UFC 131 Fighter Salaries

In mixed martial arts, it tends to pay to be a big guy.  More money, more television appearances, more top of the card appearances.  However, at UFC 131 the “little guys” trumped the behemoths, at least in terms of dollars and sense – Kenny Florian and Sam Stout were the only fighters to earn six figures from the event.

Before we go any further, we should note that Vancouver’s Athletic Commission didn’t release this fighter pay info (despite numerous requests from my end), 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, especially for any fighters that made their UFC debuts at the event).  These numbers obviously also don’t include any PPV revenue, undisclosed bonuses and/or sponsorship money any of these fighters may have made.

Update: The Vancouver Athletic Commission has since e-mailed me the offical purse info, so all the figures below are official now.

Junior dos Santos: $200,000 ($100,000 to show, $100,000 win bonus)

Kenny Florian: $130,000 ($65,000 to show, $65,000 win bonus)

Sam Stout: $108,000 ($19,000 to show, $19,000 win bonus, $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)

Dave Herman: $106,000 ($18,000 to show, $18,000 win bonus, $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Chris Weidman: $90,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus, $70,000 Submission of the Night bonus)

Jon Olav Einemo: $85,000 ($15,000 to show, $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Mark Munoz: $60,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 win bonus)

Demian Maia: $43,000

Shane Carwin: $40,000

Donald Cerrone: $40,000 ($20,000 to show, $20,000 win bonus)

Joey Beltran: $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus)

Krzysztof Soszynski: $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus)

Nick Ring: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus)

Darren Elkins: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus)

Michihiro Omigawa: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 “win” bonus given by Dana White) 

Yves Edwards: $12,000

Diego Nunes: $12,000

Dustin Poirier: $10,000 ($5,000 to show, $5,000 win bonus)

Mike Massenzio: $8,000

Aaron Rosa: $6,000

James Head: $6,000

Jason Young: $6,000

Jesse Bongfelt: $6,000

Vagner Rocha: $6,000