UFC 88 Salaries

by Chris Nelson on Sep 8, 2008 5:59 PM EDT in News

Rashad Evans - $120,000 (incl. $60k win bonus)
Chuck Liddell - $500,000
Evans also earned "Knockout of the Night," worth an additional $60,000

Rich Franklin - $100,000 (incl. $50k win bonus)
Matt Hamill - $10,000

Dan Henderson - $250,000 (incl. $150k win bonus)
Rousimar Palhares - $7,000

Nate Marquardt - $56,000 (incl. $26k win bonus)
Martin Kampmann - $15,000

Dong Hyun Kim - $46,000 (incl. $23k win bonus)
Matt Brown - $8,000

Kurt Pellegrino - $24,000 (incl. $12k win bonus)
Thiago Tavares - $13,000
Both fighters also earned "Fight of the Night" bonuses, worth an additional $60,000 each

Tim Boetsch - $16,000 (incl. $8k win bonus)
Mike Patt - $5,000

Jason MacDonald - $44,000 (incl. $22k win bonus)
Jason Lambert - $17,000
MacDonald also earned "Submission of the Night," worth an additional $60,000

Ryo Chonan - $30,000 (incl. $15k win bonus)
Roan Carneiro - $9,000

via MMAWeekly

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???

so chuck gets $500,00 for a loss damn will someone please kick my ass on PPV so can get paid?

by quike31 on Sep 8, 2008 6:03 PM EDT 0 recs

It’s a lot of money, but that’s a helluva punch you have to take.

by Luke Thomas on Sep 8, 2008 6:10 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yea, I don’t know much about ya quike31, but if you dont have some strong neck muscles that punch would probably kill you. Not worth the 500k.

by Day Man on Sep 8, 2008 8:59 PM EDT up 0 recs

Chuck's a rock star.

So they pay him like one win or lose.

by pud333 on Sep 8, 2008 6:49 PM EDT up 0 recs

2 things stick out.

MacDonald got one hell of a pay day in 100k. Good for him.

Franklin is a draw and Hendo isn’t. There are no casual fans who will buy a PPV for Hendo, but they will for Franklin. Chicks dig Franklin too which doesn’t hurt PPV buys.

by xx2000xx on Sep 8, 2008 6:36 PM EDT 0 recs

Henderson's benefitting

from bringing not one but two PRIDE championship belts to the UFC.

by Kid Nate on Sep 8, 2008 8:45 PM EDT up 0 recs

Matt needs a new deal – $10K, former TUF, previous decently big fights and he gets less than half MacDonald (less than 1/4 after MacDonald’s win bonus kicks in)? Don’t get me wrong I like MacDonald, but the pay for Hamill is a little surprising.

by HankAtVancouver on Sep 8, 2008 11:27 PM EDT up 0 recs

He’s probably still locked into the awful TUF contract. Pretty sure those things are 7 fight deals or something else entirely ridiculous. Arguably, he makes up for it with the exposure from the TV show.

by Mike Fagan on Sep 8, 2008 11:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

TUF contract

10 fight deal, 10 grand a piece. Although the UFC has renegotiated with a few of the guys before the contract ends.

by Nick Travaglini on Sep 9, 2008 10:25 AM EDT up 0 recs

Toquinho also got the shaft for putting up one hell of a fight against Henderson.

by Chris Nelson on Sep 8, 2008 6:39 PM EDT 0 recs

I wonder how long it takes to make real money in the UFC,,,

I understand the undercard fighters aren’t the draw, but are they signed to a mulit-fight contract or more like a one-off deal? $8,000 a fight is better than no money, but if you only have 3 or 4 fights (if you’re lucky) a year how can you live off that? Especially if you need that win bonus to pay some bills. Hate to be the guy who was counting on winning his fight to get a little extra money. Can they fight at smaller promotions to pick up some extra cash?

Hope they have day-jobs.

by Akorn on Sep 8, 2008 6:44 PM EDT 0 recs

Just hope you aren’t brought in for a showcase fight so you have a chance to finish and get in the running for bonus money.

by Baudelaire on Sep 8, 2008 6:50 PM EDT up 0 recs

It depends on who you are I guess, but most fighters starting out can’t live off fighting alone. They work other jobs and train whenever they can. Or you could be like Brock and afford some of the best fulltime training right off the bat. But most people aren’t like Brock.

by pud333 on Sep 8, 2008 6:51 PM EDT up 0 recs

Sponsorships

by LiuLang on Sep 8, 2008 7:33 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yep, thats why they always have to grab their shirts, hats, sports drinks, and tell you where their official afterparty is.

by Day Man on Sep 8, 2008 9:03 PM EDT up 0 recs

No, Chuck gets a hell of a lot more money. He gets a cut of the ppv revenue. He will end up making over one million.

Akorn,
Most contracts increase the pay with each fight.

Your first might be 5+5, the second 8+8 and third 11+11.

by Lynchman on Sep 8, 2008 6:53 PM EDT 0 recs

Ok, makes sense...

Thanks Lynchman for the clarification. Still not a whole lot of money. I bet half that money goes towards medical bills if they don’t have coverage through their day jobs.

by Akorn on Sep 8, 2008 7:32 PM EDT up 0 recs

180K for Evans

Is pretty good I guess. I’m pretty sure he gets a way bigger payday after he mops the floor with overated Forrest (who didn’t really beat Rampage) Griffin.

Matt Hamill 10k…ouch :(

by xFenixKnightx on Sep 8, 2008 7:11 PM EDT 0 recs

Actually, he’s got the belt so he did beat Rampage.

Even if you disagree with the decision, it’s nearly unfathomable to me how people can continue to call Forrest “overrated” — even if you disagree with the decision, he lasted a full five rounds with Rampage. It doesn’t really say much for Rampage if you’re convinced that Forrest is overrated and that Rashad will mop the floor with him.

by Kierkegaard on Sep 8, 2008 8:06 PM EDT up 0 recs

You’ve got your opinion and I have mine. No worries mate :)

by xFenixKnightx on Sep 8, 2008 8:45 PM EDT up 0 recs

Very true.

But since you made the comment, can you explain why you think he’s overrated after taking Rampage to what everyone agreed was a very close decision? I’m assuming you’re a Rampage fan, so I’m honestly really curious how people think Forrest is vastly overrated and yet Rampage wasn’t able to finish him or even put in a dominating enough performance for it to be anything other than a close decision either way, and also what it is about Rashad that makes him so much more able to breeze through Forrest than anyone else who has ever fought Forrest. Honestly curious, not trying to flame, etc.

by Kierkegaard on Sep 8, 2008 9:55 PM EDT up 0 recs

> what it is about Rashad that makes him so much more able to breeze through Forrest than
> anyone else who has ever fought Forrest.

Griffin was knocked silly by Jardine, so we know it’s possible to “breeze through” him. Evans has already followed his camp-mate’s footsteps by knocking out Liddell, he might do it again versus Griffin by training with Jardine under Greg Jackson..

by klown on Sep 8, 2008 10:22 PM EDT up 0 recs

Anybody can tell

Rampage wasn’t on top of his game. He wasn’t even in great shape on that fight. Sure its his fault but the way I and a bunch of my buddies scored/saw it, he won that fight no matter what the judges say and who has the belt right now. With Evans I do see him to be in TOP form all around. His footwok was excellent for this past fight and i think he will defeat Forrest by TKO in the 2 or 3rd.

BTW, I say Forrest is overrated because he is. Its not his fault the UFC wants to build him up. I like him too but just dont think he deserves to have that belt right now. Watch that title match again, Rogan was hugging Griffins nuts all over the place that its not even funny.

In the 4th round at exactly 1:43 Rogan comes out and sais, and I quote

“Either way Mike, the important thing here is that Forrest Griffin is winning this fight”

Followed by an awkward pause and then Mike Goldberg asking,

“YOU THINK SO??!”

Split second later Rogan responds

“YES!”

Goldberg responds,

“I dont know that Im in 100% agreement…”

He goes on to give some pretty bogus reasons. Anyway thats my .02

by xFenixKnightx on Sep 9, 2008 12:01 AM EDT up 0 recs

Chuck has been with the UFC since 98’ and has always been a fan favorite and a huge ppv draw. Because he lost he should get paid less? This is a fickle crowd.

by Tommy7 on Sep 8, 2008 9:15 PM EDT 0 recs

It’s just the anti-UFC “cool thing to do” on the internet.

Anytime they do anything someone will have something to whine about. He didn’t get paid enough, he got paid too much. He isn’t fighting real opponents, he fought someone that was too tough, etc, etc.

These numbers are higher than anyone else is paying. The lowest payment is 5k, which is higher than it was a year ago. And if these fighters have intelligent agents, they should be getting more money from sponsors by fighting in the UFC than doing any other sort of fight that isn’t Elite on CBS, because being on a UFC PPV means more people will see you than almost any other type of fight.

by Phildo on Sep 8, 2008 9:46 PM EDT up 0 recs