Francis Ngannou earned just $600,000 for his sole UFC heavyweight title defence in California; the same fee as BKFC’s big headliner last night.
The bare knuckle boxing promotion made their first foray into Los Angeles yesterday, with huge purses guaranteed for the big names on the card. They played to the 7,100-capacity Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, considerably smaller than the 17,000+ KIA Forum where Ngannou faced Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.
Ngannou vs Gane was a major pay-per-view event, and drew a live gate of $5,290,213 from a crowd of 17,387. But the main event fighters were paid $1.1million between them in disclosed purses, with the entire card’s payout totalling at $2,026,000.
Francis Ngannou took pay cut in order to fight out of UFC contract
The heavyweight champion was offered a new UFC contract that would have seen him paid considerably more for his fight with Gane. But he opted to fight out his original deal, and not take the multi-fight offer from the promotion.
So he earned $600,000 as a base for his sole world title defence. This amounted to about 2 percent of what his boxing counterpart Tyson Fury received around the same time for defending his belt in a mandatory challenge against Dillian Whyte.
Ngannou has since moved to PFL, where he is allowed to take big-money fights in Saudi Arabia as a boxer, and will earn a seven-figure sum for his eventual return to the cage. He has also included a clause demanding that his challenger be paid $1million.
Mike Perry earns $600,000 for one-minute KO in latest BKFC outing
Remarkably, BKFC were able to match that figure Ngannou earned at the KIA forum as California State Athletic Commission documents show that he earned $600,000 for his headline bout with Thiago Alves last night.
Perry is far and away the biggest success story in bare knuckle boxing at the moment, having turned his career around from a 1-4 UFC skid. He is now one of the hottest commodities in combat sport, with even the likes of Conor McGregor and Logan Paul facing off with him as they eyed up potential fights.
And this is reflected in his payment, as he earned considerably more than his opponent who pocketed $200,000. Three other fighters made six figures, while the lowest payout on the show was $500 for Crystal Pittman.
Francis Ngannou now makes eight-figures for boxing crossover fights
However, Ngannou has since outgrown those paydays and has earned over $10million per fight for his boxing efforts. He managed to take WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury to a split decision in October of last year, which earned him another big payday in March against Anthony Joshua.
However, he was brutally knocked out by Joshua in the second round of their meeting, and it is unclear whether or not he will return to the ring. His next fight will be in the PFL cage, with an autumn date touted against 2023 heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira.
The Brazilian brutalised all in his path last year to take the belt. And he seemingly earned a fight with Ngannou when he knocked out Bellator champion Ryan Bader on the champions vs champions card back in February.