Would you take an Anderson Silva front kick to your face for $275,000? Vitor Belfort did. Despite losing UFC 126’s main event, Belfort actually got paid a higher reported salary than his tormentor, Silva. In the end, when you take Silva’s $75,000 Knockout of the Night bonus into account, both men did end up earning the same, $275,000 for their blood, sweat and tears, but only one of them got to kick the other in the face.
In total Zuffa forked out $1,597,000 in reported salaries and end of night bonuses to the 22 fighters on the card, which drew a live crowd of 10,893 for a gate of $3,600,000. Here is how the pie was split up:
Anderson Silva: $275,000 ($200,000 to show, $75,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Forrest Griffin: $275,000 ($125,000 to show, $150,000 win bonus)
Vitor Belfort: $275,000
Jon Jones: $215,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 win bonus, $75,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
Donald Cerrone: $111,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 win bonus, $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Paul Kelly: $94,000 ($19,000 to show, $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Rich Franklin: $75,000
Miguel Torres: $56,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 win bonus)
Paul Taylor: $36,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 win bonus)
Jake Ellenberger: $32,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 win bonus)
Mike Pierce: $28,000 ($14,000 to show, $14,000 win bonus)
Kyle Kingsbury: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus)
Ryan Bader: $20,000
Chad Mendes: $19,000 ($9,500 to show, $9,500 win bonus)
Norifumi Yamamoto: $15,000
Demetrious Johnson: $10,000 ($5,000 to show, $5,000 win bonus)
Ricardo Romero: $10,000
Antonio Banuelos: $9,000
Carlos Eduardo Kuhra: $8,000
Gabe Ruediger: $8,000
Michihiro Omigawa: $8,000
Kenny Robertson: $6,000
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