Brock Lesnar Made An Outrageous Amount Of Money In UFC

There's a few things that fans know for certain about Brock Lesnar. For starters, he's very big, and has always been that way since he first burst onto the scene at the University of Minnesota. There's the fact that Lesnar is really into privacy, disappearing into Canada when he's not in the public eye. He's the most successful star to ever crossover between pro wrestling and MMA, with no other serious contenders behind him. He remains named in Janel Grant's sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon, which alleges McMahon tried to arrange sexual liaisons between Grant and Lesnar, a scandal that promises to hang over Lesnar's head. And finally, there's the fact that Lesnar has gotten handsomely paid for his contributions to both WWE and UFC over the years.

In many ways, Lesnar is an anomaly when it comes to the paychecks he received from both WWE and UFC, two organizations that have increasingly become known for how little they pay their performers/fighters compared to the profits they're raking in, so much so that UFC has received class action lawsuits over it. But in the current systems for both companies where stars get all the spoils, and those with the ultimate leverage can increase their paychecks, Lesnar has found himself ahead of the game. Not only was Lesnar a big draw for both UFC and WWE during the late 2000's/entire 2010s, but the threat of him jumping from one to the other allowed him massive leverage during a time when AEW didn't exist and Bellator was far behind UFC as an MMA promotion. But how much money did Lesnar manage to pull in, especially during that first UFC run? The answer; a whole lot.

This is apparent even without the whole data from the knowledge gleaned from Lesnar's last UFC fight at UFC 200 against Mark Hunt. Lesnar's purse for that fight was $2.5 million, a record at the time. But that wasn't all Lesnar walked away with, given he received a PPV bonus as well. Though the exact numbers aren't known, one estimate had Lesnar earning $8 million from the PPV bonus, which would mean he received a total of $10.25 million for the Hunt fight. While the Hunt fight stands out as the most money Lesnar made from the purse and bonuses, other estimated figures show he did quite well during his first run with UFC. All told, it's believed that Lesnar ultimately walked away making an estimated total of over $24 million between eight career UFC fights. Even if one takes into account the $250K he lost from his suspension for a positive drug test for the Hunt fight, it's not in dispute that Lesnar made a whole lot of money from his UFC career.

The amazing thing is that, based on some information out there, Lesnar has either made as much in WWE, or even more. This gets tricky given that most contractual information, including how much money wrestlers make, are still kept behind closed doors, making it impossible to know just how much money Lesnar has made during his WWE runs. One report estimated that Lesnar was making $12 million a year over the course of a multi-year contract, which would mean he's easily dwarfed his UFC figures, though another report has suggested that Lesnar was making $5 million a year before he was taken off TV following the Grant lawsuit. Regardless, the money Lesnar has made between his WWE and UFC careers all but guarantees that he won't have to worry about money ever again, especially in the wake of a new deal he signed with WWE upon his return.