{"id":191672,"date":"2025-10-11T00:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/191672\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T00:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:31:07","slug":"mike-tyson-reveals-telling-reason-he-would-have-never-competed-in-the-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/191672\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson reveals telling reason he would have never competed in the UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Tyson says the pay in the UFC is the reason he would never have considered a switch from boxing to MMA.<\/p>\n

Tyson is currently gearing up to meet Floyd Mayweather Jr<\/a> in an exhibition boxing match in Spring 2026.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tyson<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Tyson dominated the boxing scene, but has no interest in expanding his career into the UFC<\/p>\n

But one thing that he is certain that he would not have ever considered, is an appearance in the UFC.<\/p>\n

Even if the company’s peak had matched up with his hey day, Tyson claims they wouldn’t have been able to afford him anyway.<\/p>\n

The heavyweight legend is said to have earned around $430million (\u00a3337.5m) across his career that spanned over 20 years.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Hard Rock Bet, he explained why: \u201cFive of the biggest UFC fighters combined couldn\u2019t match my pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be the biggest fighter, the biggest purse, I want all that stuff. <\/p>\n

“When Mike Tyson fights, he shuts everything down.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Tyson fought Jake Paul, he was paid a mammoth $20m<\/a> for their eight-round clash.<\/p>\n

His best payday came when he finally faced off with his long-term rival, Lennox Lewis<\/a>, in 2002 and took home a staggering $35m.<\/p>\n

But, aside from Conor McGregor, UFC contenders are not as handsomely paid. <\/p>\n

What financial issues in the UFC is Mike Tyson referring to?<\/p>\n

Last year, the UFC settled an antitrust lawsuit for $375m.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

White recently announced that Paramount and CBS will be the new home for all UFC events in the United States in 2026Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Due to being underpaid for their activities from 2010 to 2017,\u00a01,067 fighters were compensated.<\/p>\n

The salary of mixed martial arts fighters has also been a hot topic of conversation over the years.<\/p>\n

Especially when it comes to those who are signed to White’s UFC.<\/p>\n

The fighters are believed to take home around 20 per cent of the yearly revenue that the promotion generates.<\/p>\n

In 2006 White implemented performance bonuses, which have remained at $50,000 since their implementation.<\/p>\n

While new signings typically earn between $10,000 and $30,000 a fight, some champions never touch seven figures.<\/p>\n

But, the UFC CEO recently gave two of the promotion’s new signings a $25,000 bonus<\/a> for the first time since the lawsuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson says the pay in the UFC is the reason he would never have considered a switch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,21762,7879,101,715,914,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-191672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-dana-white","tag-mike-tyson","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}