Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson recently revealed shocking details about his compensation during his early days in the promotion, particularly for his 2011 championship bout against Dominick Cruz.
Speaking on the Outta Pocket with RGIII podcast, Johnson disclosed the stark reality of his earnings. “When you start fighting in mixed martial arts, it’s not like you become professional your first paychecks, you know, you made $250 to show up and you went $250 to win. Congratulations! I was like I guess I can go buy a laptop at Best Buy now. I mean that sounds great.”
Johnson then shared the surprising figure from his championship match. “I worked throughout my whole entire career up until I fought Dominick Cruz and even when I fought Dominick Cruz, that paycheck was $14,000 to show [money], $14,000 to win [money] and I lost that fight. And that’s a world title fight, right—that’s I’m at the Super Bowl, essentially and I made $14,000,” Johnson said.
For context, according to the MMA Fighters Association (MMAFA), the median salary for a UFC competitor was $45,000 in 2020, with 56% earning less than $50,000 annually. In comparison, Major League Baseball players receive a minimum salary of $570,599 per year.
Johnson’s earnings did improve over time. “Eventually I kept on winning and then the money got better obviously. 14 turned into 20, then 20 turned into 24, then 24 turned into 100K, then to 350,” he explained.
However, a significant revenue stream remained out of reach. In 2023, Johnson revealed, “I finally got a new contract as champion, and I think it was ($125,000 to show) and ($50,000 to win), but I couldn’t get pay-per-view points. And that’s where a champion makes most of their bang for their buck, is the pay-per-view points.”
For comparison, recent champion Zhang Weili earned $650,000 in base pay at UFC 300, plus an additional $1.65 million in pay-per-view points, totaling over $2.2 million.
Johnson, who defended his title eleven consecutive times before being traded to ONE Championship in 2018, never received the pay-per-view compensation that today’s champions typically enjoy, despite being considered one of the sport’s all-time greats.
