UFC 178 salaries have been announced and to no one surprise UFC champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Conor McGregor take home the highest purses.
If you aren’t familiar with UFC payouts I’ll explain the basics. Usually a fighter receives double their guaranteed salary for winning, fighters also receive performance bonuses, and the numbers do not reflect endorsement deals (which can boost a fighters salary over 50%).
It’s interesting to see a fighter such a McGregor receive over 200k, including fight bonuses, so early in his UFC career.
Here are the full UFC 178 salaries courtesy of mmajunkie.com:
The total disclosed payroll for the event was $1,233,000.
Demetrious Johnson: $183,000 (includes $54,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Cariaso: $24,000Donald Cerrone: $126,000 (includes $63,000 win bonus)
def. Eddie Alvarez: $100,000Conor McGregor: $150,000 (includes $75,000 win bonus)
def. Dustin Poirier: $34,000Yoel Romero: $58,000 (includes $29,000 win bonus)
def. Tim Kennedy: $70,000Cat Zingano: $18,000 (includes $9,000 win bonus)
def. Amanda Nunes: $15,000Dominick Cruz: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus)
def. Takeya Mizugaki: $32,000Jorge Masvidal: $90,000 (includes $45,000 win bonus)
def. James Krause: $15,000Stephen Thompson: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
def. Patrick Cote: $33,000Brian Ebersole: $42,000 (includes $21,000 win bonus)
def. John Howard: $21,000Kevin Lee: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Jon Tuck: $10,000Manny Gamburyan: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. Cody Gibson: $10,000Now, the usual disclaimer: The figures do not include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes. Additionally, the figures do not include money paid by sponsors, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter’s income. They also do not include any other “locker room” or special discretionary bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays. Additionally, they don’t include any pay-per-view revenue some top fighters receive.
For example, as previously reported, UFC officials handed out additional $50,000 UFC 178 bonuses to Romero and Kennedy (“Fight of the Night”), Cruz (“Performance of the Night”) and McGregor (“Performance of the Night”).
In other words, the above figures are simply base salaries reported to the commission and do not reflect entire compensation packages for the event.