Some guys just can’t help but win. Take Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, for instance. Despite being pummelled by Jon Jones on Saturday night and relinquishing his UFC Light Heavyweight title to the young upstart, Shogun’s bank account got as swollen as his face. Rua was the top earner at the event, taking home $165,000.
Before we go any further, we should note that New Jersey’s Athletic Commission doesn’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 24 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 – for WEC fighters making their UFC debut, on average they are enjoying a 40% pay increase from their WEC salaries, so that is generally what we used to estimate their salaries.).
Mauricio Rua: $160,000
Jon Jones: $140,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 win bonus)
Brendan Schaub: $90,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus, $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Nate Marquardt: $90,000 ($45,000 to show, $45,000 win bonus)
Edson Barboza: $86,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus, $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Erik Koch: $82,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus, $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Anthony Njokuani: $78,000 ($8,000 to show, $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Mirko Filopovic: $75,000
Jim Miller: $62,000 ($31,000 to show, $31,000 win bonus)
Urijah Faber: $60,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 win bonus)
Mike Pyle: $46,000 ($23,000 to show, $23,000 win bonus)
Joseph Benavidez: $39,000 ($19,500 to show, $19,500 win bonus)
Gleison Tibau: $38,000 ($19,000 to show, $19,000 win bonus)
Luiz Cane: $38,000 ($19,000 to show, $19,000 win bonus)
Ricardo Almeida: $35,000
Kurt Pellegrino: $25,000
Dan Miller: $23,000
Raphael Assuncao: $15,000
Nick Catone: $14,000 ($7,000 to show, $7,000 win bonus)
Eddie Wineland: $10,000
Elliot Marshall: $10,000
Kamal Shalarus: $7,000
Ian Loveland: $5,000
Constantinos Philippou: $5,000
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