UFC 254 Fighter Salaries & Incentive Pay

If this indeed was Khabib Nurmagomedov’s last UFC fight, he couldn’t have written a better ending. Not surprisingly, he was the top earner at UFC 254.

Before we go any further, we should note that international fight 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 24 fighters that traded blows at the event.  But please remember – this is only an estimate, not official info.

(click on a fighter’s name for career earnings)

Khabib Nurmagomedov:   $6,090,000 ($6,000,000 to show, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)

Justin Gaethje:   $440,000 ($400,000 to show, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)

Robert Whittaker:   $385,000 ($210,000 to show, $160,000 win bonus, $15,000 fight week incentive pay)

Alexander Volkov:   $165,000 ($80,000 to show, $80,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Tai Tuivasa:  $125,000 ($60,000 to show, $60,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Magomed Ankalaev: $125,000 ($35,000 to show, $35,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Stefan Struve:   $120,000 ($100,000 to show, $20,000 fight week incentive pay)

Casey Kenney:  $117,000 ($31,000 to show, $31,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Walt Harris:   $85,000 ($75,000 to show, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

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

Jared Cannonier:   $85,000 ($75,000 to show, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

Sam Alvey:   $80,000 ($65,000 to show, $15,000 fight week incentive pay)

Alex Oliveira:   $77,400 ($78,000 to show, $15,600 fine for missing weight, $15,000 fight week incentive pay)

Nathaniel Wood:  $77,000 ($22,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Shavkat Rakhmonov:   $39,100 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to show, $15,600 from Oliveira for missing weight, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Ion Cutelaba:   $38,000 ($33,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Joel Alvarez:   $38,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus, $6,000 fine for missing weight, $4,000 fight week incentive pay)

Alexander Yakovlev:   $33,000 ($22,000 to show, $6,000 from Alvarez for missing weight, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Da Un Jung:   $25,000 ($20,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Phil Hawes:  $23,500 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Miranda Maverick:  $23,500 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Liana Jojua:   $15,500 ($12,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

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

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