Due to Ronda Rousey's star power even before joining WWE, it's no wonder why her salary is one of the highest in the entire company. Although she is one of the most notable MMA fighters, her salary did not reflect that.
Ronda Rousey's WWE salary is $1.5 million, with an additional $2.1 million assessed with rewards and product deals. On the other hand, her earnings in Strikeforce/UFC are a bit trickier to compute since every fight is different.
Rousey's first fight in Strikeforce against Sarah D'Alelio was only $8,000, the same for her next match. She was paid $32,000 for her first fight with Miesha Tate and $40,000 against Sarah Kaufman. She was paid $90,000 for her first UFC fight against Liz Carmouche, and her last fight against Amanda Nunes was $3,030,000.
It's estimated that she earned $4.3 million in the UFC from 2011 to 2016, which she could have made in the Stamford-based promotion in three years. With this in mind, Ronda Rousey made more money in WWE.
What did Ronda Rousey say regarding the difference between the salary of UFC and WWE?
One of the major problems UFC fans and fighters have faced over the years is the low salaries they receive after their performances. Interestingly, the former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion has an interesting take regarding this.
While on Wild Ride, the WWE star shared that the difference in her UFC and WWE salary is due to the age of the sport. Since WWE is older, they have a more organized setup. She even compared how both organizations differ in terms of their services.
“The older the sport is, the more the athletes can really can start to come together and fight for what they think they deserve as a unified front. The WWE being older, they definitely have developmental programs where they bring people into live and train by the [Performance Center] in Orlando. They get a salary and they get unlimited access to doctors and physical therapists and all these different things, as an Olympian I would have been so happy to have something like that. UFC originally didn’t have anything like that." [H/T MMA Fighting]
Which female star has a higher WWE salary than Ronda Rousey?
Although the $1.5 million salary of the former RAW Women's Champion is undoubtedly impressive, it's still incomparable to the highest-paid female star in the company.
Becky Lynch is the highest-paid female WWE star, with an annual salary of $3.1 million. Despite this, her net worth of $7 million is less than Ronda Rousey's $14 million.
Although fans have a love-and-hate relationship with the 36-year-old, her star power across different sports showcases why she deserves such a salary.
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