After several months of administrative work, UFC antitrust settlement money is about to start being distributed. And no one is getting more of it than MMA GOAT contender Anderson Silva.<\/p>\n
Back in February 2025, a judge approved a deal<\/a> between UFC and athletes who had competed with the promotion between 2010 and 2017 worth $375 million dollars. Minus lawyer\u2019s fees and various admin, $251 million dollars is about to be distributed to 1088 fighters.<\/p>\n Lawyer and MMA journalist John Nash has been all over the antitrust case for years now and has a whole bunch more stats on exactly what\u2019s going on with that quarter of a billion dollars. The simple math on how much each fighter gets, he says, is 32.7% of their total bout compensation in the class period plus $14,179.33 per bout.<\/p>\n Based on this and the pay numbers revealed during the discovery portion of the antitrust case, Nash was able to calculate who is getting paid $10,334,240.72, which is the highest amount from the settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe recipient of the $10.3 million is Anderson Silva,\u201d Nash wrote on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n Silva fought 10 times during the class period, seven times in title fights, and one time as a last minute replacement<\/a> for Jon Jones against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200. Rough math puts his earnings at around $30 million during that time.<\/p>\n That may sound impressive, and it\u2019s certainly a nice little nest egg to fall into Silva\u2019s lap after years where few people gave the antitrust case much of a chance. But it\u2019s small potatoes in the world of boxing, where you can make $30 million off one fight, not ten.<\/p>\n Anthony Joshua, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Oscar De La Hoya have all gotten $30 million paydays at least once. Others like Canelo Alvarez, Tyson Fury, Olyksandr Usyk, Manny Pacquiao, and Floyd Mayweather blew past that number, making $60 to $250 million off individual fights.<\/p>\n The only MMA fighter to ever sniff that amount? Conor McGregor, who is estimated to have made over $100 million<\/a> to fight Floyd Mayweather in 2017. He also reportedly had to fork over at least 30% of those earnings to UFC for letting him take the bout. Francis Ngannou is a distant second at $12 to $15 million per boxing bout.<\/a><\/p>\n Seeing those numbers, it\u2019s no wonder fighters like Tom Aspinall want to get a boxing match or two<\/a> in. The top boxers in the world aren\u2019t forced to hand over 80% of a fight\u2019s revenue to the promoters like in UFC. That\u2019s the advantage of not being part of a monopolized sport.<\/p>\n