UFC 194 was projected to break records, but no one could have seen this one coming.
In just 13 seconds, Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo for the fastest finish ever in a UFC title fight. With his quick work, the undisputed featherweight champion will be paid more per second than any other fighter in company history.
While the majority of McGregor’s paycheck hinges on pay-per-view buy rates (numbers that won’t be reported for several weeks), even the most modest PPV estimates for UFC 194 put the Irishman’s per-second earnings well ahead of the most generous estimates for Ronda Rousey’s record-setting win at UFC 190.
In that bout, the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion needed only 34 seconds to take out challenger Bethe Correia. With Rousey getting a percentage share of the 900,000-plus pay-per-view buys, in addition to $230,000 in fight and sponsor pay, her total earnings were reported as high as $5 million. Using that ceiling, Rousey made just north of $147,000 per second.
Like Rousey, McGregor’s contract gives him a cut of pay-per-view shares: a reported $3-$5 for each purchase. While we don't know exactly how many buys UFC 194 will total — most outlets predict well over one million — it is a sure bet to at least reach UFC 189's one-million mark. McGregor fought Chad Mendes, a last-minute replacement for Aldo, in the headliner for that event.
Going off the lowest figures in that equation, one million PPV buys with a $3 cut, McGregor would already be getting paid more than $230,000 per second. Add in his $580,000 combined fight and sponsor pay, and that number rises to over $275,000 per second ($3.5 million total). In case you’re curious, a more optimistic estimate for McGregor — say, a $5 PPV cut and 1.5 million PPV buys — would equate to nearly $622,000 per second ($8 million total).
No matter where McGregor lands in that spectrum, his per-second earnings have comfortably cleared Rousey's mark — a figure she famously used to taunt boxing’s pound-for-pound king, Floyd Mayweather.
With this record, and plenty more to come, McGregor has set out to do the same.
