Tim Kennedy Says UFC 205 Will Be A Financial Wash

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Tim Kennedy spoke about what he’s getting paid to fight Rashad Evans at UFC 205 and said it will be a “wash”. Here are highlights:

On what he wants for his next fight: “After Nov. 12, if they’re not saying, ‘your next fight is against Michael Bisping,’ who I smashed, then I don’t know. I can’t even imagine the fight that would bring me back in again. It took Madison Square Garden, on the biggest fight card in MMA history, against a former light heavyweight champion, perennial contender, coming to a new weight class, in a state they just legalized MMA for the first time, for me to come back – with the potential of, ‘win here, move into title contention.’ If it took that much to get me back here in the first place, it sure as hell will take a big, shiny belt for me to stay.”

On the expenses of being an MMA fighter: “They actually had a tax attorney contact us to say, ‘just wanted to warn you guys, here’s some tax documents you need to start filling out.’ I rented a house in Albuquerque. I’m paying $5,000 medicals. I’m paying coaches, management, gym fees, recovery costs, cryotherapy…We have to get extra rooms in New York. You know how much a room in New York is – how much a flight to New York is? [Donald Cerrone] is going to be flying Greg Jackson out, I’m going to fly out Brandon Gibson. We’re trying to, economically between the two of us, absorb the financial impact from the aspect of New York. I’ll probably be a wash for this fight camp in money. Think about that for a minute.”

On how MMA can change: “The sport is at an opportunity in the very near future to make a difference and be something really significant, special and fantastic. To see [athletes’] lives be sustained at a [financial] level that’s not embarrassingly humiliating, we’re close to that corner. I hope we take it and I hope I’m there to take this sport around that corner. I’m sure as shit not in this sport for the money because it’s not there yet, but it will be. We’re close. Conor McGregor has made huge waves in changing what the realization of what somebody can make, and before him it was Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey. We know the potential is there for earning. We’re going to get it, but we’re not there yet.”