MMA News Forums - View Single Post - Does Georges St. Pierre really make $15 million a year from sponsors?

Sakara=Excitement · 11-26-2012, 10:57 AM

Does Georges St. Pierre really make $15 million a year from sponsors? - Bloody Elbow

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UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre appeared on Radio-Canada's "Tout Le Monde en Parle" ("Everyone is Talking") for his first major interview following his UFC 154 win over Carlos Condit. Although he addressed a number of interesting topics -- including his insistence that any super fight against Anderson Silva will take place on his terms and his timing -- there was a very interesting nugget about his earnings in the interview (full video of the French language interview is below).

Ariel Helwani translated, "The host said GSP makes approximately $15 million a year in addition to his UFC fight purses. GSP did not disagree."

GSP has said that his UFC fight purses are in the $4 to $5 million per fight range. He is sponsored by Gatorade, Under Armour, Affliction, and NOS energy drink among others.

Adam Swift, the founder of MMA Payout, and one of the few credible business analysts covering the sport quickly took to Twitter to disagree:

Ariel Helwani
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@arielhelwani 26 Nov 12
Another interesting note, they said GSP makes approx. $15 mil/yr in addition to his fight purses. GSP did not disagree. mmafighting.com/2012/11/26/369…

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Adam Swift@AdamMSwift
@arielhelwani unpossible unless you think he's bigger than Dale Jr, Dwight Howard, and Peyton Manning forbes.com/sites/kurtbade…
26 Nov 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite

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Ariel Helwani
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@arielhelwani 26 Nov 12
@AdamMSwift just reporting what was said ...

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Adam Swift@AdamMSwift
@arielhelwani not faulting you/media. Fighters seem to have decided that exaggerating earnings is a good business strategy.
26 Nov 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite

Swift linked to Forbes' list of the 100 highest paid athletes in the world and from looking at the data presented there it seems that someone's math may indeed be off a bit. Or maybe not...

Ben Fowlkes has more info on GSP's sponsorships:

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For instance, just in the last 12 months St-Pierre has signed lucrative endorsement deals with companies such as Coca-Cola, Google and Bacardi. He's got a deal with HarperCollins to write a book that he describes as part autobiography and part philosophy ("kind of like 'The Art of War,'" St-Pierre said). He's also renewed his apparel deal with Under Armour and signed one with noted MMA equipment manufacturer Hayabusa, all despite not setting foot in the UFC octagon since April of 2011 thanks to a torn ACL in his right knee.

According to industry sources, St-Pierre currently has 14 endorsement deals with each paying him somewhere in the six-figure range. If you tally up the numbers from past and present deals, his income outside the cage is well into eight figures, sources say, with much of it coming in the past year alone.