UFC 258 Fighter Salaries & Incentive Pay

Kamaru Usman took another step towards going down as one of the all-time greats, knocking out Gilbert Burns last night at UFC 258. Fittingly, he was the top earner of the night.

Before we go any further, we should note that most the Nevada 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 20 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:  $690,000 ($600,000 to show, $50,000 Performance of the Night, $40,000 fight week incentive pay)

Gilbert Burns:   $380,000 ($350,000 to show, $30,000 fight week incentive pay)

Kelvin Gastelum:   $165,000 ($150,000 to show, $15,000 fight week incentive pay)

Belal Muhammad:   $114,000 ($52,000 to show, $52,000 win bonus, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

Polyana Viana:  $99,000 ($22,000 to show, $22,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Alexa Grasso:   $83,000 ($39,000 to show, $39,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Anthony Hernandez:   $78,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night, $4,000 fight week incentive pay)

Julian Marquez:   $77,500 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Ricky Simon:   $73,000 ($34,000 to show, $34,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Chris Gutierrez:   $49,000 ($22,000 to show, $22,000 win bonus, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Brian Kelleher:   $46,000 ($36,000 to show, $10,000 fight week incentive pay)

Rodolfo Vieira:   $43,500 ($40,000 to show, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Ian Heinisch:   $40,000 ($35,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Andre Ewell:   $35,000 ($30,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Maycee Barber:   $33,000 ($29,000 to show, $4,000 fight week incentive pay)

Gabriel Green:   $27,500 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $3,500 fight week incentive pay)

Dhiego Lima:   $27,000 ($22,000 to show, $5,000 fight week incentive pay)

Maki Pitolo:   $24,000 ($20,000 to show, $4,000 fight week incentive pay)

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

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

Jim Miller:   $2,000 (Miller says the UFC paid him “a couple thousand dollars” for his cancelled fight on this card