‘I got flat money’: Donald Cerrone says he got NO pay-per-view cash for Conor McGregor fight at UFC 246

Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone says he received no pay-per-view cut from his fight against Irish megastar Conor McGregor at UFC 246 despite the showdown selling over a million purchases.

Cerrone suffered a 40-second defeat to McGregor in the Irishman’s eagerly-awaited octagon comeback in Las Vegas on January 18.

READ MORE: Conor McGregor crushes Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds at UFC 246

The defeat was a brief if bruising one for Cerrone, 36, although many had hoped that one of MMA’s most popular figures would at least cash in for facing the sport’s most bankable star.

But in an Instagram post, Cerrone has claimed that all he received was his flat $200,000 fight fee – and that he has seen nothing of the PPV fees the fight generated.

“1 million PPV buys, I hope you came away with at least 7-10 million for that Conor fight. No one deserves it more than you,” a fan wrote in reply to a picture Cerrone posted with his wife.

“Hahahahah 7-10 million. I didn’t get PPV money. What the world thinks and what really happens is so different. I made flat money,” Cerrone replied.

By contrast, McGregor received a flat fight fee of $3 million, and ahead of the bout had boasted – somewhat implausibly – that he would end up making $80 million when all the other income had been added in.

McGregor has frequently bragged of his ability to make his opponents rich simply by sharing the octagon with them.

Cerrone certainly ended up pocketing more than $200,000 when sponsorship is added on, but he did miss out on doubling that amount by not securing a win bonus.

In the event, Cerrone was handed a 40-second TKO defeat as McGregor first used some inventive shoulder strikes in the clinch before landing a head kick and finishing with a ground-and-pound assault.

Cerrone has been forced to defend himself against claims he threw the fight simply to hand McGregor an easy comeback win as the Irishman looks to re-establish himself after his defeat to Russian lightweight ruler Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018.

Khabib dismissed McGregor’s win against Cerrone, saying “they picked him (Cerrone) and their plan worked and people started to talk about it again, about a rematch (with me) and other stuff.

“Cerrone lost seven out of his last 10 fights. A man comes out 10 times and loses seven, and he gets called a legend. Well, let him be a legend, but his time is up.”

The Dagestani dismissed any notion that the bout had been fixed, but mocked claims that McGregor’s win meant the Irishman should now gain a rematch.

UFC chief Dana White has said McGregor will get a shot at the winner of the Khabib versus Tony Ferguson title bout set to take place in New York on April 18.

There are reports Saudi backers are willing to put up $100 million to host a Khabib-McGregor rematch - something the Russian said was "not rational."