(Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports)
And still champion….Cain Velasquez laid a hellacious beating on Junior dos Santos at UFC 166, and walked out with his belt and the biggest paycheck.
Before we go any further, we should note that the Texas 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 26 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).
Attendance: 17,238
Gate: $2,500,000
Cain Velasquez: $400,000
Hector Lombard: $300,000
Gilbert Melendez: $235,000 ($175,000 to show, $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Daniel Cormier: $140,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 win bonus)
Junior dos Santos: $130,000
Diego Sanchez: $130,000 ($70,000 to show, $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
John Dodson: $100,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus, $60,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Tony Ferguson: $100,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus, $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
K.J. Noons: $82,000 ($41,000 to show, $41,000 win bonus)
Tim Boetsch: $74,000 ($37,000 to show, $37,000 win bonus)
Gabriel Gonzaga: $68,000 ($34,000 to show, $34,000 win bonus)
Nate Marquardt: $40,000
Roy Nelson: $24,000
C.B. Dollaway: $24,000
Adlan Amagov: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus)
TJ Waldburger: $18,000
Sarah Kaufman: $17,000
George Sotiropoulos: $15,000
Kyoji Horiguchi: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus)
Andre Fili: $10,800 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus, fined $1,200 for missing weight)
Jessica Eye: $10,125 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus, $1,875 fine for failed drug test)
Mike Rio: $8,000
Jeremy Larsen: $9,200 ($8,000 to show, $1,200 from Fili for missing weight)
Dustin Pague: $8,000
Shawn Jordan: $6,000
Darrell Montague: $6,000
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