UFC 145 Bonuses

Prior to the start of the UFC 145 main card on Saturday in Atlanta, there wasn't much competition for the UFC's typical "Fight Night" bonuses. That changed once the main card started, however, giving the UFC three separate stoppage victories to choose from for the "Knockout of the Night."

The honors - and the $65,000 bonus along with it - went to Ben Rothwell for his first round TKO over Brendan Schaub. He beat out the young guns in Michael McDonald and Rory MacDonald, who each posted their own impressive stoppages on the card. Rothwell dropped Schaub after getting clipped, finishing the fight in just over a minute. However, while Rothwell got the award, UFC President Dana White assured the 21-year-old McDonald he'd be taken care of for his impressive knockout of former champ Miguel Torres.

The "Submission of the Night" came with the only tapout of the night, with Travis Browne choking Chad Griggs unconscious with a first-round arm-triangle choke in the final preliminary card fight of the night. The finish came after a flying knee and a nice slam brought the fight to the ground.

"Fight of the Night" honors went to the featherweight bout between Eddie Yagin and Mark Hominick. The back and forth fight saw Hominick do a ton of damage to Yagin through the final five minutes, but a beating suffered in the first and a subsequent knock down in the second cost Hominick the decision. The loss was his third straight after working up to a title fight in the 145 lb. division.

McDonald deserved knockout of the night.

Ali wrote:

McDonald deserved knockout of the night.

No shit. Rothwel actually fought like typical shit and just swung wildly when he started getting lit up. Ufc is fucking retarded.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/4/23/2969289/this-is-what-my-ankle-looks-like-today-luckily-im-walking-on-it-fine

"This is what my ankle looks like today... Luckily, I'm walking on it fine... Use the other leg muscles to support it."

UFC 145 Follow-up: Mac Danzig's ankle two days after "escaping" a heel hook applied by Efrain Escudero. From Danzig's Twitter account: @macdanzigmma

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28387/ufc-145-salaries-headliners-jones-evans-earn-top-paydays.mma
UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones ($400,000) and fellow headliner Rashad Evans ($300,000) were the top earners at this past weekend's UFC 145 event.

They accounted for 56 percent of the event's $1,241,000 payroll.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today requested and received the list of official disclosed paydays from the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission.

UFC 145 took place this past Saturday, April 21, at Atlanta's Philips Arena. The night's main card, which included Jones' unanimous-decision victory over Evans, aired on pay-per-view. FX and Facebook carried the prelims.

The full list of paydays from the 12-bout card included:

Champ Jon Jones: $400,000 (no win bonus)
def. Rashad Evans: $300,000

Rory MacDonald: $36,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus)
def. Che Mills: $8,000

Ben Rothwell: $104,000 (includes $52,000 win bonus)
def. Brendan Schaub: $14,000

Michael McDonald: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Miguel Torres: $32,000

Eddie Yagin: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Mark Hominick: $17,000

Mark Bocek: $46,000 (includes $23,000 win bonus)
def. John Alessio: $10,000

Travis Browne: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Chad Griggs: $27,000

Matt Brown: $36,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus)
def. Stephen Thompson: $8,000

Anthony Njokuani: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. John Makdessi: $12,000

Mac Danzig: $54,000 (includes $27,000 win bonus)
def. Efrain Escudero: $10,000

Chris Clements: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Keith Wisniewski: $10,000

Marcus Brimage: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Maximo Blanco: $13,000

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 discretionary 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 $65,000 UFC 145 bonuses to Rothwell ("KO of the Night"), Browne ("Submission of the Night"), and Hominick and Yagin ("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.

McDonald and MacDonald should be getting a nice pay raise soon. You can see the expectations the UFC had for Rothwell by the deal he signed. Browne should also be getting a bump up in pay soon.

Damn Rothwell with the 6-figure deal. McDonald should of hot that bonus. #RallyforMaydayBonus

Also, is it me or does this seem like a very low all around payroll? 17 out 24 fighters with a base of less than 18K, 17 guys base pay < Jones Base pay.

Rothwell came to the UFC via Affliction or the IFL or something though so he had a weird contract anyway.

I know alot of those guys aren't names but man they got paid peanuts.