Aljo Sterling reveals he made $400k for UFC 273 – and was left with $100k after expenses

Aljamain Sterling addressed comments Michael Chandler had made yesterday. While Chandler was quick to defend the UFC brass and to advocate to keep the current pay structure – it’s not that sample.
For one, Chandler is part of an elite club.

Michael Chandler admitted that he does not have a problem with the UFC’s pay structure.

“I think people think that we should make a lot more money because the UFC makes a ton of money on their shows. Well the UFC’s been at it since 1993. ”

“Dana White has had 10,000 sleepless nights when most of us fighters were just showing up to practice and going to bed and laying our head on the pillow and getting after it and getting a decent wage for what we do.”

“For Michael Chandler to say that fighters just wake up and go to sleep… we train and go to sleep, that’s kind of like… do you not value what you bring to the table for your bosses. And this not to disrespect Dana…”

“I’m not trying to get into a fighter pay thing but at the same time it’s like… Bro, you can’t say there is no issue with the fighter pay because you’re at the cream of the crop.”

Sterling is a champion – meaning he too receives PPV points – while he’s a champion. But he’s vary of the situation.

“Right now I could say I’m good, I’m at the cream of the crop, I’m at the top. I’m getting paid pretty damn well at this point. It’s still underpaid for what it could be based on the numbers that have shown what the revenue split is between fighters and the bosses.”

Sterling went on to share some specifics about his own financial situation.

“Full disclosure, my last fight, I made $400,000,” Aljamain Sterling told media during a recent interview.

“That’s before taxes, that’s before i paid my coaches, that’s before expenses, and I owed money in taxes from last year. Because of COVID and everything, the things I had to do for my personal side of that, I had to do with family and take care of family and pay stuff, remodeling this, remodeling that, so I owed money.”

“I probably walked way with about $110,000,” Aljamain Sterling explained. “Now I get to spend that, and I have to budget it, and I’ve got to put away money for savings, and put away stuff for my investments, so not I have to budget all this out to make sure I don’t go broke. So it sounds like, ‘You made a sh*t ton of money,’ and yes and no.”

Sterling went on to explain that athletes in the UFC often have to keep their day job.

“I had a second job all the way through my career until after I beat ‘Tanquino” (Augusto Mendes), after two split decision losses,” Aljamain Sterling said.

“I have a college degree. I would have been potentially making more money doing that in the beginning of my career if I had just stuck to that and I’d have been making more money than what I was making if I had just stuck to fighting.”