Miesha Tate details losing most of her purse to taxes, camp expenses: 'We're not making a killing'

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate made a triumphant return to the octagon last month, but the purse she received is already gone.

Tate, who came out of retirement to defeat Marion Reneau by third-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 26, revealed to co-host Ryan McKinnel on her SiriusXM show that she made $200,000 for the fight – and just like that it was gone.

The main reason? Expenses related to her training camp.

“My whole fight purse was gone – show and win for this fight,” Tate said. “I at least spent, had to be about 98 percent – at least. So maybe I walked away with a little bit. But out of $200,000, yeah, I’m just lucky I made a ($50,000 “Performance of the Night”) bonus to be honest. I’m serious. That’s how much it costs. You take taxes off the top, 70 percent of my fight purse is gone immediately right off the top. So I have 30 percent to work with, and that 30 percent I take to buy my organic foods, to get whatever training gear, heart-rate monitors, whatever other things that I need to invest in to make the camp go well. And it’s expensive. It’s very expensive to eat like that. It’s very expensive to just facilitate the things that I need to do.”

"My whole fight purse was gone. Show and win for this fight." — @MieshaTate explains to @RyanMcKinnell how "at least 98%" of her purse went towards expenses for her #UFCVegas31 comeback fight

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— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) August 19, 2021

For Tate, she said that includes flying her head coach to and from Spokane, Wash., to Las Vegas, traveling to train in different locations with different coaches (Colorado and Southern California), supplements, and more.

“It’s a lot more expensive than people would think,” said Tate, whose retirement lasted nearly five years. “It’s not as glorious, and that’s why I say you cannot set out to do this for the money. If you really want to be the best, investing in yourself is pricey. It’s very, very pricey.”

That being said, Tate, 35, doesn’t seem to be complaining about her financial situation, instead expressing confidence that everything will pay off down the line.

“I’m doubling down on myself, because I know the money is when you have the belt and get those pay-per-view dollars. That’s real money, now we’re talking,” Tate said. “The rest of this fighting stuff is like, we’re not making a killing. We’re not making a killing, but I’m investing in myself because I believe in myself. I know I can become a champion again, and I’m doing this because I want to.”