Gary Goodridge has given an interesting insight into what fighter pay was like in the early days of the UFC, revealing his earnings for two cards.
At the peak of his powers, ‘Big Daddy’ was a formidable competitor, capable of rendering his opponents unconscious with a single shot.
Gary Goodridge reveals pay cheques for UFC 9 and UFC 10
After leaving his home in Trinidad and Tobago for Canada, Gary Goodridge stumbled upon martial arts and fell instantly in love.
With immense strength and power, the gifted athlete became not just a national boxing champion, but also the arm wrestling world champion.
With such talent, Goodridge applied to compete in the UFC on a whim after a friend suggested the idea while they were watching it at his house.
With this goal in mind, the brawler joined the Kuk Sool Won school, which, at the time, was training another man to fight in the UFC.
To prove himself, the Canadian challenged his gymmate, won, and was subsequently offered a fourth-degree black belt and a free dobok if he agreed to represent the gym.
Consequently, with less than a month’s experience in MMA, Goodridge competed at UFC 8 in 1996, wearing his black gi. Regardless, he managed to beat Paul Herrera with one of the most brutal knockouts of all time.
After catching him in a crucifix position, the brawler detonated several explosive elbows to his opponent’s face. He followed this victory with a win over Jerry Bohlander before losing in the final to Don Frye.
He then fought at UFC 9, where he lost to Marc Schultz, before rolling the dice again at UFC 10, beating John Campetella, prior to falling short in the semi-finals to MMA legend Mark Coleman.
With many years having passed since the early days of the sport, Goodridge has revealed how much he was getting paid.
He uploaded a picture on Instagram of a pay slip at UFC 9, which indicated he received $15,000 before getting a further $5000 three days later. For UFC 10, he showed off a pay cheque worth $5000.
Fans react to how much the UFC paid Gary Goodridge
UFC enthusiasts have unsurprisingly had a massive reaction to the revelation, with many expressing their disappointment.
One person commented: “I wish you could have gotten paid what you deserved, brother. Never a dull moment from you in the cage,” while another added: “You deserved so much more.”
However, others thought the payment was relatively good.
An impressed individual exclaimed: “Not a terrible check for fighting back then when the UFC was just getting started.”
Another added: “Dawg was making more in 1996 than at least 20 per cent of fighters make today.”
A third asserted: “15k in ’96 was a good amount of money btw.”
It looks like he made 35k for the year. That would Be like 70-80k today? Not TERRIBLE considering most didnt train full time and the UFC was barely known. I guess not a lot to be on tv though.
With all of the taxes and trainers taking their cut etc, a lot of UFC guys don’t make that today
That was a lot back then
Any friend who came over when I was in high school was forced to watch that on VHS.
“Posting receipts is a bitch move”
-OG defenders
Only thing worse than fighting Gary would be arm wrestling him, guy had wins over John Brzenk who many call the GOAT
It’s spelled “check” not cheque. Now go wash the gay outta your hair
En Fuego Figgy
That was good money considering professional fighters were getting paid 2,000/2,000 in the UFC ten years later and BJ Penn left for K1 after only being paid 20,000 as defending champion.
That’s 15,000 more than I expected. Takes a real lack of context for anybody online to complain about that. Lack of context is the lifeblood of social media discourse though.
What other martial arts tournaments were paying that much to not come in first place at the time?
It’s not gay, it’s Canadian.
Gary has been making more appearances at arm wrestling events lately, doing podcasts and interviews more lately it’s good to see.
Gary just had zero fear of anyone or the repercussions the guy was a one of a kind toughman.
Between MMA and K1 his schedule was insane and he fought everybody some multiple times like
JLB x 2 Gary would lose by KO in both fights in round 1. . . Gary had nothing fir JLB but as per the tournament format Gary had to fight JLB and did with no hesitation saying pre fight interview “if he knocks me out again shrugs shoulders then I’ll get up and shake his hand.”
Peter Aerts x2
Catalin Morasonu x2
Glaube Feitosa x2
Musashi x2
In MMA Don Frye x3 going 1-2 against Frye (both men should have retired after their third fight where Big Daddy nearly decapitated Frye with a headkick…
Igor Vovchanchyn x2
The Overeem bros, Big Nog, Fedor.
Gary was must see TV win or lose.
I remember Pride stiffed him for 75k and someone on the forum knew some people and got him his money!
What a great dude. I followed him years back on twitter. He inexplicably followed me back and sent me a couple of DM’s. He was also was kind enough to mail me an autographed copy of his book free of charge. Nothing I asked for but I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain.
If you see this Big Daddy, thanks again for being such a nice guy!