UFC 142 Fighter Salaries
It was good to be the hometown hero at UFC 142 - both inside the cage and out. Not only did Brazilian fighters dominate their opponents in the Octagon at last night's event, they also took away the most money. Vitor Belfort leads the way, with his earnings moving him into the top 20 on our UFC Career Fighter Earnings list.
Before we go any further, we should note that Brazilian Athletic Commissions don't release fighter pay info, so none of the following salary data for the event is official. However, you can get a fairly accurate picture of a fighter's pay based on official purse info released from past fights. So, based on that info, here is the estimated pay breakdown for the 20 fighters that traded blows at the event (but please remember - this is only an estimate, not official info, especially for any fighters that made their UFC debuts at the event). These numbers obviously also don't include any PPV revenue, undisclosed bonuses and/or sponsorship money any of these fighters may have made.
Vitor Belfort: $279,000 ($275,000 to show, $4,000 from Anthony Johnson's purse)
Edson Barboza: $166,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 win bonus, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $65,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Gabriel Gonzaga: $134,000 ($67,000 to show, $67,000 win bonus)
Rousimar Palhares: $79,000 ($7,000 to show, $7,000 win bonus, $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
Terry Etim: $75,000 ($10,000 to show, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Mike Pyle: $66,000 ($33,000 to show, $33,000 win bonus)
Jose Aldo: $48,000 ($24,000 to show, $24,000 win bonus)
Thiago Tavares: $30,000 ($15,000 to show, $15,000 win bonus)
Carlo Prater: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus)
Sam Stout: $19,000
Chad Mendes: $18,000
Anthony Johnson: $16,000 (20% of this purse - $4,000 - went to Belfort for missing weight)
Erick Silva: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus paid by UFC despite losing)
Yuri Alcantara: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus)
Felipe Arantes: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus)
Michihiro Omigawa: $11,000
Mike Massenzio: $8,000
Ednaldo Oliveira: $6,000
Ricardo Funch: $6,000
Antonio Carvalho: $6,000
Holy crap Barboza and Palhares struck it huge, considering their "show" rates! Good to see.
LOL at Rumble Johnson. What a failure.
And how does Aldo only make 24K to show? My goodness, he's one of the best. Surely that will rise at some point???
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@CollegeWolf Aldo's is probably a very low estimate. All of his fights in the UFC have been in areas that don't report fighter purses, so his 24K figure is based on his WEC purse plus about 20% (which is around what the average pay raise was for WEC when they entered the UFC).
However, whenever new pay info for a guy is revealed, I always go back and update his purse amount for his previous fights that year. So once I get more accurate info for Aldo (ie - he fights in Vegas where his purse will be reported), this article will be updated.
