Sooner or later, someone will surpass Floyd Mayweather as the world's highest paid athlete. But given that he made at least $250 million for his May 2 victory in Las Vegas over Manny Pacquiao, that isn't going to happen any time soon.
But UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey says that while her total compensation isn't anywhere near Mayweather's, she believes she makes more per second than the boxer does.
Rousey was stopped on the street by a reporter for TMZ and, quickly, the conversation turned to Mayweather, whom Rousey topped last month for the ESPY as "Best Fighter."
During the conversation with TMZ, Rousey said she makes two to three times more per second than Mayweather.
"I don't know if you saw the Floyd thing, where he said, 'When you make $300 million in a night, give me a call.' I actually did the math and given the numbers in my last fight, I'm actually the highest-paid UFC fighter, and I'm a woman. And I think I actually make two to three times more than he does per second. So when he learns to read and write, he can text me then."
Mayweather's take for the Pacquiao fight is believed to be between $250 million and $275 million, but given that Rousey used $300 million, let's do the math using that number to see how much Rousey might have made from her 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia on Aug. 1 at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.
Dividing $300 million by the 36 minutes Mayweather was in the ring with Pacquiao works out to $8,333,333.33 per minute. Dividing that by 60 comes to $138.888.89 per second.
So since Rousey said she makes two to three times more per second than Mayweather, multiplying $138.888.89 times two is $277,777.78. Multiplying it by three comes out to $416,666.667 per second for Rousey.
So, if you multiply those figures by 34 – the length of time of the Rousey-Correia match – Rousey is suggesting that she made at least $9,444,444.52 (at $277,777.78 dollars per second times 34 seconds) and as much as $14,166,666.68 (at $416,666.667 dollars per second times 34 seconds).
I appeared on The Insider on Aug. 3 and estimated that Rousey made at least $5 million from the Correia fight and potentially a bit more.
So by any standard, she's doing well.
Dave Sholler, the UFC's vice president of public relations and athlete marketing, confirmed that Rousey "is the highest compensated current UFC champion." Sholler said he was not able to discuss Rousey's exact purse.
Rousey's disclosed purse from Aug. 1 was $190,000. She made $70,000 to show, $70,000 to win and earned a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus. But as a champion, she also earned a percentage of the pay-per-view sales. The show did in excess of 1 million buys, though the UFC did not release the exact figure.
But it was the highest-selling pay-per-view this year.
All that means is that Rousey makes a lot of money. She may make more per second than Mayweather, though there is no way of knowing that since we don't know the exact figures in her contract. But while she may take some joy in that, most people would take Mayweather's side and have the real money to spend.
Either way, don't expect to see either of them in the soup line any time soon.
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