Sean O’Malley puts his belt on the line for the first time this weekend at UFC 299 against Marlon Vera. ‘Sugar’ has ambitions of following Conor McGregor’s footsteps as the highest-paid athlete in the UFC. However, in order to get to that point, O’Malley will have to secure a win on Saturday night. Ahead of his first title defense, here’s a closer look at O’Malley’s earnings in the past and speculate on what he could make for this first title defense.
How much did Sean O’Malley earn against Aljamain Sterling?
‘Sugar’ took on Aljamain Sterling for the UFC bantamweight belt at UFC 292. This was O’Malley’s first shot at the title. According to MMA Salaries, O’Malley made an impressive $1.18 million for his title win against Sterling.
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This includes a base salary of $500,000 along with a performance bonus of $50,000 and an estimated PPV payout of $600,000. In his fight prior to the title shot, O’Malley took on Petr Yan. It is reported that he made $356,000 for that fight. This included a base salary of $150,000 and a win bonus of $150,000 as well. A $50,000 performance bonus and $6,000 in sponsorship was also added to the final amount.
How much will Sean O’Malley earn for his fight against Marlon Vera at UFC 299?
In the UFC, once a fighter becomes a champion, they become partners in an event. This means that the champions get a cut from the PPV sales. The better the event does, the more the fighters stand to make.
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UFC 299 will be the first time that O’Malley receives a share of the PPVs as a champion. Therefore, it is safe to assume that he will earn a lot more than the $1.18 million he earned in his last fight against Aljamain Sterling. Looking the recently revealed gate, things are looking all the more rosy financially for O’Malley.
UFC 299 gate
If the gate is any indicator, the UFC 299 is on trend to be a massive event for the company as well as the champions involved in the event. According to Dana White, the UFC 299 generated a gate of $13.75 million. This makes it the fourth highest grossing gate of all time behind UFC 205, UFC 229 and UFC 264. All of these fights featured Conor McGregor as he took on Eddie Alvarez, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier respectively. O’Malley is looking at a potential mega payday if the event does as well in PPVs as it is in gate.
