Topping the list of boxing’s highest-earners for 2021 was none other than pound-for-pound No.1 Canelo Alvarez.

Alvarez started the year by stopping Avni Yildrim in the mandatory defence of his super middleweight titles, earning £10m for the straightforward win.

The Mexican won the WBO title against Billy Joe Saunders in May, handing the Brit his first loss and earning £25m for the fight.

He then made his mark in boxing history becoming undisputed 168lb champion in November, stopping Caleb Plant and earning a massive £29.6m for the win.

Combining Alvarez’s purses for the three fights, he earned a whopping £64.6m.

Former heavyweight king Anthony Joshua only fought once in 2021, losing his titles for the second time in four fights to Oleksandr Usyk.

Joshua sold out a massive crowd at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with over 66,000 fans in attendance for the fight, pocketing him a guaranteed £15m purse.

‘AJ’ could have earned a lot more last year if his unification fight with Tyson Fury wouldn’t have been cancelled, with Joshua missing out on a £100m payday.

Floyd Mayweather made a return to the ring this year and despite it not being a professional bout, ‘Money’ still earned himself a place on this list.

Mayweather went eight rounds with YouTube star Logan Paul in June, with no winner being declared in the exhibition bout.

The ring legend later boasted about the fight being a “legalised bank robbery” and claimed to have made $100m after the fight’s success on pay-per-view.

Six months on from the fight, Paul has since accused Mayweather of not paying him for the exhibition and has labelled him a ” rat “.

But from the guaranteed purse alone, Mayweather earned £7.5m for the fight whilst Paul took home £7m.

Logan’s brother Jake took the boxing world by storm this year and despite the criticism he faced, ‘The Problem Child’ went 3-0 during the year.

Paul’s first fight of 2021 saw him knockout former UFC welterweight Ben Askren within minutes, earning a flat rate of £522,000 for the win.

The 24-year-old faced a big step up in competition against Tyron Woodley in August, outpointing the former UFC champion to earn a guaranteed purse of £1.5m.

Paul knocked out Woodley again in their rematch in December and reportedly took home the same amount of money as their first clash, with his yearly earnings being around the £3.5m mark.

Like his domestic rival Joshua, Tyson Fury only fought once this year as he topped off an epic three-fight encounter with Deontay Wilder.

Although pay-per-view sales came in at just under 600,000 for the event, the fight was an instant classic and has been named by many as 2021’s Fight of The Year.

Not taking the sales into account, Fury earned £4.4m for the trilogy whilst Wilder took home just shy of £3m.