The California State Athletic Commission released its official fighter payroll from MVP MMA 1 on Saturday. Main event winner Ronda Rousey topped the card with a disclosed purse of $2.2 million. Gina Carano, who did not land a single strike before getting armbarred in 17 seconds, took home $1.05 million.
Francis Ngannou, Nate Diaz, and Mike Perry pocketed $1.5 million, $500,000, and $400,000, respectively. By any traditional MMA standard, those are some huge paydays. But according to Carano’s own head coach, the commission’s numbers are not even close to what fighters on the main card actually earned.
John Wood Claims Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano Cashed Retirement-Level Paydays
Syndicate MMA head coach John Wood, who trained Carano for her recent bout, did not hold back on the “Home of Fight” podcast regarding the fighter payouts for MVP MMA 1. He explicitly challenged the official payroll figures released by the California State.
“I’ll tell you this right now, those payouts weren’t even close,” Wood said. “The undercard might have been a little realistic, but the main card and what those guys got paid, not even close.”
Wood then explained, “I’ll tell you right now, on that card there are people that could retire and never have to work or fight again if they chose not to from what they got paid on that show.”
💸😳 Coach John Wood says the payout numbers released by CSAC are NOT TRUE and fighters on the MVP: Rousey vs. Carano card got paid much more:
“I’ll tell you this right now, those payouts weren’t even close. The undercard might have been a little realistic, but the main card and… pic.twitter.com/6lJuRNaHF8
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) May 20, 2026
This discrepancy is common in combat sports. State commissions like CSAC only disclose the base contract purses. These public figures leave out upfront signing fees, performance bonuses, private sponsorships and backend incentives tied to Netflix viewership.
And they intentionally showcased the figure that does not disclose everything. Before the event, MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian stated on “The Ariel Helwani Show” that their model returns “much higher than 50%” of revenue to the fighters. For comparison, the UFC typically pays out 16% to 20%.
So, the CSAC numbers are just a fraction of actual fighter earnings. Before the fight, Rousey said her total payout would easily beat her $3 million purse from UFC 207 in 2016. If Coach Wood’s assessment is accurate, her $2.2 million CSAC figure was just a baseline.
How much Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano actually received
The real money came from Netflix’s massive viewership, which averaged 12.4 million viewers and peaked close to 17 million. Since MVP reportedly gives over 50 percent of profits back to the fighters, those crazy streaming numbers triggered huge backend bonuses.
For Rousey, this revenue split pushed her actual paycheck to somewhere between $10 million and $12 million. That matches her pre-fight prediction about making way more than her $3 million UFC career high.
Carano also cashed in big, walking away with an estimated $4 million to $5 million despite getting finished in 17 seconds. So, safe to say, both of them walked away with life-changing money that completely blows standard MMA payouts out of the water.
