UFC 148: Fighter Salaries

The basic fighter salaries resulting from UFC 148 this past weekend have now been announced and show that former light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin was the evening’s top earner at $375,000.

His opponent Tito Ortiz pocketed $250,000 for his final pay-day in the UFC, while middleweight king Anderson Silva only managed to be third on the list with $200,000.

Don’t be fooled though, there’s a reason why some talk about “Anderson Silva” money.  While his basic salary is lower than Griffin and Ortiz he’ll also take a slice of what’s expected to be a bumper payout from the pay-per-view revenue, and added to some big sponsorship deals he’ll be looking at a multi-million dollar payout when all’s said and done.

Likewise, Chael Sonnen only earned $50,000 for his defeat in the main event, but you can rest assured that the UFC will take good care of him in terms of discretionary undisclosed bonuses for helping make this one of the biggest nights in the promotion’s history.

Finally, the other big payout of the night was handed to former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le who is $150,000 richer after his victory, while Demain Maia just stopped short of a six figure sum, banking $96,000.

  • Anderson Silva – $200,000 (no win bonus)
  • Chael Sonnen – $50,000
  • Forrest Griffin – $275,000 ($150,000 win bonus)
  • Tito Ortiz – $250,000
  • Cung Le – $150,000 (no win bonus)
  • Patrick Cote – $21,000
  • Demian Maia – $96,000 ($48,000 win bonus)
  • Dong Hyun Kim – $44,000
  • Chad Mendes – $36,000 ($18,000 win bonus)
  • Cody McKenzie – $10,000
  • Mike Easton – $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
  • Ivan Menjivar – $13,000
  • Melvin Guillard – $72,000 ($36,000 win bonus)
  • Fabricio Camoes – $8,000
  • Khabib Nurmagomedov – $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
  • Gleison Tibau – $31,000
  • Costa Philippou – $32,000 ($16,000 win bonus)
  • Riki Fukuda – $28,000
  • Shane Roller – $46,000 ($23,000 win bonus)
  • John Alessio – $10,000
  • Rafaello Oliveira – $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
  • Yoislandy Izquierdo – $6,000
Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.