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Eddie Hearn says the split UFC took from Conor McGregor for Floyd Mayweather fight is ‘outrageous’ and explains why Notorious became a nightmare for Dana White
Eddie Hearn believes Conor McGregor becoming bigger than the UFC presented a big problem for the company.
The UFC is under constant scrutiny for fighter pay, but McGregor is something of an outlier in that department as the box office sensation makes sums beyond the vast majority of his peers combined.
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Pay-per-view revenue is a key difference maker in McGregor’s profits as opposed to his peers and he has headlined eight of the UFC top 10 best-selling PPVs ever.
However, even for someone like The Notorious, the UFC found a way to take a big slice of his pie for the Mayweather boxing fight and Hearn found the split ‘outrageous’.
“I’d love to see what the relationship behind the scenes is like managing Conor. Reports are when he boxed Mayweather they split the purse 50/50, Conor and the UFC.
“That’s outrageous. But at the same time, I understand that he’s in contract and he’s not allowed to take that fight, so to do that, that’s the deal,” Hearn told Ariel Helwani.
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For the rest of the fighters in the UFC, they sign contracts favourable to the promotion with a clear ceiling.
Hearn says UFC has used its prestige and position as a market leader to their advantage for so long, but McGregor is the biggest example of fighters getting recognition in their own right and making it more and more difficult for Dana White's company to preserve their old way of paying.
“For the UFC, where they've been very smart is by – it's such an honour to get a UFC deal,” he said.
“You see these kids coming out of Bellator, or Cage Warriors, or wherever it is; but the thought of getting a UFC contract is everything.
“But I feel in the UFC, they don't want you to get too big.
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“And when you do – and I used to almost laugh at Conor, because I could just imagine just the disruption that he was causing in that organisation, because that's not really the name of the game
“We don't want a star that is bigger than the UFC. Conor McGregor became bigger than the UFC. Really. And that's a nightmare for those guys.”
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