Lorenzo Fertitta: UFC will pull in a record $600 million in 2015

The year of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey was quite a profitable one for the UFC.

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said this week on CNN Money (h/t MMA Weekly) that the company is going to make around $600 million in 2015 -- the best figure in promotion history.

"And it's fairly significant growth coming off of 2014," Fertitta said.

The UFC took it on the chin with a lack of pay-per-view draws and a myriad of injuries last year. This year, McGregor and Rousey helped carry the company to massive pay-per-view revenue.

UFC 189, headlined by McGregor against Chad Mendes, approached 1 million buys. UFC 190, headlined by Rousey against Bethe Correia, did the same. Then McGregor vs. Jose Aldo at UFC 194 and Rousey vs. Holly Holm at UFC 193 likely surpassed the 1 million mark. The UFC has not had two straight events reach that milestone since 2010.

Fertitta also mentioned television rights deals, like the one the UFC has in the United States with FOX, and UFC Fight Pass as other revenue streams in the company's three-tier structure.

Interviewer Rachel Crane also asked Fertitta about fighter pay, which was a huge topic of conversation this year -- especially in the wake of the UFC's uniform contract with Reebok that sapped fighter sponsorship money.

"At the end of the day, it's an absolute open market," Fertitta said. "There's multiple bidders in the marketplace. In fact, our No. 1 competitor is Bellator, which is owned by Viacom, which have considerably more resources than we do even, even though we're kind of the leading brand in the space. The fact of the matter is our top athletes are making multi-millions of dollar. What is happening is as the sport grows and compensation goes up as revenue goes up, you're starting to see that the guys and the girls at the top are starting to get a larger share of that pie."