How much does he make per fight?

UFC 306 fight week is here, and it is one of the most anticipated events in the 2024 calendar of the UFC. The event will see the promotion make its debut at the Las Vegas Sphere, and it will have two title fights serving as the headlining bouts. One of those will feature a top name in the UFC currently. That is Sean O’Malley.

O’Malley made his UFC debut in late 2017 and, less than seven years later, he now finds himself at the helm of the promotion’s bantamweight division. Beyond that, O’Malley is undoubtedly one of the biggest stars within the promotion’s current landscape. O’Malley now has his second bantamweight title defense looming, and his run at the top of the 135-pound division has certainly increased his financial status and standing. But just how much is O’Malley worth?

According to Essentially Sports, O’Malley is estimated to be approximately worth $3 million. This is as of August 2024. In August 2023, O’Malley’s net worth was $2,200,000. This would mean that, in a year, O’Malley’s total earnings have seen his net worth increase by approximately $800,000.

O’Malley, much like other fighters, has several partnerships and endorsements. These align with his career as an athlete, and ultimately also add to his earnings. O’Malley’s endorsements include Sanabul, Crypto.com, and MyBookieMMA.

Whilst a majority of O’Malley’s earnings come from his professional career as a mixed martial artist, there are other ways he earns money too. O’Malley also has a YouTube channel, which he uses to also promote his endorsements, and it certainly adds to his earnings. O’Malley also has a Twitch channel, which reportedly earns him about $4,500 per month (MMA Salaries). In his MMA career, his earnings have been quite impressive too.

For his appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series season two, O’Malley earned a total of $12,500. Having earned the contract, O’Malley made his promotional debut in December 2017, and he got a total of $23,500. O’Malley’s first fight against Marlon Vera took place in August 2020, and he had a $60,000 base salary. O’Malley would ultimately lose that bout but, still earning $4,000 in sponsorship revenue, he walked away with a total of $64,000 at UFC 252.

At UFC 276, O’Malley faced Pedo Munhoz, and he had a $1.5 million base salary, marking the first time in his career that such happened. The fight ended in a no contest due to an accidental eye poke, thus resulting in O’Malley only getting an additional $6,000 in sponsorship. This meant that O’Malley had a total of $1,506,000.

At UFC 280, O’Malley faced Petr Yan, and had a base salary of $150,000. O’Malley would go on to win the bout, thus earning a $150,000 win bonus and a $50,000 performance bonus. With $6,000 in sponsorship, this meant O’Malley walked away from that fight with $356,000 in total.

UFC 292 took place in August 2023, and the event would see O’Malley challenge Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight title. Walking into the bout, O’Malley had a base salary of $500,000 and, despite winning the bout, he did not get a win bonus. He did, however, receive a PPV payout of $600,000 and a performance bonus of $50,000. His sponsorship payout for this bout was $32,000, which ultimately meant that O’Malley walked away with $1,182,000 from that event.

At that point of his career, O’Malley had earned more than $4 million. Although the fights progressively earned O’Malley more career with each passing bout, none surpass his most recent fight.

O’Malley made his first defense of the bantamweight title at UFC 299, and it was a rematch against Vera. O’Malley received a $1.5 million base salary and, once again, even though he won the bout, he did not receive a win bonus. O’Malley’s PPV payout would be $725,000 and he would get a $50,000 performance bonus. The sponsorship payout was $42,000, and this made up a total event earning of $2,317,000 for O’Malley. This remains, to date, O’Malley’s biggest payout, per MMA Salaries.

UFC 306 is quite a major event and, although the promotion has already spent a lot of money on their Las Vegas Sphere spectacle, there are plans for the promotion to make that money and more back. Being featured on such a card, it can be expected that O’Malley and his peers will be compensated well. But just how much could O’Malley walk away with from his main event bout?

According to Sportskeeda, based off of previous earnings, it is anticipated that O’Malley will earn upward of $2.5 million in total. If this is accurate, the UFC 306 event could see O’Malley earn more than he ever has before in his entire career. O’Malley could very well be the highest-paid fighter on the UFC 306 card.