After several months of administrative work, UFC antitrust settlement money is about to start being distributed. And no one is getting more of it than MMA GOAT contender Anderson Silva.
Back in February 2025, a judge approved a deal between UFC and athletes who had competed with the promotion between 2010 and 2017 worth $375 million dollars. Minus lawyer’s fees and various admin, $251 million dollars is
about to be distributed to 1088 fighters.
Lawyer and MMA journalist John Nash has been all over the antitrust case for years now and has a whole bunch more stats on exactly what’s going on with that quarter of a billion dollars. The simple math on how much each fighter gets, he says, is 32.7% of their total bout compensation in the class period plus $14,179.33 per bout.
Based on this and the pay numbers revealed during the discovery portion of the antitrust case, Nash was able to calculate who is getting paid $10,334,240.72, which is the highest amount from the settlement.
“The recipient of the $10.3 million is Anderson Silva,” Nash wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Silva fought 10 times during the class period, seven times in title fights, and one time as a last minute replacement for Jon Jones against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200. Rough math puts his earnings at around $30 million during that time.
That may sound impressive, and it’s certainly a nice little nest egg to fall into Silva’s lap after years where few people gave the antitrust case much of a chance. But it’s small potatoes in the world of boxing, where you can make $30 million off one fight, not ten.
Anthony Joshua, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Oscar De La Hoya have all gotten $30 million paydays at least once. Others like Canelo Alvarez, Tyson Fury, Olyksandr Usyk, Manny Pacquiao, and Floyd Mayweather blew past that number, making $60 to $250 million off individual fights.
The only MMA fighter to ever sniff that amount? Conor McGregor, who is estimated to have made over $100 million to fight Floyd Mayweather in 2017. He also reportedly had to fork over at least 30% of those earnings to UFC for letting him take the bout. Francis Ngannou is a distant second at $12 to $15 million per boxing bout.
Seeing those numbers, it’s no wonder fighters like Tom Aspinall want to get a boxing match or two in. The top boxers in the world aren’t forced to hand over 80% of a fight’s revenue to the promoters like in UFC. That’s the advantage of not being part of a monopolized sport.
And let’s be clear: UFC is a monopoly. That’s the tacit admission that came with the UFC’s settlement to fighters, and there are still a few more antitrust cases coming down the pipe that could shake things up more.
