UFC 139 Salaries

Cung Le, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua were the top earners at this past weekend's UFC 139 event.

Overall, the 24 fighters competing on the card earned purses totaling $1,524,000.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently requested and received the list of disclosed paydays from the California State Athletic Commission.

UFC 139 took place this past Saturday, Nov. 19, at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. The night's main card aired on pay-per-view, and the preliminary card aired on Spike TV and streamed on Facebook.

The full payouts included:

Dan Henderson: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. Mauricio Rua: $165,000

Wanderlei Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus)
def. Cung Le: $350,000

Urijah Faber: $64,000 (includes $32,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Bowles: $19,000

Martin Kampmann: $58,000 (includes $29,000 win bonus)
def. Rick Story: $19,000

Stephan Bonnar: $68,000 (includes $34,000 win bonus)
def. Kyle Kingsbury: $10,000

Ryan Bader: $48,000 (includes $24,00 win bonus)
def. Jason Brilz: $13,000

Michael McDonald: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
Alex Soto: $6,000

Chris Weidman: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Tom Lawlor: $12,000

Gleison Tibau: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Rafael Dos Anjos: $16,000

Miguel Torres: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Nick Pace: $4,000

Seth Baczynski: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Brown: $12,000

Danny Castillo: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Shamar Bailey: $8,000

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, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter's income. They also do not include any other "locker room" or special bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays. They also do not include portions of the pay-per-view revenue that some top-level fighters receive.

For example, as previously reported, UFC officials handed out additional $70,000 UFC 139 bonuses to McDonald ("KO of the Night"), Faber ("Submission of the Night"), and Henderson, Rua, Silva and Le ("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.

Is Cung's purse including the bonus he got for FOTN?

If not...damn. Highest paid motherfucker on the card by a margin.

No the bonuses were not included.

I'm surprised at what he is being paid. I wonder if that was his Strikeforce contract numbers and they absorbed it.

100K for Fedor-Werdum
150K for the main event fight he had with Smith
200K for Frank Shamrock

Nice upgrade for him.

so hendo is getting paid the same amount he was before leaving for strikeforce.huh.

Hendo, Rua and Faber are underpaid.

They are seemingly underpaid. We know they get fat bonuses backstage. In some instances, more than their shown salaries. I can't believe Pace got paid so low...

freakzilla wrote:

Hendo, Rua and Faber are underpaid.

Especially Rua.

Especially Faber. Former champion, has competed in 9 title fights under Zuffa and while he lost four of them he's been a perennial title contender and just put the serious hurt on the last guy to hold the belt before Cruz.

Yeah, Faber's salary in WEC and even now in the UFC is pretty weak. 32K to show for the most recognizable FW/BW who has been under the banner and high level for several years. Oh well, if he's not complaining...