Headlining former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans took home an event-high $375,000 for his main event victory over Thiago Silva at Saturday’s UFC 108 event, according to official fighter salary figures released Monday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
UFC 108′s official payroll totaled $843,000 with other top earners including Junior dos Santos ($60,000), Silva ($55,000), and Martin Kampmann ($46,000)
The pay-per-view and Spike-televised event drew 13,255 fans to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, generating a live gate of $2 million.
The official salaries for UFC 108 were:
- Rashad Evans ($375,000 – includes $175,000 win bonus) def. Thiago Silva ($55,000)
- Paul Daley ($34,200 – $18,000 win bonus) def. Dustin Hazelett ($19,800)
- Sam Stout ($24,000 – $12,000 win bonus) def. Joe Lauzon ($12,000)
- Jim Miller ($30,000 – $15,000 win bonus) def. Duane Ludwig ($12,000)
- Junior Dos Santos ($60,000 – $30,000 win bonus) def. Gilbert Yvel ($30,000)
- Martin Kampmann ($46,000 – $23,000 win bonus) def. Jacob Volkmann ($6,000)
- Cole Miller ($24,000 – $12,000 win bonus) def. Dan Lauzon ($15,000)
- Mark Munoz ($32,000 – $16,000 win bonus) def. Ryan Jensen ($6,000)
- Jake Ellenberger ($20,000 – $10,000 win bonus) def. Mike Pyle ($17,000)
- Rafaello Oliveira ($20,000 – $10,000 win bonus) def. John Gunderson ($5,000)
In addition to the salaries listed above, which are simply those disclosed by the promotion to the athletic commission and not representative of a fighter’s total earnings, Stout, Lauzon, Daley, and Miller each took home additional $50,000 fight-night bonuses.
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Pictured: Rashad Evans
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In addition to the salaries listed above, which are simply those disclosed by the promotion to the athletic commission and not representative of a fighter’s total earnings, Stout, Lauzon, Daley, and Miller each took home additional $50,000 fight-night bonuses.
Just to nip any sort of , “why does so and so make X?” in the proverbial bud…
;)
I see Mr Evans made out rather well with his new contract. This doesnt even include his PPV portion that hes gonna recieve. Not bad at all.
Im very pleased to see the UFC is making strides to take care of their fighters top to bottom.
How the heck does Dan Lauzon get 15k and his brother only 13k come on UFC…
It’s called “How old is the contract?”
See, Dan is on a newer contract, with fighters making more per fight. Joe is on an older contract, where fighters made less per fight.
This isn’t rocket surgery.
Or maybe Momma Lauzon just likes Dan more than Joe, and insisted that Dana White pay them accordingly??
:P
Um yeah no doubt.. but still is lame.. Joe has been loyal to the company you think they would take care of him and not his wanky lil brother…
Rocket surgery huh dbiz? Didnt know machines needed surgery
Please don’t tell me you seriously have never heard someone say that before.
I hate when ppl correct grammar or spelling, but just to clear any confusion, its “brain surgery” or “rocket science” and he combined 2 sayings haha. Who cares Brent
People also frequently, intentionally combine the two, such as what dbiz did above.
Shut up. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect $200.
“Really dbiz? I didn’t know we were playing Monopoly…”
You people scare me.
Wow Rashad made bank.
Nice to see Dos Santos get a hefty paycheck.
Im not going to complain about the fighter salaries as I usually do.
However I do have a question…did Daley or Dos Santos get KO of the night?
How about FOTN?
I think its a given that Cole got Sub of the night with that sicknasty triangle
I would have given sub of the night to “the hitman” for his sick d’arse choke!
Anyone know who got sub,ko and or fotn?
FOTN~ Stout v Lauzon
KOtn~ Paul Daley
Sub~ Cole Miller
to my knowledge
That was a modified guillotine, not a D’Arce as Gunslinger informed us in the forums (a D’Arce is arm in, Kampann’s choke did not have the arm in). There is also story on the Frenzy about the “Fight Night” bonuses, guess you missed it. ;)
Why are these fighters paid so little? Boxing pays their guys so much more money and it is no longer as popular. The only way for MMA to survive is paying fighters more money. Some guys who are great at MMA could play professional football or box and make more money.
I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt, since you seem to be new here, and assume that you haven’t read our many conversations on this topic.
Why are they paid “so little”? Because that’s what their contract says they get paid, but do bear in mind this is only disclosed money from the UFC. There are other monies they get paid from the UFC, as well as all knockouts and submissions get an undisclosed bonus, and every fighter receives sponsorship money from companies that wish to advertise on their clothing which can sometimes exceed the money they receive from the UFC. In terms of the top draws, they also receive a percentage of the PPV money, and ticket sales.
Boxing: Only the few at the very tippy top in Boxing get paid better, boxers at the equivalent level in their career to say a Jim Miller get paid considerably less.
The only way for MMA to survive is paying fighters what they are worth in terms of revenue coming into a company. You can’t arbitrarily decide that fighters need to get paid more, even if they would then not make enough money for the company to cover their own paycheck. As far as them playing pro football and making more money, if that was the case they probably would do just that, but it’s not the case. Boxing I already covered.
I agree with everyting you said Justin, but the pct. of the total gate that the fighters receive still sounds low to me. I wonder what the comparison would be in boxing? I totally get the whole contract thing and the fact that only elite fighters should make bank, but I feel like UFC fighters only get a small percentage of that gate. I wonder what UFC execs get paid in comparison to the fighters? Sam Stout is a ery good fighter. He can probably only fight 3 times in a year. $75k + endorsements if he wins each match. Do you think he makes $150k a year? I still think that’s way low for a career that will only last a few more years. Dude’s gonna need to get a 2nd job at some point.
If he fights 3 times a year, and wins all three plus at least doubles that in endorsements (which he probably makes more than 75k in endorsements) that’s $150k/year, plus he got FotN at 108 (which is not reflected in the official salaries above) which bumps him to $200k this year, that is doing pretty good, that’s nearly on par with what many politicians consider “rich”. If he does that, he will stand to get a higher negotiated rate on his next contract, which would mean greater income for him in the future. Sam Stout has also previously been involved in other FotNs and could very well had another $50-100k to his income this year with more FotN bonuses.
As far as the percentage of gate the UFC fighters receive versus boxers, keep in mind that top level boxers often own the promotion for which they fight, instead of being employed by a promotion like UFC fighters. Therefore they take a greater cut than top level UFC fighters, but they also take greater risk and incur greater personal expense in actually promoting the event than UFC fighters.
As far as what UFC execs make versus what the fighter make, they probably make more money than the fighters, and doggoneit they should. Lorenza, Frank and Dana actually own the UFC, and they are the ones that are putting their money at risk everytime they put on an event, they also work to promote the UFC 365 days per year. Fighters only fight 3-4 days a year, and promote the UFC maybe 10-20 days a year. Most fighters don’t even train 365, many take 2-3 weeks off after fights whether injured or not.
You can’t arbitrarily determine that a fighter “should make more money” simply based on what you think they need to get paid to make a life for themselves. Their pay is, and absolutely should be, based on what they mean in revenue to the promotion. They will only get a portion of the revenue they generate based on operating costs and the need for the promotion to make money off of them. If the promotion doesn’t make money off the fighters, there is no incentive to the owners to continue to promote the fights.
Thanks for the analysis Justin that makes a lot of sense.
You’re welcome.