Conor “The Notorious” McGregor is far and away from the highest-paid fighter in the MMA history. And the Irishman expects that status continues when he returns to the octagon to take on Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 246 this weekend in Las Vegas.
Following this report and as one of the Irishman die-hard fan, all eyes will be on the bet365 app and one must be keen on winning one or more bets as McGregor returns to the Octagon this weekend.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ESPN, the official broadcast partner of the UFC, the Notorious revealed that he made a whopping $50 million for his October 2018 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov. And for his upcoming bout with Cowboy, he admitted he expects to earn an eye-watering $80 million, which he says will be the biggest payday of his MMA career so far.
https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1216807804121559040?s=20
Speaking with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, McGregor said:
“I’m confident it’s going to be a nice paycheck.
“Probably [the most ever] in my mixed martial arts career.
He added.
“I’m estimating a good $80 million. Like I said we’ve got Australia and Canada and England and Ireland — it should be a good one.
“They think I’m toast, Ariel, but I’m still the bread.”
As revealed on the ESPN website via gooner news, a significant portion of his UFC 246 purse will be accounted for by his part of the share of the pay-per-view revenue. Which is thus means, the better the fight sells, the more money he’ll be taking home.
Since his loss to Nurmagomedov in October, McGregor hasn’t been in the octagon, which marked a failed bid to reclaim the UFC lightweight belt. The Irishman most recent fight before that was a blockbuster match with boxing undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather Jr., while his second most recent MMA fight occurred all way back in 2016 when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to claim the lightweight belt.
With the UFC featherweight belt at his hands at the time, this made McGregor the first fighter in the promotion history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. He’s currently 21-4 in the MMA competition.
His fight opponent, Cerrone, on the other hand, is coming off the back of a stoppage back-to-back losses to top lightweight contenders Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson. Prior those losses, the Cowboy recorded back-to-back wins over lightweight contenders Al Iaquinta and Alexander Hernandez, and a welterweight win over “Platinum” Mike Perry, who’s challenging Hollywood actor Michael Jai White to a backyard, bare-knuckle brawl!. It’s also worth knowing that Cerrone holds the UFC records for most wins and most finishes and he’s currently 36-13 overall.
With all their current stats panned out, do you think Conor McGregor will make $80 million for his UFC 246 fight as he returns to the Octagon against Donald Cerrone?
This article first appeared on MMAINSIGHT.com and written by Tyler P. Williams of gooner news….
