UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has opened up about fighter pay following Jon Jones’ recent retirement, and it shows how far the Atherton-born martial artist has come.
Aspinall, 32, has not fought since July 2024 - when he defeated Curtis Blaydes by knockout at the Co-op Live in Manchester - due to him waiting for what was a highly anticipated bout with Jones, 37.
However, last weekend, UFC president Dana White confirmed that the fight would not be happening as Jones had retired, and so Aspinall’s interim belt was upgraded to the undisputed title.
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Aspinall has since promised to get the heavyweight division moving and that he's “going to be fighting hopefully twice this year”, during an appearance on The Diary of a CEO.
“That’s my plan, at least,” Aspinall explained. “I think I’ve wasted enough time. We’re looking to get a fight booked quickly, and it’s looking like it’s going to be pretty soon, anyway. And then hopefully, if everything goes well in the first one, I’m uninjured, which is easier said than done, getting through a fight with a guy my size and coming out with no injuries.”
Later in the episode, the 32-year-old discussed his early career earnings, and it was surprising to say the least.
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At 25, the fighter had three children and a wife to support and described how he didn’t have enough money to put fuel in his car, so he resorted to borrowing from friends and family.
When pressed on how much he was earning while still competing as an amateur, Aspinall said: “As an amateur, I was obviously getting ticket money. So the way it worked… if you sold a ticket for £30, you would get £5 of it. "So the promoters would get a little percentage thing going.
“I was maybe making between £50-100 a fight [as an amateur]… nearly a grand [from nine fights combined].”
Aspinall then opened up about UFC wages, having been signed by the company in 2019.
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“Remember my first pro fight [outside of the UFC], I got 200 quid,” Aspinall revealed.
He added: “Yeah, I mean they [UFC fighters’ wages] start off pretty good. I'm really lucky in the fact that I've got a fan-friendly style, so people wanna see me fight, especially heavyweights... they wanna see two guys punching each other and one guy unconscious.
“I progress through contracts and money quite quickly because of my style, but not everybody does. So generally speaking, you get in the UFC, you get what's called show money, which is your money to show up.
“Usually it’s $10,000… people start off on $10,000 [for fighting] and $10,000 [for winning]. They get show money and win money.”
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He added: “I either got $10,000 and $10,000 or $12,000 and $12,000 [for first UFC fight], I can’t remember…”
Then, when asked how long the contracts can last, he replied: “They usually do four fights. But the thing is, they can terminate that at any time. So if you are in like a fight, that's boring. It's a bit of a stinker. Even if you win, they can just be like, yeah, we're done, done with that.”
The Atherton-born fighter then explained how his wage progressed, moving from “ten and ten” to “12 and 12” then “14 and 14”.
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Aspinall then revealed how he received a six-figure payday for his last fight but did not disclose exact numbers.
Topics: Tom Aspinall, UFC, Jon Jones, MMA
Luke Davies