Francis Ngannou to get 'multiples' of UFC career earnings in one bout with Tyson Fury
IMAGO / Zuma / Louis Grasse
A lot of the earlier talk about Francis Ngannou going against the UFC and fighting for his free-agency have involved UFC fighters and analysts thinking that he “fumbled the bag” and should come back running to Dana White.
That obviously wasn’t the case, with Ngannou actually getting lucrative deals with PFL for MMA, and now against Tyson Fury in boxing. By all accounts, the lineal UFC heavyweight champion has secured the bag—and one former champion has already apologized for doubting him—and now we’re getting a clue on just how good the payday is.
Francis Ngannou’s purse is “multiples” bigger than entire UFC earnings
“Let’s just say this: The bag is so big, he may actually just drop it on the way to the bank,” Ngannou’s manager Marquel Martin told MMA Fighting. “Let’s just say that. I don’t know what the haters are trying to say right now, I kind of just blocked it out, but they’ll just be proven wrong again. This is life-changing. This is exactly what we planned and visualized, so we’re happy.”
How big? Ngannou’s manager says its far more than everything he earned in his seven years with the UFC.
“Oh my god, (it’s bigger than career UFC earnings). I mean, by far. By multiples,” Martin said. “Just to make (this money) even while being champion, he would’ve had to fight multiple times just to (be in this ballpark).”
How much did Francis Ngannou earn in the UFC?
To give more context on his manager’s statements, it’s worth pointing out that the heavyweight star in Francis Ngannou was in the UFC for seven years. He had 14 UFC fights in that time, six of them headlined UFC events, with one failed bit at the title, two title fight victories, and six performance of the night bonuses.
Ngannou had a $600,000 base purse for his final UFC fight and title defense against Ciryl Gane in 2022.
According to Bloody Elbow’s business expert John Nash and his various sources, Ngannou was paid a total of around $3.5 million for his entire seven-year tenure with the world’s biggest fight promotion. That total includes all those purses and fight night bonuses listed above for his 14 fights, plus uniform outfitting pay from Venum and Reebok, other discretionary bonuses, and a cut of the pay-per-view revenue.
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