There were many fans (and pundits) in the mixed martial arts (MMA) community who believed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) paid way too much for pro wrestling import CM Punk, who took home a whopping $500,000 for his submission loss to Mickey Gall at UFC 203 (watch it).
In actuality, he may have gotten ripped off.
That’s because the former WWE superstar is probably worth five-six million dollars, according to veteran combat sports journalist Dave Meltzer, who explained to Submission Radio that Punk — real name Phil Brooks — had a ripple effect on the entire fight card.
His words:
“It was a bargain. Realistically, he probably was worth five and a half to six million dollars to the show – and that’s just including pay-per-views, that’s not even including like other ancillary things. And everyone on the show, everyone that won on the show benefited because there was so many more people watching them. Stipe benefited financially because he was getting a cut of the pay-per-view, but even like Jessica Andrade or Werdum – not so much Werdum, because I don’t think he really helped himself that much in the fight, even though he won (laughs). But like Jessica Andrade just as an example – so many more people saw Andrade win a good fight, and that helps her brand and trying to get a championship fight because there was probably, what, 170,000 paying customers that watched it that would not have been there without Punk.”
What, no love for this fiasco?!?
Fortunately there is no such thing as lemon laws in MMA, because Punk has already been informed by promotion president Dana White that any future fights are unlikely to transpire under the UFC banner.
Unless, of course, Punk is able to build up some wins on the regional circuit.
Who’s hiring?
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