Despite suffering a shocking loss to Scott Smith in the night's headliner, Cung Le earned an event-high $150,000 at this past weekend's "Strikeforce: Evolution" event.
MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) today requested and received the list of disclosed salaries from the California State Athletic Commission.
The total disclosed payroll for the event, which took place Dec. 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., was $481,200.
Other top earners from the Showtime-televised event included main-card winner Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza ($65,000), Smith ($55,000), Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez ($55,000) and Matt Lindland ($50,000).
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, who also competed on the main card and make his promotional debut, earned $20,000, half which came in the form of a win bonus. However, CSAC officials said the fighter was fined 10 percent of his purse for an issue with his sponsor. (Lawal splashed the cage with Rockstar Energy Drink after his win.)
The full payout results included:
Scott Smith: $55,000 (no win bonus)
def. Cung Le via: $150,000
Gilbert Melendez: $55,000 (no win bonus)
def. Josh Thomson: $30,000
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza: $65,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Linland: $50,000
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
def. Mike Whitehead: $30,000
Antwain Britt: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Scott Lighty: $5,000
Justin Wilcox: $5,000 (no win bonus)
def. Daisuke Nakamura: $200
Alex Crispim: $4,000 ($2,000 win bonus)
def. A.J. Fonseca: $2,000
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.
In other words, these are simply base salaries reported to the commission and do not represent the total amounts earned by each fighter.
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