This morning the California State Athletic Commission released revenue and fighter payout numbers from the Strikeforce event held Friday in San Jose. Interestingly Cung Le, one of the least experienced MMA fighters on the card, ended up taking home the biggest paycheck. Le’s salary overshadowed the pay given to some of the sport’s longtime vets like Paul Buentello, Alistar Overeem, Dannis Hallman, and Trevor Prangley. However, this should not come as a surprise as Cung Le has a huge following in the Bay Area and those fans buy tickets.

As for attendance numbers:
Tickets Sold: 5,621
Exempt Passes: 1,628
Deadwood: 2,203
Gross Receipts: $387,685.00

Fighter payouts:
Cung Le - $50,000  
Alistair Overeem - $30,000
Trevor Prangley - $30,000
Brian Schwartz - $30,000
Paul Buentello - $20,000
Falaniko Vitale - $20,000
Jorge Santiago - $15,000
Dennis Hallman - $5,000 + $5,000 win bonus
Jeremiah Metcalf - $5,000 (more…)

The biggest guy at UFC 77 took home the biggest paycheck. Tim Sylvia pocketed $200,000 for his win over Brandon Vera, surprisingly dwarfing Rich Franklin’s $45k. Here are the complete payouts for UFC 77:

Tim Sylvia $200,000
Anderson Silva $120,000
Brandon Vera $100,000
Rich Franklin $45,000
Stephan Bonnar $44,000
Yushin Okami $24,000
Eric Schafer $6,000
Alan Belcher $22,000
Josh Burkman $20,000
Jason MacDonald $17,000
Demian Maia $10,000
Jason Black $8,000
Kalib Starnes $7,000
Jorge Gurgel $7,000
Alvin Robinson $6,000
Forrest Petz $6,000
Matt Grice $6,000
Ryan Jensen $4,000

Bonuses:
Knockout of the Night - Silva $40,000
Submission of the Night - Maia $40,000
Fight of the Night - Grice and Black - $40,000 each

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Wow, such a far cry from the UFC 76 fighter payouts. Gilbert Melendez was the top dog raking in a whopping $30,000 at Saturday’s Strikeforce event held at the Playboy Mansion. Strangely he did not receive a “win bonus.” Maybe they gave him a Playboy playmate in consolation. Poor Dewey Cooper and Adam Smith netted $500.

Gilbert Melendez - $30,000
Joe Riggs - $14,500 + $15,000 win bonus
Josh Thomson - $14,500 + $10,000 win bonus
Daniel Puder - $20,000
Bobby Southworth - $10,000 + $10,000 win bonus
Falaniko Vitale - $20,000
Jorge Masvidal - $18,182.50
Eugene Jackson - $15,000
Luke Stewart - $3,500 +$4,000 win bonus
Ron Fields - $7,000
Billy Evangelista - $3,000 + $3,000 win bonus
Tetsuji Kato - $6,000
Adam Lynn - $6,000
Eddy Millis - $4,000
Sam Liera - $3,000
Richard Dalton - $3,000
Clint Coronel - $3,000
Anthony Figueroa - $2,000
Miguel Linares - $1,500
Daniel McWilliams - $1,000
Matt Lee - $1,000
Bill Mahood - $1,000
Adam Smith - $500
Dewey Cooper - $500

Source: California State Athletic Commission

The Iceman brought in a cool half a million dollars at UFC 76. The guy who many thought would be the next Iceman, Mauricio Rua, was second in line with a $150,000 payday.  And the guy who beat Liddell?  Jardine received all of $14k (which includes his win bonus), ouch.  Hopefully the payday of his next fight makes up for it.

Once again, Dana White has deemed another UFC event as a success. The numbers seem to back it up as 12,134 tickets were sold and total gate attendance revenue came in at $1,984,880. Add in merchandise and Pay-Per-View numbers and you come in well above the $954,00 that was dished out to the fighters.

Here are the official numbers from the California State Athletic Commission:

Honda Event CenterTickets Sold: 12,134
Exempt Passes: 1,953 (1,636 turnstile)
Deadwood: 2,374
Total Attendance: 13,770
Gate: $1,984,880

Fighters
Liddell - $500,000
Rua - $150,000
F. Griffin - $22,000 + $22,000 (win bonus)
Jardine - $7,000 + $7,000 (win bonus)
Machida - $25,000 + $25,000 (win bonus)
Fitch - $22,000 + $22,000 (win bonus)
Sanchez - $22,000
Omigawa - $5,000
Wiman - $8,000 + $8,000 (win bonus)
Junk - $4,000
Wellisch - $7,000 + $7,000 (win bonus)
Saraiva - $3,000
Stephens - $3,000 + $3,000 (win bonus)
Johnson - $5,000
Clementi - $12,000 + $12,000 (win bonus)
Tavares - $9,000
T. Griffin - $12,000 + $12,000 (win bonus)
Nakamura - $20,000

Seperately, Tyson Griffin and Thiago Tavares each took home an additional $40k for their performances in the “fight of the night.” Forrest Griffen also pocketed an additional $40k with his “submission of the night.”

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has release the figher payouts for UFC 74 and by no surprise the main man, The Natural, took home the largest share of the $755,000 payout pie.  The numbers below include base pay plus bonuses for those fighters who won.

Randy Couture: $250K
Georges St. Pierre: $140K
Frank Mir: $66K
Renato Sobral: $50K ($25K currently being withheld by the NSAC)
Gabriel Gonzaga: $45K
Roger Huerta: $34K
Joe Stevenson: $32K
Marcus Aurelio: $30K
Patrick Cote: $24K
Thales Leites: $18K
Clay Guida: $14K
Kendall Grove: $12K
Josh Koscheck: $10K
Antoni Hardonk: $8K
Kurt Pellegrino: $8K
David Heath: $6K
Ryan Jensen: $4K
Alberto Crane: $4K

Total UFC 74 Payout: $755,000

 
Payouts for WEC 29 Wrekcage have been announced and Paulo Filho was the bigger winner with a pay day of $50k. ($35k base + $15k bonus).  Total event payout was $199,500 and was dispursed in the following manner:

Paulo Filho $50,000 ($35k base + $15k win bonus).
Carlos Condit $26,000 ($13K base + $13K win bonus)
Joe Doerksen $30,000
Jamie Varner $14,000 ($7K base + $7 win bonus)
Brock Larson $12,000
Jeff Curran $10,000 ($8k base + $2K win bonus)
Payouts for the rest of the fighters continues here…. (more…)