MMAmania.com (www.mmamania.com) has received fighter purses for UFC 92: “The Ultimate 2008,” which was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 27, from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was the big winner this New Year’s Eve weekend in more ways than one, scoring a devastating knockout of nemesis Wanderlei Silva and bringing home $325,000 in base pay for less than four minute worth of work.
Tack on an additional $60,000 for “Knockout of the Night” and I’d say he fared quite well financially.
Here is the complete list of UFC 92 payouts:
Rashad Evans — $130,000 ($65,000 to show, $65,000 to win)
Forrest Griffin — $100,000
Evans defeated Griffin via technical knockout (strikes) in round threeFrank Mir — $90,000 ($45,000 to show, $45,000 to win)
Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira — $250,000
Mir defeated Nogueira via technical knockout (strikes) in round twoQuinton “Rampage” Jackson — $325,000 ($225,000 to show, $100,000 to win)
Wanderlei Silva — $200,000
Jackson defeated Silva via knockout in round oneCheick Kongo — $90,000 ($45,000 to show, $45,000 to win)
Mustafa Al-Turk — $7,000
Kongo defeated Al-Turk via technical knockout (strikes) in round oneCB Dollaway — $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to win)
Mike Massenzio — $5,000
Dollaway defeated Massenzio via technical knockout (strikes) in round oneYushin Okami — $32,000 ($16,000 to show, $16,000 to win)
Dean Lister — $19,000
Okami defeated Lister via unanimous decisionAntoni Hardonk — $28,000 ($14,000 to show, $14,000 to win)
Mike Wessel — $4,000
Hardonk defeated Wessel via technical knockout (strikes) in round twoMatt Hamill — $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to win)
Reese Andy — $15,000
Hamill defeated Andy via technical knockout (strikes) in round twoBrad Blackburn — $14,000 ($7,000 to show, $7,000 to win)
Ryo Chonan — $18,000
Blackburn defeated Chonan via unanimous decisionPat Barry — $10,000 ($5,000 to show, $5,000 to win)
Dan Evensen — $4,000
Barry defeated Evensen via technical knockout (strikes) in round one
Keep in mind the salaries listed above do not include fight bonuses, sponsorships, percentages and other unofficial payments. It also does not include deductions for expenses such as insurance, taxes, etc.
For example, the UFC often hands out extra cash for “Fight of the Night,” “Knockout of the Night” and “Submission of the Night.” To check out these figures for UFC 92 go here.
The total base fighter payroll for the blockbuster pay-per-view (PPV) event, which attracted an unofficial near sellout crowd of 14,103 fans and a gaudy gate of $3.47 million, was a hefty $1,381,000.00. And $1,005,090 of that was all dished out to those who competed in the “big three” fights!
For complete results and coverage of “The Ultimate 2008” here and here.
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Damn Frank got shafted, lol. If he woulda lost that fight he’d have walked away the most underpaid fighter to vie for a title in 2008. Rampage makes bank.
wowzers~ and peeps saying that these guys are under paid.
seems to me that[contract wise] all 6 of the main fighters made out great..
u all have to remember that dana hooks these guys up with bonus checks.
so on top of their contract money~ im sure mir got a phat
bonus for being the first to finish nog..
plus~ i wouldnt be suprised to see hashad and mirs contract to
go up to 6 figs, now that they r champs~
since where all here chatting this morning, I’ve been wondering..what is going on with Nick Diaz and Jake Shields? there has been no news and no news isn’t good news for us!!
I hope those two come to (in Nicks case back) to the UFC. I just dont know what division Nick would go to. I know he can probably cut to 155, but he’s probably not going to want to be in the same division Nate. And if he goes to 170 and Sheilds is there as well, I dont know if they would pull an AKA and not want to fight each other. I think that would be a great match up though.
just throwing it out there. Nick could (don’t laugh) do a BJ and fluctuate between the two divisions. Not too many guys could do that successfully, but he could!
Yeah who is Frank’s financial adviser? This is the guy who’s last victory was over the guy with the other belt. No bonus either. He was a former champion. Typical example of the UFC not being fair financially to their fighters.
Damn Frank got shafted, lol. If he woulda lost that fight he’d have walked away the most underpaid fighter to vie for a title in 2008. How the hell is Tito bitching about clearing 4 mil in a year when Mir doesn’t even make 1/10th of that in a fight. Shows who the real fighters are.
you have to look at Mir’s past fights, he didn’t look all that great so they had no reason to pay him more than that.
He just beat the current “champ”.
alright guys, sorry for the repost!:
This weekend in san diego was by far the best vacation my family and I have ever had. The san diego zoo was amazing and legoland blows away disney, great america and bush gardens! Now onto 92:
I will NEVER watch an event at a bar/grill again. This has always been a fear of mine, and all my fears were confirmed. I’m a quiet fan, I’ve probably said “oooooooh” twice this year (chuck getting JKO’d by Rashad is the one time that sticks out). There was a guy at this place (henessey’s) that screamed “oooooooh, ooooooooh” every time a punch was thrown! That alone was enough to spoil my night!
This event was great! I told you guys to watch out for MIR, and John, Nog looked bad, but Mir did look great! I’m glad no one is saying it was an early stoppage, because it wasn’t. I think Mir/Lesner will be a great fight.
It was funny watching Forrest/Rashad, after the 2nd round I looked at my wife and said “Forrest is up 2 rounds, Rashad is going to take him down and pound him out in the 3rd.” He sure did!
Rampage looked good, Wand looked timid. The 3 punches after Wand was out were uncalled for. 1 I could understand (adrenaline), 2 maybe, but he hit him 3 times with the ref pulling him off. Nothing will happen because he’s not as expendable as babalu. Either way he looked great and I’m glad to see it.
How is CB or Congo on the main card? They both suck!
My wife was upset, no ground game, and it’s true, this was more like a K-1 event! She’s a BJJ purist and really didn’t understand why it took Rashad so long to time a kick and take Forrest out.
Finally, I owe stinky 100 bucks. email me stink, I’ll drop it in the mail today!
i thought the night was fantastic~
i got to sit 2nd row for my first time ever!
also i got to meet hashad greg jackson and david loiseau at the weigh ins..
i was hoping to meet gsp[ but he wasn't there]..
i was saying all week that mir was looking focused and ready
to make an up-set. but i still bet on nog cause i feel
nog should never be bet agianst[ever]..
it works out fine for me cause i am a huge frank mir fan..
matter of fact? i think me and kevin are the only peeps
who are and would admit to being fans of mir..
i dont get why he is soo hated..
hopefully now he will get some respect..
mir desreves all the credit for the win..i think nog was
the same nog[no off night]..imo- frank is just better..
i would have never agreeed that mir had better boxing then nog
but now i know that mir can box~
he completely owned a living legend…
Stinky-
Whats the word? I have to eat up crow on this one.
I had Nog outclassing Mir. BUST.
I also had Wand putting it on Page. OUCH!
The only one I had was Rashad taking it.
I think people hate Mir because of the amount of hype he received for breaking Sylvia’s arm.
I have been saying MIR for the win for weeks now!
That said, im going with Brock in their rematch!
Kevin,
There is still something about Congo that I like. If he shows up with the fight he showed the other night every event, he is a beast.
I disagree! he’s just not my cup of tea, and I’m convinced all you have to do is take him down.. the thing is, if he’s such a beast, why is he fighting UFC rookies and not mentioned in the HW title picture?
He does lack a ground game (that we are aware of), and he seems to not show up for fights. I hope the Wolfslair helps with both accounts. Although, it appears that the Wolfslair is turning into a strikers camp. I hope they have some top notch BJJ guys we are not aware of or plan on brining some in to the camp.
I just don’t get a big, supposedly polished and experienced guy that always looks timid and lacks that fire or killer instinct!
Yeah, but he showed that killer instinct the other night. Granted against a less than championship level opponent. Rampage showed the same killer instinct. I hoping that this is a byproduct of the two working together at Wolfslair and that it is something we will continue to see. Again, I just hope they plan on brining in a world class BJJ player.
It is not that often that Kongo doesn’t display killer instinct. His takedown defense was excellent in this last fight, and he seems to be improving all the time as far as his ground game goes, which we saw against Herring even though he lost. It is not his fault that he is given cans to fight, that does not mean he is not a heavyweight contender, it just means that the UFC want to keep out of the picture. He was actaully due to fight Brock before Randy came back, and please do not say that he would have lost beacause Herring beat him, Jardine beat Chuck, but he could not beat Silva who Chuck beat, so that ends that argument. I would have liked to of seen how Lesner handled Kongo’s striking more than him fighting Randy, but it will definately happen in the future. And being that he is quite possibly the best striker in the heavyweight division, and onE of the weaker strikers like Mir took out Nog, what do you think Kongo would have done to him. He would have put him in hospital.
you had me until you brought up lesner. He would take Kongo down and pound him out in the first! And I’m NOT a Lesner fan!
I still would have liked to see Kongo vs. Tim Sylvia.
I would also like to see Kongo fight other big tall strikers like:
Hong Man Choi
Semmy Shilt
Antoni Hardonk
Alistar
Arlovski
Aleks Emelienenko
You may think that Lesner would beat Kongo that easy, but I do not think so. I picked Jardine and Rashad to both beat Chuck, when I bet you said both of them had no chance. When I see Lesner take some decent shots from a serious striker, or not be phazed by some well placed knees to the chin then I might bow down and worship him like the rest of you, but him just completely overpowering Randy with his size and strength is not enough for me to be caught up in the hype.
i like kongo too~
except when he holds the fight in a clinch forever!
he definitely keeps it in the clinch too much..
i was hoping that the wolfslair would help him with that problem..
Kongo is a top notch striker whos scared to stand and trade..
oh yeah and can u say an eye for an eye?
or should it be a nut-shot for a nut-shot??
I like how he pound his chest like Sammy Sosa about 100 times on the way to the ring.
Also, just a note to ANYONE fighting on a future PPV: Dont walk out to a song from The De[arted soundtrack. It didnt work for Nog or Forrest this time around.
Departed*
Not so bad to lose these days.
Is Rashad still under his TUF contract? If so, they didn’t do the “6 figure” contracts in season 2?
“six figure contract” not six figure per fight. This isn’t the TUF contract, those are like 25k/25k. It’s 100k over the contract buddy, not per fight!
hey friend~ i hope u and ur family had a great x-mas..
did u get the boy everything he wanted?
i hope he had a good one..
–to me? ~ its all about the kids around x-mas..
my niece’s and nef’s got spoiled rotton!
howd u enjoy the fights?
i thought the night turned out fantastic~
not only did i go 7/10 right on my picks~
my bets cashed in big time..
say word?
best time ever stink! email me with an address so i can pay up! hope you’re christmas was good too. yes my son got it all, very spoiled. spent xmas eve in your neighborhood..all over stockton Filbert, kelly dr and some old age home by the mall!
kevjack115@yahoo.com
ohh yeah~ i had a great x-mas..
cant wait for new years!
dont even worry about the cash kevin~
i will be in sac-town[tomorrow to next week]
and then im back to stockton for 2 days..
maybe we can hook up?
im glad u and ur family had a great vacation..
u say legoland was sick???
maybe i will take the kids there..
their always buggin to check it out..
It was unreal!!! no loop rides, but all interactive!!! we’ve been to them all, and it was by far the best for younger (my son will be 7 next month) kids! clean, good food, the works!
yeah, we may go to stockton for NYE, I don’t want to, but my wife does. Hit me up on the email, maybe we can get together for dinner. We love angelina’s italian food up there. you been?
cmon mania!!
sounds good stink. ever eaten at angelina’s? Me and my wife like it there, maybe we can get together for dinner on wed?!
wow, Nog earned his $250,000 for being a punching bag.
the name minotauro nog is worth that price alone~
Wanderlei has a nice retirement bonus of $200k.
wand retired?
naaah~ we will see him back..
i say wand has a good 5 fights left in him before he is done.
He will be back, no doubt. He is only 32… Maybe fighting for only like 36 seconds in 08 had something to do with the slow start???
My only concern with Wand coming back is the concussion situation. I don’t want to see a guy get permanently damaged.
no doubt bnf~ holding wand back all year was not good for him..
by the way bnf~ how about the new lhw champ?
i knew hashad was going to take it[i knew it]
so now i get to say to u ~ my friend~
i told u so..lol just busting balls son..
howd u like the night as an overall event??
i got it around 2nd best event of the year?
all fights were great~ except okamis bore fest..
hope u had a good x-mas~
Stink, you were right. Forrest started off good and was winning, but that dam Hashad… I can only take comfort in the fact that he will not be holding the belt for very long. Okami is a bore more often than not, thank god he was on the undercard.
Overall it was probably the 2nd best after the Penn/Sherk card. Now I just can’t wait for the best card ever, just 1 month away, BJ baby!!!
Xmas was great, Santa spoiled the sh*t out of my kids. Hope yours was good as well.
bnf~ dang bro’ u gots bj in that fight??
seems like u and i dont choose the same fighter most the time..
i gots gsp gsp gsp!!!
at least we both know about willy g~
2009 is all gouveia!~ say word!
my xmas was great~ thanks.
Probably good for you considering at 92 I had Wandi/Nog/Forrest. LMAO. I usually do pretty good, but 92 was horrible. At least I didn’t bet any money. Maybe I will for 94.
Gouveia is my man, I can’t wait to see him smash Marquardt’s face in!!! 09 is the year for Wilson!!
I was just about to say I’m gonna have to start betting against BNF’s picks! I took Nog too, and I was actually the most confident about that fight. I also had Rashad and Rampage though. I’m with Stink though, GSP! Just given you a hard time BNF, I haven’t talked smack to you in a while about Fedor so I gotta get a shot in somewhere.
He might be back, but he’ll never be relevant again. Wand has about 1,000,000 miles on him and no one plays his game any more. No one is afraid of his attacking style because it’s been figured out. Technical strikers will pick him apart (Machida, Franklin, etc.).
He’s 6-6 in his last 12 fights. He’s 1-4 in his last five, with three of those losses coming via CRUSHING knockout at the hands/feet of Dan Herderson, Rampage and Mirko. Chuck also made him look pretty bad in a decision loss.
If he were anyone else, he wouldn’t be in the UFC any more.
The UFC should do what it failed to do with Houston Alexander – put Wand in a bubble and feed him cans so the fans can be entertained by a big KO or two.
u make some great points graham~
good comment bro~
i didnt realize how he is 6/6..
darn~ i love wand. but maybe ur right..
like jeff said~ i dont want to see the man end up with
perma brain damage..
It’s not that Wanderlei’s style has been figured out. It’s that he’s reach the end of his time as a top competitor. He’s going to score an occasional blow to the random Keith Jardine but his prime has past.
fucker all the old pride fighters are the ones who make big coin oh well there usually the most exciting. i hope we get to see rampage-rashad, nog-couture ionno bout forest and wand they said theyd fight if it was for the belt but hopefully the get some good matchups
good matchups but if Rampage gets a shot before Machida or Silva I’d be surprised. A battle of undefeateds would be nice, not much a draw as far as big name status though.
Surprised if Rampage got a shot at the title before Machida/Silva… hmmm,
Rampage is 3-1 in his last 4 fights with wins over Henderson, Silva and Chuck. (1 decision, 2 first round knockouts)
Machida is 4-0 in his last 4 fights with wins over Ortiz, Sokoudjou, David Heath and Nakamura. (3 decisions, 1 submission)
Silva is 4-0 in his last 4 fights with wins over Mendez, Alexandre, Drwal and what should have been called a no-contest against James Irvin. (2 TKO’s, 1 submission, and the Irvin TKO)
May I remind you that Rampage has just lost his title and might be seen as having a title shot “in the bank” because of that.
To me, it is pretty clear that Rampage is the next in line.
Co-sign. Rampage vs. Rashad… :O
Machida/Silva winner to Forrest
Also I’d like to see: Houston Alexander, Luiz Cane, James Irvin, and Matt Hammil mix-it- up in any particular order sometime soon.
these guys deserved the pay they got and maybe more because they keep all the mma fans entertained. awesome fights.
I’m with you Kevin, I wish there would have been a little more ground game in ANY of these fights really. Most were just exchanging with each other and most finished all too quick unfortunately. I’m glad the main event at least went to 3 but anyone could tell that Sugar was going to start swinging for the fences being down 2 rounds..
I really think coaching TUF hurt nog in this fight.. Mir looked great, thats a given, but nog just didn’t seem to be nog in my eyes, maybe its just because it didn’t go past the 2nd or hit the ground at all.
Rampages left hand = $200k of that purse, haha, these guys do get paid well though..
4260k to be precise after the KO of the night award
I’m a fan of exciting and technical fighters but mainly class.
I’ve always liked Randy for his classy attitude whether he won or lost but for me, Frank Mir is nothing but classy. I am now a fan after both the TUF and this event.
That said I think in the Lesnar/Mir rematch we will truly appreciate the striking power of the beast that is Lesnar who is my second favourite fighter after GSP!
War Lesnar!!!
There are two interesting scenarios I see being built, and they both stem from trilogies.
Since the UFC is so unpredictable, which is a good thing, the really strong trilogies are hard to build on. But, I think two of them are ready to happen.
#1 – Lesnar/Mir.
I think Lesnar is strong enough, and experienced enough, to pull out the victory during the unification bout. This would make the scoreboard Mir 1, Lesnar 1. A rematch for the belt, the rubber match, would have a lot of hype attached to it and would give whoever wins that third fight the right to say they are truly better than the other man, and the true heavyweight champ.
#2 – Griffin/Evans
I think Forrest deserves an immediate rematch, since he was up 2 rounds to 0. If Forrest gives Rashad his first loss in the rematch, that sets us up for a HUGE Griffin/Evans III. Rashad trying to get his title back, and avenge his only loss.
No way Forrest deserves an immediate rematch. I love Forrest but the 205 division is far too stacked with guys that deserve a title shot to give someone an immediate rematch let alone a guy that had the belt for only 1 fight. If he had held it for a couple of years maybe but hes gotta win a few and work his way back up now.
I’m with GSP4Prez…I think Rampage would’ve deserved an immediate rematch before Griffin, and Rampage didn’t get one. No way he deserves the shot before Rampage or winner of Machida/Silva.
lol its funny that the first words that come to my head were exactly the first words written….”damn….frank got shafted lol”
who is Reese Andy to be earning that much ??
H hope the guys who are not marketable and earning less than $50,000 per fight have other jobs and huge sponsorship … especially when they are destroying themselves.
Its pathetic how some fighters only get 4-5k, that barely covers the trip to Vegas~
10k should be the absolute minimum for the bottom fighters, but even that is way to low after all the work they put in
I am thinking all this forrest, rampage, machida, chuck, jardine stuff is distraction. I say you put A.Silva up against Shard and work backwards. It may not be the best business move but I am definitely in favor of anything that humbles Shard.
wow thats bush nog gets like over 100 grand more then mir and mir straight messed him up KIFE
WOW I cant believe how much more Rampage made than anyone else, wow not even a title fight. I dont know how Dana decides to pay these guys but everytime the paydays come out I have to shake my head. I understand that some guys are on another level but you cant tell me that Rampage Jackson is any bigger or more important to the game than Forrest, NOG, shit even Mir. I like Rampage I just dont see how he gets so much more than some of the others especially with his mental state as of late.
These guys need agents and stronger negotiating tactics. The amount being paid out to the amount being brought in has got to be ridiculous, honestly I think these guys should all be getting paid way more for what they do, the risks and long term affects on these guys should be taken into concideration when negotiating contracts. Fighters should start standing up for themselves a little more. I hate TITO more than any other fighter on the planet but he will not walk into the ring unless he is getting paid and thats up to him.
are you being serious? is the UFC allowed to make money? who took all the financial risk to enable these guys to fight for a living? That’s right fight, not save lives or run a country or big business, fight! The only top boxers making money are delahoya and who ever he fights, so if that was going to be your argument, save it!
Any pro sport owner has to take risks, if thats your argument then you should be in management. UFC is a facist organization taking advantage of the MMA wave and if the fighter accept these crappy wages then so be it, but don’t try to defend their right to make money, because they are at an absurd rate of ROI.
first of all its “Fascist” not Facist. and you should really look up the definition of a term before using it so that you don’t end up looking like an idiot.
First of all….a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc…..Yeah, I could draw correlations to the UFC based on this explanation…a little but still….And all of these fighters have the right to say no…..MMA isn’t widestream enough yet that there are other ‘high paying’ venues for up and comers to make a name…That’s the one idea that Tito Ortiz had that I liked….form something to look after the fighter’s best interests…until then, the fighter, their reps , their mom’s or someone has to negotiate for equality…like Tito said many times…careers in this sport can be over far to quickly…
Like any profession you have to understand and accept the risks. I’m sure a lot of people would love to look at the UFC like a huge corporate monster that’s taking advantage of young, inexperienced fighters in the current hype of MMA. I’m not here to change your opinion, but you have to understand that in the end, the UFC has really been the only successful MMA promotion. There have been countless others come up quickly and disappear without even a whisper. Big Pelly is completely right in the fact that if the fighters don’t like their salary then they can either walk away from the table or try to negotiate for better pay. Most of these guys are willing to start out with smaller payouts in the hope that they can get $200k for one fight.
Keep in mind that pretty much every one of the guys in the top three bouts made more than listed.
Rampage gets a cut of the ppv, for example, and that is released to the NSAC.
In theory, Forrest and Rashad are towards the end of the TUF contract, but both reworked their deals for more money and to include more incentives.
I can’t believe Lister gets paid 19K a fight. he barely deserves 1/4 of that.