Let’s not forget: Manny Pacquiao made $2.25 Million from trunk sponsors in one night.
A UFC champion today makes $42,000 whether 100K people watch or 5 million.
Nick Khan just testified in front of Congress on the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act and slipped in a quick sales pitch to young boxers for Zuffa Boxing.
Part of his message:
“If you want exposure…trading card deals…merchandise deals…video game deals…all of which the fighters would participate financially…come this way.”
That all sounds great!
‼️But if history tells us anything, here’s what Zuffa and the UFC actually did:
They saw the opportunity in fighter sponsorships and centralized fight week and fight night revenue.
A massive shift.
Sponsorships that were once fighter owned became promotion owned
and it happened right as fighters gained the tools to truly monetize themselves.
Today’s UFC fighter is:
👤 Audience owner
🏢 Monetization tenant
They can build millions of followers, drive engagement, sell products on social.
But the moment that matters most for every combat sports athlete, fight week and especially fight night, when the most eyes are on them, isn’t theirs to capitalize on.
That’s the gap.
Now imagine what a company would pay to be on a UFC superstar’s fight shorts today.
Because in the creator and entertainment economy:
📈 Peak attention = peak revenue
In the UFC model:
📉 Peak attention = fixed pay
No matter the viewership
No matter the value generated
That upside flows to the uniform, the canvas, the broadcast.
Not the fighter.
That’s why the UFC is the outlier.
🌍 In every other category, creators own their biggest moment
🥊 In the UFC, the promotion does
Which is why pressure is building:
📱 Fighters have portable audiences the UFC doesn’t control
🤝 Brands are routing around the system, working directly with fighters off platform
👊🏼 Other promotions allow fight night monetization
📊 The gap between what fighters generate and what they capture keeps widening
The market has already moved.
But the model hasn’t.
So when the pitch to boxers is “come here for financial opportunity” outside of the ring
The real question isn’t whether the opportunity sounds good.
It’s whether fighters will actually financially participate in the value they create
Or just create it for someone else to own…like they already do in the UFC.
And this goes much deeper than just fighter sponsorships.
📊 Full breakdown in the graphics below.
@Bigdaddyvinz_ Is it zaheer before or after flight? If it’s before toph is dog walking all of them. If it’s after zaheer is up there waiting for toph to dog walk everyone else and then just scooping her up and dropping her from 20,000 feet above elevation.