What a battle – Jose Aldo really earned his event-leading payday at last night’s UFC 179 in Rio. The champ kept his belt and walked away with the biggest paycheck.
Before we go any further, we should note that most international events 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 (and from future fights – we go back and update these numbers as more info becomes available). 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).
Attendance: 11,415
Gate: N/A
Jose Aldo: $350,000 ($150,000 to show, $150,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Chad Mendes: $98,000 ($48,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Fabio Maldonado: $84,000 ($17,000 to show, $17,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)
Gilbert Burns: $70,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)
Phil Davis: $60,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 win bonus)
Darren Elkins: $56,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 win bonus)
Glover Teixeira: $50,000
Neil Magny: $40,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus)
Wilson Reis: $30,600 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $6,600 from Jorgensen for missing weight)
Scott Jorgensen: $26,400 ($33,000 to show, fined $6,600 for missing weight)
Beneil Dariush: $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus)
Yan Cabral: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus)
Andre Fili: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus)
Tony Martin: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus)
Carlos Diego Ferreira: $15,000
Lucas Martins: $12,000
William ‘Patalio’ Macario: $12,000
Felipe Arantes: $12,000
Hans Stringer: $10,000
Naoyuki Kotani: $8,000
Christos Giagos: $8,000
Fabricio Camoes: $8,000
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