If Brock Lesnar were to go back to the UFC, it would be a gamble. Not just in the ring, but financially. Why? Base pay in the UFC is less than Lesnar will get in the WWE. At best, he'll take home $500,000 flat per fight. Maybe Bellator and the UFC wind up in a bidding war, but it's doubtful the number goes any higher than half a million. With a likely maximum of two fights a year, Lesnar will be looking to cash in off of Pay Per View points. Those are bonus dollars top fighters are paid for every purchase of an event they headline past a set floor. For example, for every purchase beyond 200,000 buys a Lesnar event takes in, he might get a dollar, then a dollar and a half for every purchase past 400,000. That's just an example. For a fight selling a million buys, well that could make Lesnar very rich. It's what happened in his first UFC run. However, even at the end of that run the numbers were dropping. Lesnar's last fight, against Overeem, did just over half a million buys. That was low for Lesnar, but these days that would be considered a huge smash. While the UFC did 800,000 buys for Jones vs. Cormier, almost nothing does that well these days. Lesnar's first fight back will bring big numbers, but after that, a decline would be likely, so is there really a point in him leaving, when the money might not be there?
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
