Manager: Khabib Nurmagomedov deserves at least $10 million for Conor McGregor fight

[Jolldan]

https://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/manager-khabib-nurmagomedov-deserves-at-least-10-million-for-conor-mcgregor-fight/

The UFC is currently working on a massive lightweight title fight between reigning champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former champion Conor McGregor.

 

If this fight is going to happen, however, they’re going to have to make it worth Conor McGregor’s while, who recently deposited north of $100 million in his bank account for fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. In the boxing ring.

 

As it turns out, the UFC will also have to significantly sweeten the pot for Nurmagomedov. According the champ’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, there’s no way Nurmagomedov is fighting for less money than Nate Diaz got paid for his second battle with McGregor.

 

“We will get a deal done,” Abdelaziz said at a media luncheon promoting his client Cody Garbrandt’s upcoming title fight with TJ Dillashaw (transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting). “Trust me. My relationship with Dana [White], Hunter[ Campbell], Sean [shelby], Mick [Maynard]. I have a different relationship. I’m not gonna overplay my hand and they need to be fair. There’s no way in hell Nate Diaz can make more money than Khabib. There’s no way in hell. [Nurmagomedov is the] undefeated, undisputed lightweight champion of he world. That’s it.”

 

“If you want to make this fight happen, it’s about money,” Abdelaziz added. “It’s not about who’s the champion, the rankings — none of this stuff. It’s about money. Khabib wants to kick his ****, I want to see it, but at the end of the day, if Conor fights it’s business.”

 

So what kind of price tag is Ali Abdelaziz imagining for Khabib Nurmagomedov? At least $10 million.

 

“I’m not a greedy guy. [Conor can] go ahead and make $100 million. If Khabib can make $10 million, I’m happy. At the end of the day, it’s not just somebody I manage. It’s my little brother, too. It’s not, ‘I’m gonna fight for him, I’m gonna get you this deal.’ It’s what he deserves. I don’t want anything extra than what he deserves. That’s it. I believe he’s one of the biggest stars in the UFC today.”

 

While Abdelaziz is clearly keen on getting a deal done for this Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor fight, he also said the champ will happily defend his title against streaking contender Dustin Poirier if McGregor is too difficult to negotiate with.

 

“If Conor starts playing games, we’re fighting Poirier,” Abdelaziz said. “Poirier will get the shot. I think he deserves it before Conor. But Conor wants to come, you’ve gotta bring your check book with you. Because he doesn’t deserve it. Poirier deserves it. “

 

 

[cashfl0w]

Scared.

[I_Take_Roids_m8]

Scared.

Scared of the easiest fight in the division out of the possible candidates?

Edited July 31, 2018 by I_Take_Roids_m8

[sobercuban]

[GoToGuy]

... is T-Ferg healthy yet? He should be next.

 

10 million? Dude is fooking retarded.

[King_Can]

Lol, Diaz got 10 mil? since when

[carnages]

lol Khabib doesn't sell fights, how's he going to get 10 mill

[stehilton94]

Khabib brings in 0 money with his fights, his I think only PPV fight sold less than most WMMA title cards..... Give him 1m and he should be happy about it. Also, Conor is not an easy fight for anyone, just stop with the bull****, we all know everyone will tune in to see if McGregor can actually stop Khabib or not, I don't think he can, but I don't think Khabib can take that left hand either. 

[-idyb-]

by decisioning out a win over raging al for the undisputed lightweight championship, i'd say that the great khabib is worth at least the 10 milion.

 

i dont know if its worth it for the ufc though, cause the great khabib will pulverize chicken mcnuggets into retirement, and then he'll go play touchbutt with canelo in the boxing ring.

Edited August 1, 2018 by -idyb-

[f00kin]

[FrankDuxx]

people asking for money because they are fighting conor is hilarious..

 

They want to act like they are the A-Side, meanwhile they take any other fight and make maybe 500K..

 

Khabib can fight 10 more times in the UFC against anyone but conor, never lose, and will never break more than 1.5 Mil on a payday

[I_Take_Roids_m8]

The thing is Khabib doesnt need the money. He comes from money. Its about principle. Why should the challenger who never defended a belt, lost to a Diaz x2, and hasn't proven anything be paid mire than someone who is 26-0?

[cashfl0w]

Because he sells PPVs and Khabib doesn't.

[BigDaddyDelta]

So this is the DJ route of im ducking, demanding insane amounts of money knowing full well theyre never pay it.

[VertFTW]

Because he sells PPVs and Khabib doesn't.

 

Good post bro

[I_Take_Roids_m8]

Glad to know that all of you posters own part of the company and care about PPV buys.

 

I guarantee the interest in Conor has dwindled after he got diggled by Mayweather. The casual fans are fleeing and jumping on another bandwagon.

 

Most people who care about the "sport" want Khabib/Lee, Tony, Peahead.

[I_Take_Roids_m8]

So this is the DJ route of im ducking, demanding insane amounts of money knowing full well theyre never pay it.

 

Yes, because Conor is such a dangerous opponent when hes not fighting midgets.

[juice64011]

So this is the DJ route of im ducking, demanding insane amounts of money knowing full well theyre never pay it.

DJ asked for $2 million dollars. Lol at that being an insane amount of money. Calculate how much the UFC makes on a poor selling ppv and you would realize that champions should make that regularly let alone for a champ vs champ fight.

[America]

DJ asked for $2 million dollars. Lol at that being an insane amount of money. Calculate how much the UFC makes on a poor selling ppv and you would realize that champions should make that regularly let alone for a champ vs champ fight.

At 100,000 buys which is the lowest of lows the UFC still makes 6.5M just on PPV alone.

 

DJ being he best fighter on the roster absoluetly deserves 2M if not more. Sadly today's MMA fan cares more about talk than actually fighting so fighters like DJ get paid chit for being the most consistent champ in the companies history.

[BigDaddyDelta]

DJ asked for $2 million dollars. Lol at that being an insane amount of money. Calculate how much the UFC makes on a poor selling ppv and you would realize that champions should make that regularly let alone for a champ vs champ fight.

anything over 100k for MM is insane amount of money based on what he brings back

[sobercuban]

DJ asked for $2 million dollars. Lol at that being an insane amount of money. Calculate how much the UFC makes on a poor selling ppv and you would realize that champions should make that regularly let alone for a champ vs champ fight.

But how much is the UFC actually pulling in on DJ cards? 

 

UFC 216 - A bit over 200k WITH an interim LW title fight up top + gate $678,000

UFC 197 - 350-400k buys WITH Jon Jones up top $2,3 million gate

UFC 191 - The last PPV card DJ headlined - 115k buys, $1.3 million gate

UFC 186 - 125k buys + $688,000 gate 

 

Pretend for UFC 191 (the highest combined buyrate and gate for a DJ headlined card) the PPV price was $64.99 (it wasn't) and everyone bought the HD PPV (they didn't).  

 

115,000 x 64.99 = $7,473,850 + gate = $8,836,550

 

Most people buy the PPV through their cable provider and not through Fight Pass.  The providers and distributors take a giant chunk and the promoter only sees 45%..  The venue takes a chunk of the gate. 

 

Pretend 70% of people bought through cable and 30% bought through FightPass (cable surely got far more than 70%):

 

$2,354,262 is their take on the cable buys + $2,242,155 from the FightPass buys (pretending the UFC takes 100% of the earnings there, which they don't).  Add the whole gate back in now you're talking $5,959,117.  

 

Disclosed payroll (including performance bonuses) = $1,581,000

 

Leaves $4,378,117 (being extremely generous) to pay for all of the HUNDREDS (or more) employees involved in the card, the crew, Buffer, the tax man, PROMOTION, production, Rogan, who knows what else.  Then the owners have to take their cut.  This was before Zuffa got sold, now the new owners have to make payments on billions of $$$ of debt. 

 

And you're telling me DJ should have gotten another $1.8 million?  

 

Not saying fighters shouldn't more, but $2 million to DJ headlining a card with the numbers he pulls is absurd.  The UFC is a for-profit organization, not a charity.  

[sobercuban]

At 100,000 buys which is the lowest of lows the UFC still makes 6.5M just on PPV alone.

 

 

Not even close.  Half that.  

[cashfl0w]

Ugh, I got the event # messed up. Recalculating

186

[sobercuban]

186

yeah it was supposed to be 191, the last PPV he headlined.  

 

My original post had the 186 numbers.  186 had a higher buyrate but only a $688,000 gate.  No idea why I typed 187

[cashfl0w]

There was nobody at 186 in Montreal. I remember I got front row tickets for the low a week before the event.

[sobercuban]

There was nobody at 186 in Montreal. I remember I got front row tickets for the low a week before the event.

Remember when Dana called Canada the Mecca of MMA?  

[bluesy]

I like how conman Ali acts like Canboob holding the belt means anything when he beat the #10 guy to a DECISION for it.

 

The UFC will not hesitate to strip him and do Conor vs. Tony for the vacant title.

[juice64011]

But how much is the UFC actually pulling in on DJ cards?

 

UFC 216 - A bit over 200k WITH an interim LW title fight up top + gate $678,000

UFC 197 - 350-400k buys WITH Jon Jones up top $2,3 million gate

UFC 191 - The last PPV card DJ headlined - 115k buys, $1.3 million gate

UFC 186 - 125k buys + $688,000 gate

 

Pretend for UFC 191 (the highest combined buyrate and gate for a DJ headlined card) the PPV price was $64.99 (it wasn't) and everyone bought the HD PPV (they didn't).

 

115,000 x 64.99 = $7,473,850 + gate = $8,836,550

 

Most people buy the PPV through their cable provider and not through Fight Pass. The providers and distributors take a giant chunk and the promoter only sees 45%.. The venue takes a chunk of the gate.

 

Pretend 70% of people bought through cable and 30% bought through FightPass (cable surely got far more than 70%):

 

$2,354,262 is their take on the cable buys + $2,242,155 from the FightPass buys (pretending the UFC takes 100% of the earnings there, which they don't). Add the whole gate back in now you're talking $5,959,117.

 

Disclosed payroll (including performance bonuses) = $1,581,000

 

Leaves $4,378,117 (being extremely generous) to pay for all of the HUNDREDS (or more) employees involved in the card, the crew, Buffer, the tax man, PROMOTION, production, Rogan, who knows what else. Then the owners have to take their cut. This was before Zuffa got sold, now the new owners have to make payments on billions of $$$ of debt.

 

And you're telling me DJ should have gotten another $1.8 million?

 

Not saying fighters shouldn't more, but $2 million to DJ headlining a card with the numbers he pulls is absurd. The UFC is a for-profit organization, not a charity.

You also have Fox money and fight pass who airs the prelims for every pay per view as well as multiple sponsors for each event. Unless you are going to pay each fighter an annual check then a percentage of that income should be factored into fight pay.

 

Supposedly they cleared $157.8 million in 2015 off of $609 million revenue. That's almost 26 percent profit. They expected to trim about 27 million a year in expenses when WME took over and Dana said that they posted their biggest year ever last year.

 

26 percent is huge for a sports organization or any business for that matter and even if their margins are a little smaller they still have room to pay way more even with the obligation to pay back investors.

[sobercuban]

You also have Fox money and fight pass who airs the prelims for every pay per view as well as multiple sponsors for each event. Unless you are going to pay each fighter an annual check then a percentage of that income should be factored into fight pay.

 

Supposedly they cleared $157.8 million in 2015 off of $609 million revenue. That's almost 26 percent profit. They expected to trim about 27 million a year in expenses when WME took over and Dana said that they posted their biggest year ever last year.

 

26 percent is huge for a sports organization or any business for that matter and even if their margins are a little smaller they still have room to pay way more even with the obligation to pay back investors.

 

I'm not disputing the fact that fighters deserve more pay.  But giving DJ $2,000,000 relative to what he "brings in" is lol.  

 

That profit averages out to $3,848,780 an event (41 events).  That includes 5 cards over 800,000 buys (two over 1 million).  4.8 million buys from those 5 cards.  Guess who wasn't on any of those cards?  Lighty Louse.  

 

UFC 191 happened in 2015 and did a whopping 115,000 buys.  As did UFC 186, pulling in 125,000.  That adds up to 240,000 buys for cards DJ was on, 5% of the buys the 5 biggest cards that year garnered.  Have PPV numbers increased or decreased since 2015? Has DJ suddenly become a draw? 

[juice64011]

I'm not disputing the fact that fighters deserve more pay. But giving DJ $2,000,000 relative to what he "brings in" is lol.

 

That profit averages out to $3,848,780 an event (41 events). That includes 5 cards over 800,000 buys (two over 1 million). 4.8 million buys from those 5 cards. Guess who wasn't on any of those cards? Lighty Louse.

 

UFC 191 happened in 2015 and did a whopping 115,000 buys. As did UFC 186, pulling in 125,000. That adds up to 240,000 buys for cards DJ was on, 5% of the buys the 5 biggest cards that year garnered. Have PPV numbers increased or decreased since 2015? Has DJ suddenly become a draw?

The UFC holds a lot of blame for that. The face of the company and promoter says that fighters need to market themselves and regularly talks **** about his champions. Umm, the promoter should be marketing them, working with the fighters to build their brand, and not using the media to try to force fighters into doing what they want.

 

PPV sales are down but revenue is record breaking so it seems like the company is becoming less reliant on PPVs and should pay their fighters accordingly.

[sobercuban]

The UFC holds a lot of blame for that. The face of the company and promoter says that fighters need to market themselves and regularly talks **** about his champions. Umm, the promoter should be marketing them, working with the fighters to teach them to build their brand, and not using the media to try to force fighters into doing what they want.

 

PPV sales are down but revenue is record breaking so it seems like the company is becoming less reliant on PPVs and should pay their fighters accordingly.

Again, we are on the same page regarding fighter pay, they deserve more.  But I still don't see how DJ could have possibly expected $2,000,000 for that fight.  

[juice64011]

Again, we are on the same page regarding fighter pay, they deserve more. But I still don't see how DJ could have possibly expected $2,000,000 for that fight.

I think he started higher hoping to meet in the middle tbh. The UFC are idiots for expecting champs to fight other champs for the same pay. They don't have any reason to do that.

[sobercuban]

I think he started higher hoping to meet in the middle tbh. The UFC are idiots for expecting champs to fight other champs for the same pay. They don't have any reason to do that.

Champ v champ fights certainly should command a higher price

 

The fact that Cormier made $500,000 disclosed and Stipe $750,000 for UFC 226 is quite disappointing.  I know they both got PPV points, but goddamn.  

 

I think $500,000 + PPV points would be pretty fair for DJ v TJ, given the UFC's current fighter pay.  Was DJ looking for $2,000,000 disclosed?  

[Bubba_Sparks]

This debate reminds me of house prices. People in this part of the world are always banging on about what houses are worth. Houses are worth precisely what someone is prepared to pay for them. Likewise, a fighter's worth is exactly what they can convince the company to pay them.

 

If khabib can convince the ufc to pay him 10M, good on him. He will need more than an unblemished record to convince them of that, however.

 

The UFC is not a meritocracy. Not sure it ever has been.

[VertFTW]

Kabob is a retarded idiot...if he wants to make money he shouldnt be asking for guaranteed pay...just make sure you get ppv points(hopefully it was already stipulated when he got a new contract and the belt) and do a good job to promote the fight(hes not doing that at the moment).

[skillandpower]

Dana should make Khabib vs Dustin/Ferg/Lee and see the numbers.

 

Meanwhile, make Conor vs Nate III and lets if Khabib got a leg to stand on when it comes to numbers.

 

Conor vs Nate III is lame and still would sell way more than Khabib vs Dustn/Ferg/Lee

[Megasoup]

Dana should make Khabib vs Dustin/Ferg/Lee and see the numbers.

 

Meanwhile, make Conor vs Nate III and lets if Khabib got a leg to stand on when it comes to numbers.

 

Conor vs Nate III is lame and still would sell way more than Khabib vs Dustn/Ferg/Lee

This would be funny as hell. I mean, it would be rather disappointing and it would put the division at a standstill, but at the same time it would really put things in perspective and close some yapping mouths.

[skillandpower]

So I guess Khabib is getting 10 million then ? Damn

[sobercuban]

So I guess Khabib is getting 10 million then ? Damn

0% chance