It’s neither wonder that former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem strolled into the arena for his UFC debut last weekend with a smile on his face – it turns out that he was set for a bumper payout whether he won or lost against former champion Brock Lesnar.
In addition to his basic salary of $264,285.71 and win bonus of $121,428.57 Overeem’s UFC deal also called for him to be given a further $2 per pay-per-view purchase after the revenue from those sales surpassed $500,000.
On this occasion that could pay out handsomely as his opponent Brock Lesnar is considered the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw, regularly pulling in more than one million buys, though many are tipping this event to be below that watermark.
A share of the PPV money is the holy grail as far as UFC contracts go, with only UFC champions guaranteed to get a slice of that action.
Overeem certainly arrived with a big reputation as the title holder for three separate organizations in Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 and has the potential to be a major star for the UFC, particularly now that Brock Lesnar has retired following his loss to the Dutchman.
Interestingly a dispute with Overeem’s former management Golden Glory threatened to deprive him of his earnings as they attempted to have the courts put the money in Escrow over claims that he hadn’t paid them for his last fight against Fabricio Werdum.
Golden Glory Opted not to put up the $200,000 bond required to freeze Overeem’s $385,714.28 basic payout from the UFC, but their attorney has since revealed that they instead intend to go after what’s expected to be a much larger figure from the aforementioned PPV revenue.
