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[Sakara=Excitement]

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

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
✔
@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…

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:

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.

[v3xi]

Who gives a shit about who gets paid what?

I am more concerned about the dude on the undercard getting his body crushed for $5000 a fight when that barely covers his training camp.

[Sakara=Excitement]

Do you order UFC PPVs?

[MMA4EVERRR]

I am one of those people that think leaking a fighter's financials sets a negative precedent.

If GSP is indeed making that kinda bank, it is largely in part to being Canadian. I dunno much about Canadian athletes outside of Gretzky and Bret Hart, but certainly they dont have the number of banakable guys like U.S. has. Brazil has many high profile soccer stars, as well as Europe does. And this is all due to the very limited number of popular sports in those countries.

Being a foreign born MMA fighter has a lot of advantages. A fighter can more easily represent his country, like GSP does for Canada, A.S./Shogun/Machida/Vitor/Wandy/Nogs/Aldo do for Brazil, Gustaffson does for Sweden, Bisping/Hardy do for U.K.

Guys like Jones, Edgar, Rampage, Hendo, Rashad will never attain that kinda stardom as the above mentioned guys largely due to the fact that MMA is still not popular than football, basketball, baseball in the U.S. These guys will never be bigger than the Mannings, the Tom Bradys, the Lebron James, the Pujols. All the hot, big money endorsement deals will go to athletes of popular sports.

What I'm saying is if a guy like Jon Jones wants to make GSP money, he wont, because he will never crack the top 10 of famed U.S. athletes, thus never being as bankable.

[Kimbo> Rampage]

Doin it big...

His camps and day to day must cost a fortune, given the information we have seen... But with that kind of money, it wouldnt even put a dent into it.

Its good to see the top MMA fighters getting paid... It only progresses the sport imo.... up until the point where the fighters have too much power and get a huge cut, like boxing has become with some of the top guys.

[0mega1]

Originally Posted by v3xi

Who gives a shit about who gets paid what?

I am more concerned about the dude on the undercard getting his body crushed for $5000 a fight when that barely covers his training camp.

You mean the guy from the undercard that has the potential to make $60K-$120K in one fight (not including show & win bonus)? AND DW has stated numerous times that the UFC gives backstage bonuses for the fighters that give a good showing. So yeah it sucks when someone is getting paid $5K to show but you have work your way up and you have the possibility of landing up to $120k in one night...

[tucker50]

For the type of endorsements he has and the type of PPV numbers he does every time, that number is not surprising at all. Actually, based on his non-response to the question, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes more than that. Guys like Mayweather, Pacquiao, Lebron, Woods, Federer, all make 50 mil + a year.

[v3xi]

Originally Posted by Sakara=Excitement

Do you order UFC PPVs?

I go to the bar 2-5 times a year to watch UFC's.

You mean the guy from the undercard that has the potential to make $60K-$120K in one fight (not including show & win bonus)? AND DW has stated numerous times that the UFC gives backstage bonuses for the fighters that give a good showing. So yeah it sucks when someone is getting paid $5K to show but you have work your way up and you have the possibility of landing up to $120k in one night...

Potential? Woulda coulda shoulda MAYBE? Who knows. I wonder what its like not knowing if the broken arm or shattered orbital bone etc you may face will even cover your expenses. Your saying the fighters that risk their health but are not exciting deserve less than table scraps?

[travtera]

Originally Posted by MMA4EVERRR

I am one of those people that think leaking a fighter's financials sets a negative precedent.

If GSP is indeed making that kinda bank, it is largely in part to being Canadian. I dunno much about Canadian athletes outside of Gretzky and Bret Hart, but certainly they dont have the number of banakable guys like U.S. has. Brazil has many high profile soccer stars, as well as Europe does. And this is all due to the very limited number of popular sports in those countries.

Being a foreign born MMA fighter has a lot of advantages. A fighter can more easily represent his country, like GSP does for Canada, A.S./Shogun/Machida/Vitor/Wandy/Nogs/Aldo do for Brazil, Gustaffson does for Sweden, Bisping/Hardy do for U.K.

Guys like Jones, Edgar, Rampage, Hendo, Rashad will never attain that kinda stardom as the above mentioned guys largely due to the fact that MMA is still not popular than football, basketball, baseball in the U.S. These guys will never be bigger than the Mannings, the Tom Bradys, the Lebron James, the Pujols. All the hot, big money endorsement deals will go to athletes of popular sports.

What I'm saying is if a guy like Jon Jones wants to make GSP money, he wont, because he will never crack the top 10 of famed U.S. athletes, thus never being as bankable.

There's lots of Canadians earning big coin in hockey. A guy like Sidney Crosby is probably raking in 15 million, sponsors included. He's a poster boy up here for pretty much everything. Lots of other players have multi-million dollar yearly salaries in the 5-10 Million range. Add in endorsements and they're doing pretty well for themselves. Outside of hockey perhaps a guy like two time MVP Steve Nash probably did well but I'm not a basketball guy so I can't comment further than that.

But agreed and make no mistake about it, GSP is the draw that he is because he's Canadian and is basically a coast to coast national icon. Georges' pay per view numbers are heavily padded by his Canadian fans. All this talk about an Anderson/GSP fight selling out a stadium forget that GSP has already sold out a stadium and could probably do it again up here.

[ckauffman28]

wouldnt doubt it and i gurantee no fighter just makes 5K for a fight anymore