Khamzat Chimaev is one of the top candidates to win a UFC title in the near future. How much does such a fighter with such great potential earn in the UFC? Well, Chimaev himself has somewhat opened up about how much he earns per fight.
Before his fight against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, Chimaev sat down with Nina Marie Danielle for an interview. Although he informed her that he thought the interview would consist of only two questions, he ended up discussing various topics with her.
Chimaev was asked “smash or pass” – the MMA version where “smash” would mean to KO. Danielle named a few fighters and Chimaev said he would smash them all. Daniele named seven Middleweight fighters including Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya. Without any prompt, Chimaev opened up about how much he would earn if he fought all seven.
He said, “So much money. Imagine I fight all of these guys. Crazy! Seven fights, seven, yeah, it’s almost 20 million, more than 20 million. It’s a lot, it’s good.”
The Chechen-born fighter claimed that he could potentially earn over $20 million in seven fights. That comes out to almost $3 million per fight. However, that does not even come close to what he earned from his last fight.
Khamzat Chimaev earned over $1 million from his last fight
Chimaev made his UFC debut in July 2020 against John Phillips. According to MMA Salaries, he earned around $16,000 for the fight as guaranteed pay along with a $16,000 win bonus and a $50,000 performance bonus.
Coming to his latest fight in 2022, he faced Kevin Holland at UFC 279 in September. Chimaev was supposed to headline the event with a fight against Nate Diaz. However, he missed weight and had to fight Holland in a Catchweight bout. Diaz, on the other hand, fought Tony Ferguson.
Khamzat Chimaev beats Kevin Holland by submission due to a darce choke. #UFC279 #KhamzatChimaev #KevinHolland #UFC pic.twitter.com/pNDMMLZKMG
— omar (@omargrafa) September 11, 2022
Chimaev defeated Holland via submission in the first round. As reported by MMA Salaries, Chimaev racked up $1 million as guaranteed pay for the fight. That is more than 50x of what he earned as guaranteed pay from his first fight. Moreover, he earned $6,000 from sponsorships at UFC 279.
However, if Chimaev himself said he could earn over $20 million in seven fights, he probably signed a new contract with the UFC with even higher guaranteed pay. It is likely he even added the bonuses he might earn per fight as all the seven fighters are big names of the division.