UFC 251 Fighter Salaries & Incentive Pay

It may not have been pretty, but Kamaru Usman is still the UFC Welterweight Champion, and is the top earner at UFC 251.

Before we go any further, we should note that most international  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 22 fighters that traded blows at the event.  But please remember – this is only an estimate, not official info.

(click on fighter’s name for career earnings)

Kamaru Usman:   $640,000 ($600,000 to show, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)

Jorge Masvidal:   $530,000 ($500,000 to show, $30,000 fight week incentive pay)

Jose Aldo:   $430,000 ($400,000 to show, $30,000 fight week incentive pay)

Alexander Volkanovski:   $390,000 ($350,000 to show, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)

Max Holloway:   $280,000 ($250,000 to show, $30,000 fight week incentive pay)

Petr Yan:   $230,000 ($100,000 to show, $100,000 to show, $30,000 fight week incentive pay)

Rose Namajunas:   $160,000 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

Marcin Tybura:   $160,000 ($75,000 to show, $75,000 win bonus, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

Jiri Prochazka:   $153,500 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Jessica Andrade:   $125,000 ($60,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $15,000 fight week incentive pay)

Volkan Oezdemir:   $100,000 ($95,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Makwan Amirkhani:   $85,000 ($40,000 to show, $40,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Davey Grant:   $83,000 ($14,000 to sow, $14,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Leonardo Santos:   $57,000 ($26,000 to show, $26,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Paige VanZant:   $51,000 ($46,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos:   $50,000 ($40,000 to show, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

Amanda Ribas:  $48,000 ($22,000 to show, $22,000 win bonus, $4,000 fight week incentive pay)

Muslim Salikhov:   $48,000 ($22,000 to show, $22,000 win bonus, $4,000 fight week incentive pay)

Karol Rosa:   $30,500 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $3,000 from Melo for missing weight, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Raulian Paiva:  $25,100 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $2,400 fine for missing weight, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Danny Henry:   $17,500 ($14,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Zhalgas Zhumagulov:  $15,900 ($10,000 to show, $2,400 from Paiva for missing weight, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Roman Bogatov:   $13,500 ($10,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Maxim Grishin:  $13,500 ($10,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Martin Day:   $13,500 ($10,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Vanessa Melo:  $10,500 ($10,000 to show, $3,000 fine for missing weight, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)