You can get several red panties for $150,000 but you can get a heap more when you are on Conor McGregor’s pay deal.
The Notorious revealed at last night’s UFC 205 press conference, in New York, that he agreed to fight lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez on September 17. That the deal was only announced late on Monday night [Tuesday morning in Ireland] shows how much bartering was needed to get this title fight over the line.
Certain elements of the UFC – president Dana White included – were more keen on squaring Alvarez off against No.1 lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov. The Russian fighter [23-0] was eager for a shot at the title too but Alvarez wanted McGregor.
“I don’t know what went on with that [Alvarez] side but the call came, last minute, and I jumped on a plane and here we are,” said McGregor.
McGregor explained the thinking behind his ‘Beg Me’ tweet from last week:
Beg me
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 21, 2016
“I just put it out there, ‘Beg me’, and [the UFC] begged me. That was all I wanted. That was all I asked.”
MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani asked Alvarez how the deal got done and McGregor, as is so often the case, cut in. He declared:
“He got it done by signing his last contract. He didn’t even negotiate new money for himself. Imagine that?
“Look at everybody up here. They’re all dressed like me, they’re all trying to talk like me, they’re all trying to be me.
“Everyone in the game wants this fight. This is the lottery fight. And this man took it on his last contract. Imagine that? Imagine getting the biggest fight in the history of the game and [the UFC] say ‘Shut your mouth kid. You’re getting paid what you got paid in your last fight and you’re lucky you’re even getting that’. [Imitating Alvarez] ‘Uh… yessir’ and he signed it.”
“I was okay with the money,” Alvarez retorted. “I was going to negotiate it because it’s easy money.”
McGregor received a straight-up payment of $3m to fight Nate Diaz at UFC 202. He receives a share of the pay-per-view points under his current contract so, depending on event performance, receives anything between $12m and $15m per fight. He proclaimed:
“By the time 2016 closes out, I’ll be closing in on $40 million. It’s been a 40 million year for me.”
By stark contrast, Alvarez earned just $150,000 for his Fight Night win over former champion Rafael Dos Anjos back in July. There was no win bonus written into that fight contract but the Philadelphia native at least got an extra $50,000 for Performance of the Night.
UFC 205 will be champion versus champion but McGregor [$12-15m] versus Alvarez [$150k] are worlds apart in terms of pay.
Catch up on the first episode of Football Friday Live…
