Daniel Cormier remembers $1 million bonus,
“Back in 2015, I fought Jon Jones for the first time,” Cormier said.
“We had this great build. And I was making $80,000 to show up and $80,000 to win,”
“I lost. So I left that arena thinking, ‘All that, and I made $80,000.’ And I made like $80,000 in sponsorship back when we could wear those patches on our shorts. So I was like, ‘Man, for all that, I’m gonna make $150,000. It’s crazy.”
Daniel Cormier remembers $1 million bonus“Dana calls me two days later,” Cormier said. “‘Hey, man, you all killed it. Numbers are out of this world.’ He goes, ‘We’re gonna send you a million dollars.’ (This is) 2015. Dude sent me a million-dollar check next day, just because he said I did a great job.”
“So, they try to protect the athlete a little bit by not showing exactly what you make,” Cormier explained. “… A lot of it is hidden. And you also make money on the pay-per-view side. So if you become a guy like Conor (McGregor), like Jones, like Izzy (Adesanya) – you start selling pay-per-views, man, you get $2 a buy, $3 a buy, $4 a buy. Then that money really starts to go.”