Affliction: Banned showcased a variety of heavyweight talent and pushed the envelope on what MMA fighters are getting paid. The total payroll came to a huge $3.3 million plus, a staggering number that’s going to be very hard to justify, or recover. Obviously Affliction wanted to go big and they did that, and as their idea of a solid MMA promotion is to make the fighters happy, these numbers obviously made the fighters happy. Here’s the numbers, and keep in mind that they don’t include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes and the figures do not include money paid by sponsors or special bonuses. The numbers are a base salary number plus win bonus.
Fedor Emelianenko: $300,000 (no win bonus)
def. Tim Sylvia: $800,000
Andrei Arlovski: $750,000 (includes $250,000 win bonus)
def. Ben Rothell: $250,000
Josh Barnett: $300,000 (no win bonus)
def. Pedro Rizzo: $70,000
Mark Hominick: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Savant Young: $7,000
Renato “Babalu” Sobral: $90,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def: Mike Whitehead: $50,000
Matt Lindland: $300,000 (includes $75,000 win bonus)
def. Fabio Nascimento: $20,00O
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $50,000 (no win bonus)
def. Edwin Dewees: $15,000
Mike Pyle: $20,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
JJ Ambrose: $5,000
Ray Lizama: $3,000
vs. Justin Levens: $6000
Vitor Belfort: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus)
Terry Martin: $30,000
Paul Buentello: $80,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus)
vs. Gary Goodridge: $25,000
Looking at the numbers, the first thing that comes to mind is why is Fedor only getting $300,000 and one has to make the assumption that he has some kind of extra bonus, percentage, or other incentive that isn’t listed here. Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski made large bills, and Ben Rothwell made more than anyone expected. Affliction:Banned is going to have to figure out how to keep these kinds of payroll numbers, and the industry may see a bit of a ripple effect from their payroll. UFC fighters will wonder if they can make 2-4 times what they do in the UFC by joining Affliction and so UFC will have to offer some more pay, or at least address the issue.
