UFC NFTs sell out, Michael Chandler and Francis Ngannou cash out as biggest earners

UFC announced last week that it was going to be launching its first round of NFTs, and it went about as well as it possibly could’ve.

The promotion had the NFT drop set for the day following UFC 270. While fans were excited to see Francis Ngannou retain his heavyweight championship with a win over Ciryl Gane at the event, many fans were more excited about the promotion finally jumping into the world of Non-fungible tokens.

The promotion was dubbed “UFC Strike”, and had 100,000 available NFT packs for sale. Fans spent $50 in order to get three collectible NFTs of popular UFC moments. In a somewhat rare move, UFC and the fighters featured in the NFT drop split the earnings at a 50/50 rate.

Well, the first round of the UFC Strike NFTs sold out on the first day, with all 100,000 packs selling out within hours of the launch. The UFC reportedly netted a $5 million dollar profit from the first batch being sold. As a result, an average fighter’s share of the cut would be approximately $18,000.

The first round of UFC STRIKE packs sold out.

If the UFC's cut is 50% and the fighters share is half of that, each fighter involved would receive approx. $18,000.

Fighters like Francis Ngannou, Ciryl Gane, Li Jingliang and Michael Chandler are featured twice and make $36k. https://t.co/co0DV6PxAZ

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) January 24, 2022

However, there were certain fighters that were featured twice in the initial NFT drop. Fighters such as UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and UFC lightweight contender Michael Chandler were both featured twice and will be taking home double the average amount as a result. With the men cashing out at $36,000.

(via Cooper Neil/Zuffa LLC)

It’s also worth noting that those figures are only from the UFC’s first drop of the NFTs. Secondary sales will add to the fighter’s payout in the future, and the UFC is planning a second drop within the next week. That launch is expected to have double the amount of packs for sale, with 200,000 expected to be for sale on the official UFC Strike website.

What do you think about the UFC getting involved in the NFT market?