Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will take home a cool half-million, win or lose, at UFC 248.
Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) is scheduled to make $500,000 with no potential win bonus for his main event title fight against challenger Yoel Romero (13-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Romero is set to make $350,000 with no win bonus.
In the co-main event, former women’s strawweight champion and now title challenger Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) actually will make more than defending champion Zhang Weili (20-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) with a win. Jedrzejczyk is set to make $106,000 to show and another $106,000 to win. Weili is scheduled to make $100,000 to show and another $100,000 to win.
Also on the main card, Beneil Dariush (17-4-1 MMA, 11-4-1 UFC) can make $70,000 to show and double that to win against Drakkar Klose (11-1-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC), who is set to make $40,000/$40,000.
Neil Magny (21-7 MMA, 14-6 UFC) can make $76,000/$76,000 in his welterweight fight against Li Jingliang (17-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC), who is scheduled to make $64,000/$64,000.
And to open the main card, Alex Oliveira (20-8-1 MMA, 9-6 UFC) is scheduled for $64,000/$64,000 at featherweight against Max Griffin (15-7 MMA, 3-5 UFC), who can make $35,000/$35,000.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole reported the salaries from the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Now, 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, including the official UFC 248 Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay. They also do not include any other “locker room” or special discretionary bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays. They also do not include pay-per-view cuts that some top-level fighters receive.
For example, UFC officials will hand out additional $50,000 bonuses for “Performance of the Night” and/or “Fight of the Night” honors.
In other words, the above figures are simply base salaries reported to the commission and do not reflect entire compensation packages for the event.
