Here are the official fighter salaries from Saturday nights UFC 86: Jackson vs Griffin event.
- Forrest Griffin – $250,000
- Quinton Jackson – $225,000
- Gabriel Gonzaga – $100,000
- Josh Koscheck – $70,000
- Joe Stevenson – $60,000
- Tyson Griffin – $40,000
- Marcus Aurelio – $40,000
- Patrick Cote – $32,000
- Ricardo Almeida – $23,000
- Melvin Guillard – $20,000
- Cole Miller – $20,000
- Chris Lytle – $14,000
- Gleison Tibau – $11,000
- Jorge Gurgel – $10,000
- Justin Buchholz – $8,000
- Corey Hill – $8,000
- Dennis Siver – $7,000
- Justin McCully – $5,000
In addition, both Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson earned an additional $60,000 for Fight of the Night bonus; Cole Miller won an additional $60,000 for Submission of the Night bonus; and, Melvin Guillard earned an additional $60,000 for Knockout of the Night bonus.
The total disclosed fighter payout was $943,000.
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tom b
Ben Cartlidge
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StuDog
LaM
Angelina
Wow, Kos really moved up on the money list.. His last fight he got 10K plus 10K for the win, so 20K. Now he made more than triple! Was he right on the cusp of a new contract or something?
Gonzaga is obviously still attached to an old contract, big payday considering he didnt even make the main card…
I get so sick of Joe Rogan, he is clearly one sided in every single main event fight… its ridiculous. Wand knocks down Chuck, Chuck grabs Wands arm as he is going down from a hard shot and Rogan says ‘Chuck’s taking down WANDERLEI!”….. idiot…. Rogan had the fight called in the 4th round.. who the heck made him Eddie Bravo.. go back to serving people worms for change.. gosh..
Funny how the challenger in this main event was making more than the Champion… seems a bit strange..
wow.. the entire payroll was less than a million.. they made 2-3 times that just from the gate… lol .. UFC is making money hand over fist.. you’d have to defend your title at least several times to be able to save enough to retire like a normal person.. seems silly compared to other athletes.. makes MMA stock go down just looking at the third rate pay scale of the athletes.. funny how they can pay some of the guys 10k to fight on a PPV show.. lol
guys im saying right now that im going for irvin in his fight against silva.
I disagree…. Silva is not far from 205, I don’t think it will throw off his loose and accurate striking game which will pick off Irvin by the 2nd round… my prediction..
I saw the CNBC special on the UFC last night for the first time. So, they project the UFC makes around $200 million annually…and their payroll for an event like this is not even $1 million? how sick is that?
10 PPVs a year @ about $1 million = 10 million annually for salaries alone.
That’s pretty insane…what company pays that little for salary?
And btw, I’m picking Anderson Silva beating James Irvin by cancellation of fight due to injury…
WTF?james irvin isnt known for pulling out of fights.
Amir, its not quite that much man hehe the fighter payroll IS about 1 ml per event. But there are TONS of other expenses they have to pay, they have about 200 other employees, theres the costs associated with the arena. Then probably their BIGGEST expense, definately more than the fighter payroll, advertising.
Theyre still making a killing, but they have overhead like any other company.
@BV
Yes but they cannot take profits like Exxon, they are raping their players.. especially the best ones, their champs are their draws, those guys should make no less than 1 million dollars in base pay per fight, (at least at Light Heavy and Heavy) I know Wrestlers that make that much per match why not in combat sports where the marketing costs are on the same level, the production costs are CHEAPER because its not as much of a show as it is a sport and the fighters shed real blood and incur life threatening injuries rather than blood capsules and spring board rings…
Hey Kansas, dont get me wrong man, i never said it was fair. I definately think the guys should be making more money, A-Rod just signed a deal for 75 mil.. and what does that guy really do man? hit, run and catch and throw a ball.. and who even WATCHES baseball anymore?? any time you flip through the channels and find a ball game the stands are always empty.
Every single team sport gets you paid, Boxing gets you paid, even **** like darts and bowling have bigger paydays! Its really sickening, mma has probably the lowest paid athletes, yet they probably have the most costs associated with training, injuries, etc..
Preach man! God! WoW! … :)
You never know with this guy…I’m sad to say because he was always one of my favorite fighters, but he has the worst luck and can’t seem to get passed that B-level fighter stigma. And yes, he has had a long history of battling injuries from his younger high-school football and college days.
I think he’s more of a freak show type of guy who always has something spectacular happen in his fights, whether it’s in his favor or against (ex. freak injury vs. Thiago Silva)
There’s no doubt he’s exciting and has the ability to end a fight with any punch…but I think Anderson is going to be too fast for him. Don’t forget that Silva walks around at over 205lbs. Punching power isn’t always as useful as precision and timing.
Well it blew my mind away, how a company can pay about only %1 of it’s revenues to employees, I’ve never studied any business model like that, and I think it’s pretty unprecedented.
I’m sure the other 200 or so employees’ salaries don’t nearly amount to what the fighters make…I guess it proves that if you really believe in something and want to make it happen, you can…
of course, having a few buddies to loan you $44 million sure doesn’t hurt…
Ya Amir, its definately unprecedented in a business sense, they sunk alot of money into the company and they took some HUGE risks. Ofcourse it payed off and they made it work, now theyre reaping the rewards.
From what ive read, they were very close to giving up on the UFC before TUF. They originally bought the company for 2 mil, then before they started the TUF show, they were thinking about selling the UFC, they had an offer for 3 mil. So besides whatever they made from events up to that point they were making 1 mil profit fromt he sale.
It was Frank Fertitta who decided not to sell and he opted to go for broke with TUf. Thats why Danas always talking about the significance of TUF, they really expanded the fanbase and they cleaned up bigtime.
I dont know where MMA would be at this point without the UFC, Dana being the guy with the vision, Fertitas being the gangsters err.. i mean the legitimate business men who funded it.
lol yeah remember gangsters wear bandannas and hoodies and push rocks and live in low rentals, no way could a guy wearing a suit making huge bank and running sh*t in Vegas be a gangster lol.
Just because they saved the dying business doesn’t give them “be dirt bag boss” passes and allows them to rape their players now… I agree with everything you said BV, however I don’t think they can just sit back and take everything and leave quarter mil’s for their champions…
Rumor from MMAweekly, Nick Diaz vs Hayato Sakurai at dream 6..
YES! this fight has been a long time in the making, i hope this fight happens. I find it much more interesting than Diaz vs Noons.
As a huge fan of the UFC its sad that they pay fighters such low money Tim sylvia made 800,000 to get choked out in 30 seconds on the affliction show, so I dont blame fighters for wanting to leave, Dana needs to start paying better or UFC is going to lose the top guys