UFC Fight Night 20 Fighter Salaries: Chris Leben’s $60K Tops Payroll
Chris Leben topped the $357,000 payroll for Monday’s UFC Fight Night 20, according to figures released Wednesday by the Virginia State Athletic Commission, taking home an event-high $60,000 for his decision victory over Jay Silva on the event’s preliminary.
Other top-earners for the Spike-televised event included headliners Gray Maynard ($40,000) and Nate Diaz ($48,000) along with Amir Sadollah ($30,000) and Aaron Simpson ($22,000).
UFC Fight Night 20 drew a sellout crowd of 8,500 to the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia, generating a $730,000 live gate.
The official fighter salaries for UFC Fight Night 20 were:
- Gray Maynard ($40,000 – includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Nate Diaz ($24,000)
- Evan Dunham ($18,000 – $9,000 win bonus) def. Efrain Escudero ($15,000)
- Aaron Simpson ($22,000 – $11,000 win bonus) def. Tom Lawlor ($10,000)
- Amir Sadollah ($30,000 – $15,000 win bonus) def. Brad Blackburn ($13,000)
- Chris Leben ($60,000 – $30,000 win bonus) def. Jay Silva ($6,000)
- Rick Story ($10,000 – $5,000 win bonus) def. Jesse Lennox ($7,000)
- Thiago Tavares ($15,000) vs. Nik Lentz ($7,000)*
- Rory MacDonald ($12,000 – $6,000 win bonus) def. Mike Guymon ($6,000)
- Rafael dos Anjos ($16,000 – $8,000 win bonus) def. Kyle Bradley ($8,000)
- Gerald Harris ($12,000 – $6,000 win bonus) def. John Salter ($6,000)
- Nick Catone ($14,000 – $7,000 win bonus) def. Jesse Forbes ($6,000)
*No win bonuses awarded as bout was scored a draw
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, Simpson, Lawlor, Dunham, and Harris each took home $30,000 “fight night” bonuses for their performances at UFC Fight Night 20.
SEE ALSO: UFN 20 Results, UFN 20 Recap, UFN 20 Coverage
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Pictured: Chris Leben
Tags: Aaron Simpson, Amir Sadollah, Brad Blackburn, Chris Leben, Efrain Escudero, Evan Dunham, Gerald Harris, Gray Maynard, Jay Silva, Jesse Forbes, Jesse Lennox, John Salter, kyle bradley, Mike Guymon, Nate Diaz, Nick Catone, Nik Lentz, Rafael dos Anjos, Rick Story, Rory MacDonald, Thiago Tavares, Tom Lawlor
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Nate Diaz reportedly made $48,000 and thats not enough? He needs to start winning before asking for more money…he’s not his brother.
And it would have been $96k had he won… definitely needs to just focus on winning if he wants more money, that would be an easy way to double his pay.
I agree Nate needs to be more impressive to get more money. Nate never asked for more money, he just said that he didn’t make enough money to do all the work that goes into cutting the weight.
Good point LEX,
He should take a long hard look at his UFC record and truly ask himself if he should ask for more money.
Nate said
Perhaps he means that the 48g’s isn’t worth the pain and work to cut constantly down to 155, perhaps the cut is too much for him, I don’t believe that he is asking for more money…
If you want to get literal about things, no he’s not asking for more money. However, such a comment implies that he thinks he should be making more.
I don’t see it that way, owell there are two sides to every coin, let him move up in weight and get smoked hell put him against McLovin then perhaps he will get cut after that loss… Just in that quote I don’t see him asking for more money…
Looks like that TUF contract has gotten a little sweeter, $15k to show up for Escudero is pretty sweet for only his second fight out from winning the show.
AGREED ^ The Diaz brothers talk too much….
IMO Nate would get destroyed in the welterweight division against top ranked welterweights.
Leban had a nice payday for being on the undercard.
What did Mike “Joker” Guyman make??? That’s not posted..
Thanks for bringing that to our attention, we are looking into why these were not released, and have added a note to our above story noting this absence.
Does anyone know how Leben looked in his fight???
Im a big fan but i havent been impressed with him lately
I’ve read that he looked pretty decent. I think I read somewhere that he actually took the fight to the ground and used his ground skills instead of standing with Silva.
Here is a link for the fight, if you wish to check it out
Thanks for the link. I thought he looked pretty good. Sucks he wasn’t the main card. Hopefully he gets back to the main card in his next fight and hope he stays off the juice.
You are welcome
Is it me or does 60 grand for an undercard fight seem high?
Not bashing Leben, or opening up the old salary issue again, just sayin’, y’know?
you know it doesnt matter where they put you on a card, its whatever is written in your contract
Fair point.
The end.
;)