Pulver, Gamburyan, Faber, and Brown Top WEC 41 Salaries
Jens Pulver, Manny Gamburyan, WEC featherweight title challenger Urijah Faber, and 145-pound champion Mike Brown were the top earners at Sunday’s WEC 41 event in Sacramento, according to figures today released by the California State Athletic Commission.
Pulver, a former UFC lightweight champion who suffered his fourth-straight loss and likely retired at the event, took home an event-high $31,253 for his first-round submission loss to Josh Grispi.
Gamburyan, the runner up on the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter 5, surprisingly out-earned both Brown and Faber with his unanimous decision victory over John Franchi on the WEC 41 preliminary card, scoring $26,960 for his debut win.
Brown and Faber took home nearly identical purses, with Brown earning $25,256 (including a $13,000 win bonus) for his main event victory while Faber received $25,790.
WEC 41, which aired live on Versus, attracted a WEC record live crowd of 13,027 for a WEC record live gate of $818,415.
The official WEC 41 salaries, as reported to the CSAC, were:
- Mike Brown ($25,256 – includes win bonus of $13,000) def. Urijah Faber ($25,790)
- Jose Aldo ($17,625 – includes win bonus of $11,000) def. Cub Swanson ($8,940)
- Donald Cerrone ($17,682.54 – includes win bonus of $9,000) def. James Krause ($1,692)
- Josh Grispi ($17,381 – includes win bonus of $9,000) def. Jens Pulver ($31,253)
- Manny Gamburyan ($26,960 – includes win bonus of $14,000) def. John Franchi ($3,108)
- Rafael Rebello ($3,650 – includes win bonus of $2,000) def. Kyle Dietz ($1,840)
- Anthony Pettis ($3,302.10 – includes win bonus of $2,000) def. Mike Campbell ($2,950)
- Antonio Banuelos ($9,840 – includes win bonus of $5,000) def. Scott Jorgensen ($5,530)
- Frank Gomez ($3,962.41 – includes win bonus of $2,000) def. Noah Thomas ($2,630)
- Seth Dikun ($3,940 – includes win bonus was $2,000) def. Rolando Perez ($2,890)
The total disclosed payroll for the card was $216,222.05.
Brown, Faber, Aldo, and Dikun all took home additional $10,000 “fight night” bonuses for their WEC 41 performances.
Check out MMAFrenzy.com’s recap and official results for WEC 41 here.
[Pictured: Urijah Faber]
Tags: Anthony Pettis, Antonio Banuelos, Cub Swanson, Donald Cerrone, Frank Gomez, James Krause, Jens Pulver, John Franchi, jose aldo, Josh Grispi, Kyle Dietz, Manny Gamburyan, mike brown, Mike Campbell, Noah Thomas, Rafael Rebello, Rolando Perez, Scott Jorgensen, Seth Dikun, Urijah Faber
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http://mmafrenzy.com/10611/brown-faber-aldo-and-dikun-earn-wec-41-bonuses/#comment-98725
LOL – Manny in a undercard win and Jens in a loss got more than Brown.
I didn’t even realize Manny’s pay, and missed a chunk of the card after Cerrone and assumed Gamby was put in there. This makes NO SENSE AT ALL.
“Come on, join the WEC. Become the CHAMP, and make less than a guy who lost in TUF and went 2-3 in the UFC.” —- Makes sense to me
Are you kidding me? Faber got more than Brown too?!! Geez! Champions should earn more than their competitors without question, win or lose. WOW.
OR…and I know this is a crazy, irrational idea….
They could be paid what their contract says they should be paid.
Shouldn’t the champ always make the most?
I wonder how much exactly these smaller companies make. 3/4 mil for the gate (which was a WEC record), and whatever Versus gives them and merch, I’m sure gets the revenue over the 1 mil mark. Bah. I guess 25% for employee wages isn’t that bad. I guess even the bottom UFC guys need day jobs to make a decent living. Still sucks for the fighters though.
You have to factor in that Zuffa pays for the right to use the arena, Versus actually gets money from Zuffa. Merchandise is also a split costs because if it’s fighter/brand/promotional very little of the money goes back to Zuffa. Also there are no PPV sales so you have to factor in that too. Then of course there’s the support staff paid out directly by Zuffa.
Since it’s a smaller show with better fighters Zuffa(like Dbiz said) is barely breaking even on the WEC, the UFC is where their money is and if they decide it makes fiscal sense to take the WEC to the PPV level, I guarantee you will see payroll go up. That said I doubt the WEC goes to the PPV level until Zuffa feels they have the quality to sell enough views to match the increased production costs.
Just as an FYI the bottom guys are usually part-time guys, a lot them have more lucrative jobs or are college guys and this is more for fun/competition. That’s just what I know from the guys I’ve trained with though.
I would say the pay is not enough for players like brown, faber, torres etc. compare to UFC.
Wow. I seriously don’t understand how gamburyan and pulver made more than faber annd the champ brown. Another thing, what is the deal with these poor salaries? I thought uriah and brown made wayyy more than that. Someone please explain to me why gamburyan made more than mike brown.
He made more because he’s related to karo”do you know who i am” pareasian, and anyone who is related to karo is realy realy cool and should make more because karo is realy cool and good looking like do you even know? Anyways i think it probably has something to do with his contract with the UFC. They were realy pushing for him to move down to 145 espeacially after the emerson fight. He was probably making decent money after the ultimate fighter, being a final contestant and all. So after the conversion to WEC i guess that had to keep paying simialr or same money to what he was making before.
carls,
haha dude! Karo “do you know who i am?” parisyan? that’s ****ing classic dude. Yeah it makes sense that manny gamburyan would sill have his contract with the ufc.
But dude am I the only one that thinks that the wec 145 champ and the greatest wec champ of all time make very little money? Their salaries suck dude.
I got one
Karo “i’m not going to get on my knees but give me a title shot dana” parisyan. el oh el
Ha. ya no kidding, ive realy never cared for the guy but after the whole fiasco with nate on the ultimate fighter i just cant even look at him without laughing.
If Faber had won, he would have far and away earned the most because of a win bonus. He didn’t. Therefore, he gets edged. Note that his base was double Brown’s and Manny’s. Only the win bonus took them over his.
Things to remember Pulver is a legend, Manny signed the deal with the UFC and transferred it, and there are no PPV’s in WEC…
Exactly! ****ty for brown but very very true.
how many contracts did Manny sign with the UFC? It’s typical to get a 4 fight contract, but he sucked in his first 4.
Thing to remember he was injured in the TUF finale. So Zuffa may have given him a year based contract rather than a per fight based contract, because in a lot of eyes he was the favorite before that fight.
Koscheck has a 20 month contract. All he can fight in 20 months. With a per-fight salary specified, that can add up to some serious coin. Smart fighters would do well to consider it.
Who’s to say others haven’t taken the same model?
Of all the components that make up the 21st century version of MMA, salary structure is probably the thing I understand the least.
Thankfully bonuses can help soften the rough edges, but I can imagine no circumstance wherein the main-eventing champion, in this case Brown, is outearned by someone like Manny Gamburyan, several fights down on the card. That’s not to say that Gamburyan isn’t a quality MMA fighter, or deserving of his money and respect; it’s just that it strikes me as ass-backwards for the main eventers to earn less than some midcarder.
Apparently this transverse application of economics works for MMA, so I wish all those feeding their families from this sport can continue to earn a fair wage.
Read all the insightful comments regarding his contract with Zuffa that was already in place. Since he had an existing contract, it stands to reason it would still be in effect since he is still fighting for Zuffa.
Furthermore, if you do a job and don’t make enough to feed your family, you get another job. MMA is no different.
Also, don’t forget sponsorships and that these are only DISCLOSED salaries. In Dana White’s E60 spot, he said there was a standing bonus for winning via submission at UFC events. That is undisclosed to the athletic commissions.
When looking at the gate/VS revenue, also don’t forget that the athletic commission gets its cut of the salaries. There is arena rental, security, set up for the cage and cameras…
Zuffa isn’t getting rich off the WEC. They’re probably just barely breaking even.
Just to follow up on myself, in the pre-fight talks at a PPV (shown with about 2:20 to go i nthe E:60 bit, he said there was a 65K knockout of the night bonus and 20K for every submission. Those are all undisclosed.
don’t forget Mike Brown is sponsored by bushmaster… so he can always shoot whatever he wants to eat…
I won’t whine because, I know how all you guys don’t like to hear that. Then I’ll say this is the most horse shot payout I’ve ever seen.
Them aren’t to shabby of bonuses!!!!
Hey dbiz,
Have you ever been to mmajunkie there are a lot of peps on that website that have opinions you would like to dismantle ha ha. Just wondering there are some tools on there.!!
Nah. It’s a full-time gig here. Over there I’d have to clone myself at least twice.
Well, the good thing is that no one has said yet how someone should just go fight for Affliction because of how much more they’d get paid there.
they should go to Affliction because they’d get paid more… sorry you invited it…
Affliction doesn’t even have guys below 155 (I don’t think.