Few argue that Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes aren’t underpaid. However, new interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane banked a pretty nice payday for his tenth fight as a professional mixed martial artist.
Ciryl Gane banked six figures for his interim-time win.
In a new interview with French news outlet L’Equipe, the star heavyweight revealed the base salary he earned for his third-round technical knockout victory over Derrick Lewis at UFC 265 earlier this month. A cool US $350,000.
However, that number comes before Uncle Sam and his coaches get their shares of the pot. When factoring all of that, then the conversion rates when switching US dollars to euros, Gane (10-0) took home very respectable US $188,000. The Frenchman also earned a US $50,000 performance bonus, and another US $32,000 from the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payout.
Considering that the win was just his seventh bout in the Octagon, and tenth overall, the 31-year-old is certainly in a far better salary bracket than many of his contemporaries with similar experience in the fabled Octagon. The six-figure payday after just three years in the sport makes the Frenchman’s decision to leave Muay Thai behind and transition to MMA the best career choice he’s ever made.
The unbeaten interim titleholder is expected to face reigning division king, and former teammate, Francis Ngannou to unify their two titles next.