Mixed martial arts wasn’t as popular as pro wrestling in the 1990s. However, MMA has become a major sport in today’s world thanks to UFC. The company is currently worth around $12 billion, and the top fighters in the UFC are getting paid handsomely.
Goldberg started his pro wrestling journey after ending his NFL career in the mid-90s. In an interview with the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast with Tim Green, the WWE Hall of Famer stated that he would have chosen MMA if the pay scale was high back in the day.
Goldberg was told by fighters such as Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, and Mark Coleman, who were training at his gym, that they were getting paid $2000 to $5000 per fight. After hearing that, Goldberg abandoned the idea of joining MMA.
“Back in the day, the guys who were fighting at UFC were training at my gym. I owned a gym after Main Event Fitness called Obaki Fight School in Atlanta. It was the largest MMA gym in North America. Those guys were training at my gym. Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman. I got to be good friends with them, and we were talking about what they were making as I was trying to decide what I was going to do. That option went completely off the table once I heard they were making 2 to 3 or $5,000 a fight. Absolutely ridiculous. Obviously, nowadays, it’s changed exponentially. I would have probably chosen mixed martial arts if the payscale was where it is now.”