UFC Fight Night: Blachowicz vs Rakic will be live from Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night. In this article, we’ll go over the UFC fighter pay, salary, and payouts for the UFC Vegas 54 card this weekend.
UFC Vegas 54 takes place this Saturday from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a light heavyweight showdown between former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz and fellow European Aleksandar Rakic.
While the two light heavyweight titans are featured in the main event, The Sports Daily can report that UFC veteran Michael Johnson is the figher who takes home the biggest paycheck of the weekend.
Michael Johnson to Earn over 100k at UFC Fight Night: Blachowicz vs Rakic
Michael Johnson’s last disclosed base pay was an $83,000 contract to face Thiago Moises at UFC Jacksonville in May of 2020, a fight that saw Johnson lose by second-round submission due to an ankle lock. Johnson is riding a four-fight losing streak but as a UFC veteran who has been with the promotion for well over a decade, Johnson reaps the benefits of being from the old generation of UFC talent stock.
Projecting UFC Fighter Pay and Salaries
UFC fighters are unable to disclose their pay based on terms in their contracts, while the majority of state athletic commissions allow the UFC to keep those figures private.
Nevertheless, with a little bit of guesswork using previously disclosed figures and comparable terms, finding out roughly how much each fighter on this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 54 fight card gets paid is still very possible.
To find out more about UFC Vegas 54 fighter salaries, continue reading as we break down the potential payouts for each UFC fighter for this weekend’s UFC Vegas 54 fight card from Las Vegas, Nevada.
UFC Vegas 54 Fighter Salaries | UFC Fighter Pay
Jan Blachowicz is the A-side in this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event. For Blachowicz, it’s the first UFC fight since dropping his UFC gold to Glover Teixeira back in October of last year, which naturally comes with a slight pay cut.
Jan Blachowicz’s last disclosed pay base was a $46,000 contract for UFC 239, a fight that saw Blachowicz defeat, Luke Rockhold, by way of second-round TKO, good enough for a $50,000 performance of the night bonus. Since then, Blachowicz has put together a 4-1 record, with three of his last four wins coming in five-round main, or co-main event bouts.
With this in mind, Blachowicz has likely received a decent pay raise since his last disclosed pay of $46,000, which may be in the range of about $83,000 base pay for a non-title fight. With this, Blachowicz will likely earn about $100,000 just for stepping into the octagon on Saturday night in Vegas.
The highest-paid female fighter on the UFC Vegas 54 card is likely to be Katlyn Chookagian. The New Jersey-born fighter’s last disclosed pay was a $60,000 base pay contract for UFC Vegas 1, where she defeated Antonia Shevchenko. Since then, Chookagian has put together a strong 2-2 record, and will likely earn the same $60k base for her appearance at UFC Vegas 54.
To find out more about UFC Vegas 54 fighter pay, check out the chart below.
*UFC Vegas 54 salary figures are estimations based on recently reported payouts or comparable fighter salaries. Figure for win bonus, not included.
UFC Vegas 54 Staff Salaries
Below, we’ll break down some of the projected staff salaries for UFC Vegas 54.
- UFC Ring Girl Salary: $1,000 to $5,000 per event
- UFC Referee Salary: $700 to $2,500 per event
- UFC Announcer Salary: $50,000-$100,000 per event
UFC Vegas 54 Promotional Guidelines Compliance Pay
The UFC will pay out about $173,000 in promotional guideline incentive pay for this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 54 event.
The incentive pay generated by Venum sportswear’s multi-year sponsorship deal with the UFC is disbursed under the UFC’s promotional guidelines compliance program and is paid out in tiers, depending on each fighter’s tenure with the UFC. This tenure includes Zuffa-era WEC fights, from January 2007 on, as well as Zuffa-era Strikeforce fights from April 2011 on.
Fighters with 1-3 professional bouts under the UFC/Zuffa banner will receive $4000, 4-5 fights pays out $4,5000, 6-10 bouts pays out $6,000, 11-15 pays out $11,000, 16-20 pays out $16,000 and 21 fights or more pays out $21,000. Meanwhile, title challengers are paid out $32,000, while champions are paid out $42,000.
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