Ilia Topuria made waves in the UFC last December when he emerged victorious and got straight into the Top 10 in the UFC featherweight division rankings.
Topuria has a very attractive style and despite his English lacking, he’s more than willing to reply to verbal provocations from other UFC stars. He had a widely publicized conflict with Paddy Pimblett that culminated with Paddy permanently switching to lightweight, and taking himself out of the featherweight rankings. Pimblett’s constant trouble with overeating seems to be a hinderance that put him out of Topuria’s path.
But Topuria isn’t complaining. According to a recent podcast appearance, he claims to have made between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000 during the year and a half he’s been with the UFC.
“In my UFC career, which I’ve been doing for about a year and a half, two, I’ve done between a million, a million and a half more or less.”
Topuria went on to add:
“But what I’m telling you, no, the same, the money. The money, obviously, is super important. And it’s what motivates us almost everything. Because I have to take the food to my son at home. My son is not going to eat my legacy, my fame, or my medals.”
This is in stark contrast to many of the other names in the UFC. One interesting thing that might contribute to Topuria’s earning potential is the fact that he made it into the UFC from Brave CF and not one of the feeder organizations that are infamous for horrible contracts.
Dana White Contender Series and TUF tend to offer very miniscule starting contracts, that range from $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win upwards.
Even Pimblett was on one of these shoddy contracts thanks to the fact his manager owns Cage Warriors – a European MMA promotion that streams on UFC’s streaming service.
(Pimblett has since renegotiated his contract thanks to his impressive star power.)
Topuria had 6 outings in the UFC, including 5 finishes.
5 out og his 6 outings ended with a finish. But he wasn’t given the bonus for some of them. We were able to confirm he received a bonuses for UFC 282 and UFC on ESPN+ 62 totaling to a $100,000.
Considering Topuria had won all 6 of his outings, that means he managed to double his purse on all of them. Let’s say he made $1 million total, without the $100,000 bonuses that totals to $900,000.
That means he made an average of $150,000 per UFC bout. Which sounds a lot more realistic when we break it down. Now Topuria’s actual purse, would total to a half of that. meaning he likely had a base pay of $450,000 for the 6 bouts.
Considering UFC’s incremental contract structure this means he’s likely worked up to $90,000 to show by now.
Topuria is managed by FIrst Round Managemeng’s Jose Diaz.
In addition to his UFC paychecks, he’s s sponsored by RYU apparel and serves as a brand ambassador for Kanpai Pandas. Kanpai Pandas seems like a crypto nonsense project.