Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was the highest earner at UFC 248, taking home more than twice as much disclosed pay as the card’s other defending champ.
Adesanya (19-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) made $500,000 with no win bonus for his main event title defense against challenger Yoel Romero (13-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC) on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Romero made $350,000 in defeat.
The other defending champion on the card, Zhang Weili (21-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) netted $200,000 for beating Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC), who got $106,000 in the memorable title contest.
The total disclosed payroll for the event was $2.086 million.
Complete disclosed salaries for UFC 248:
- Israel Adesanya: $500,000 (no win bonus)
def. Yoel Romero: $350,000 - Zhang Weili: $200,000 (includes $100,000 win bonus)
def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk: $106,000 -
Beneil Dariush: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus)
def. Drakkar Klose: $40,000 -
Neil Magny: $152,000 (includes $76,000 win bonus)
def. Li Jingliang: $64,000 -
Alex Oliveira: $128,000 (includes $64,000 win bonus)
def. Max Griffin: $35,000 -
Sean O'Malley: $70,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus)
def. Jose Quinonez: $33,000 -
Mark Madsen: $66,000 (includes $33,000 win bonus)
def. Austin Hubbard: $12,000 -
Rodolfo Vieira: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Saparbek Safarov: $22,000 -
Gerald Meerschaert: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Deron Winn: $12,000 -
Giga Chikadze: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Jamall Emmers: $10,000 -
Danaa Batgerel: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Guido Cannetti: $14,000
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 sometimes pays. They also do not include pay-per-view cuts that some top-level fighters receive.
For example, UFC officials handed out additional $50,000 UFC 248 fight-night bonuses to Dariush and O’Malley for “Performance of the Night,” and Weili and Jedrzejczyk for “Fight 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.
