Ronda Rousey earns staggering payday for 15-second win against Gina Carano
Ronda Rousey emerged victorious against Gina Carano, beating the former Star Wars star within 15 seconds, and now it has been revealed how much each fighter will earn from the clash.
MMA fans had long been anticipating a fight between two of the sport’s biggest female stars in Rousey and Carano; however, after years of waiting, there may have been some disappointment regarding the outcome of the clash.
Rousey floored Carano almost immediately before wrestling her into an armbar to end the fight within 15 seconds, and now the 39-year-old has announced her immediate retirement from the sport.
The pair had not fought for several years, with Carano’s last fight coming in 2009 before pivoting to a Hollywood career, having appeared in franchises like Deadpool, Fast and Furious and Star Wars.
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Meanwhile, Rousey had retired from the sport in 2016 after suffering back-to-back defeats against Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm.
The fighters were lured back into the cage for Saturday’s card at the Intuit Dome with the promise of a bumper payday, and now this has been revealed.
On Saturday, the California State Athletic Commission released the salaries of all those fighting on the card, with both female stars and Francis Ngannou being the highest-paid athletes.
Rousey has reportedly earned $2.2 million, which is double the purse of Carano’s earnings, as she pocketed $1.05 million.
Despite Carano earning over $1 million, she was not the second-highest-paid athlete on the bill, as this honour went to Ngannou, as he made $1.5 million.
It should be noted that these figures only reflect payouts disclosed to the California commission and do not include any discretionary bonuses from the promotion or potential earnings from Netflix viewership numbers and ticket sales.
In the build-up to the fight with Carano, in her Thursday press conference, Rousey took aim at the low payments made to fighters in the UFC.
She said: “It used to be that UFC was the best place in combat sports to make a living and get paid fairly, and now it's no longer.
"It's one of the worst places to go. It's why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere.
"These people, a lot of them at the ground level, they can't support their families. They're living in poverty level, fighting full-time, and this company just got $7.7 billion. Like, there's no reason they can't afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage and, not even that, at least to match what athletes are making in other sports.
“Why would they expect to get the best athletes and best aspiring kids that want to be something into MMA? Why not go into football? Why not go into boxing? Why not go into anything else?
“They're bleeding talent because of their short-term greed. They're thinking about the quarter, they're thinking about shareholders, and they're not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport."
Topics: Ronda Rousey, MMA, UFC, Francis Ngannou
Brendan McGilligan