Former UFC Champ Brock Lesnar is MMA’s Top Dog on ESPN 30 Highest Paid Athletes List

Posted on April 20, 2011 by MMAWeekly.com Staff

ESPN The Magazine recently released a list of the “Best Paid Athletes in 30 Sports.” Tops on the list for mixed martial artists was no surprise; it was former WWE Superstar and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

The numbers listed were for official base salary or earnings from the most recently completed season or calendar year, and did not include endorsements, appearance fees, sponsorship money or other such sources of income.

In Lesnar’s case, his earnings for 2010 were listed at $5.3 million. That number only includes his salary as reported to the athletic commissions and an estimate on what he made from pay-per-view bonuses. Lesnar likely earned other bonuses, and of course, had numerous endorsements and other sources of income that were not in the tally.

While dwarfing several other sports’ top earners, that number barely puts a dent in the earnings of the top dogs in the major sports in the United States. Alex Rodriguez in baseball and Manny Pacquiao in boxing both made a reported $32 million each, while Kobe Bryant pulled down $24.8 million in the NBA, and the NFL’s Peyton Manning earned $15.8 million.

Lesnar’s earnings, at $5.3 million, were still a tremendous jump forward from what UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie earned for his victory at UFC 1. Gracie won three fights that night in a tournament format to rake in $50,000.

TUF 13 Episode 4 Recap: Brock Lesnar’s Temper Continues to Flare

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Brian Lopez-Benchimol

It’s obvious that Team Dos Santos is in a good mood following Ryan McGillivray’s upset win over Brock Lesnar’s number one pick Len Bentley. The win helped moved Junior dos Santos’ team 2-1 over Lesnar’s squad.

Lew Polley, the assistant coach for Team Dos Santos, has had his issues with his own coaching staff, however, asserts that they have been able to put matters behind them and move forward as a tightknit group, something that Polley believes is lacking for Lesnar’s team.

As seen in last week’s episode, Lesnar was unable to attend Len’s fight due to ”personal issues,” but received word that Bentley lost. Though he’s dissapointed, he still manages to offer some sound advice for Bentley in order to lift his spirits. Len remains the obvious top-pick for the ”wild-card” after his back-and-forth battle with McGillivray.

With the mounting losses, Lesnar has become particularly upset with his team, and notices Clay Harvison and Charlie Rader in particular are not up to par in their attitudes during training.

Coach dos Santos chooses number four pick Ramsey Nijem to take on Lesnar’s number two pick in Rader. Brock immediately assessed Charlie as a good style match-up against Nijem, who he assumes only brings wrestling to the equation, while Rader has proven to be more well-rounded. He predicts a knockout finish for Charlie.

Nijem is largely underestimated amongst his peers, who have noticed that he is unarguably the most flamboyant of the bunch. Ramsey’s obsession with the television show ”Glee,” painting his toe nails, and dancing naked around the house have only bolstered their assessment.

“Team Lesnar underestimates Ramsey for sure. They don’t know how good of a high school wrestler he really is,” said teammate Shamar Bailey.

Lesnar brings in UFC Hall of Famer and former welterweight champion Matt Hughes into the training session in order to work with what he calls his ”four horsemen,” meaning the last four active competitors left on his team.

Charlie in particular takes a liking to Hughes, who he says has helped him a lot in just a short amount of time before his bout.

Team Dos Santos goes over the game plan with Ramsey, which remains simple: engage Rader, when he presses, get the takedown and look to finish.

Adversely, Rader is looking to stuff the shot, open up with the jab, and eventually knock Ramsey out.

In the moments leading up to the fight, Ramsey is still joking even just before walking out while Charlie is cool, calm and relaxed.

Once the fight is underway, although Rader knew exactly what Nijem was going to come in with, he was still unable to open up at all. The first round saw Nijem put Rader against the fence over and over again, and though he struggled for the takedown in the beginning, he eventually took Charlie down twice before the round was over.

In between rounds, Lesnar reminded Charlie that ”this is for real” in order to wake him up from the daze he appeared to be in. Rader looked fatigued, and Ramsey capitalized by immediately taking him down, eventually working to his back and sinking in a choke in less than two minutes of the second round. Rader really made no attempt to fend off the choke.

Ramsey becomes the first cast member to finish a fight since the season began, and now pockets an additional bonus for the submission.

Lesnar after the fight said he knew the fight was lost when staring across the cage at Ramsey, who seemed ready to go, while Rader still seemed disinterested. Brock had touched on this subject before – that his fighter lacked the fire to compete.

Out of frustration, Lesnar tosses his stool inside the cage. UFC president Dana White agrees with Lesnar’s attitude, saying that the former world champion gave up his time to participate on the show only to have Rader give up so easily in the fight.

Back in the lockerroom, Lesnar lets loose with a verbal assault on his team, to which Len Bentley has had enough and walks out.

In the highlights of the next episode of ”The Ultimate Fighter,” Bentley is seen venting his frustration’s about Lesnar’s brutal bashing of his team, and Chris Cope of Team Lesnar is still assumed as a ”double agent.” Additionally, a serious injury has now come into play, possibly sidelining one of the contenders.

It’s now Team dos Santos 3, Team Lesnar 1 heading into Episode 5.

i wonder how much he made for being a coach

this is probally the reason j. toney got so upset
even though boxers get paid bank

there not nearly as famous

i think both sports are SUPER AWESOME