ben's blog

("Hey. My eyes are up here.")

The Ultimate Fighter's Darrill Schoonover isn't just a promising heavyweight with a minor drinking problem and disturbing tattoos; he's also a U.S. Army veteran who spent four years serving our country. Schoonover will make his official UFC debut at the TUF 10 finale on December 5th, but his long-term career plans just became a little more uncertain. As he explained on Shambala Sports Radio:

Damn, dude. Can't Dana pull some strings? It would be just his luck that Darrill wins the contract, then has to take off to hunt Bin Laden's homeboys — a perfect end to a season where the coaches don't even fight. Schoonover will be deployed for 400 days, and hopes to lose enough weight so that he can compete at light-heavyweight in the future. But no matter who he faces next month at the TUF 10 finale, he'll be in good company...

(If you ask us, that's worth 50 grand right there. Photo courtesy of the Toronto Sun via Fightlinker.)

We've already passed along the headliners' payouts from UFC 106, but now the complete salary list has been released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, so we figured hey, why not share them with you people? The UFC paid out $1,301,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses, with 57% of that total going to Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, and Josh Koscheck. Check out the pay scale below, and keep in mind that the figures don't include income from sponsorships, undisclosed "locker-room bonuses," and cuts of the pay-per-view, or deductions for taxes, insurance, licensing fees, and tanning salon memberships.

- Forrest Griffin: $250,000 (includes $150,000 win bonus)

- Tito Ortiz: $250,000

- Josh Koscheck: $246,000 (includes $53,000 win bonus, $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus, $70,000 Submission of the Night bonus)

- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $170,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus, $70,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

In the 17 months that Josh Thomson has been Strikeforce's lightweight champion, he has defended his title exactly zero times. His only fight since grabbing the belt from Gilbert Melendez in June 2008 was a non-title squash match against Ashe Bowman last September, and he hasn't been able to compete at all this year due to a series of leg injuries. And even though a planned rematch with now-interim-champ Melendez has been canceled three times already, Strikeforce is rolling the dice again. According to GracieFighter, Thomson vs. Melendez II will go down at "Evolution," Strikeforce's December 19th show at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

Despite being constantly jerked around by Thomson's withdrawals, Melendez has been able to fight twice since last June, scoring stoppage victories over Rodrigo Damm and Mitsuhiro Ishida. The Ishida fight at Carano vs. Cyborg avenged Melendez's first career loss; beating Thomson would clean his slate completely. With Thomson coming off a year-and-a-half of injuries and inactivity, you have to like El Niño's chances. The current lineup for Strikeforce: Evolution looks like this...

(Massive props: GYVIDEOS, The Killers)

Cro Cop's head kicks. The Gracie Train. The double-knockout. The Randleplex. The flying inverse triangle choke. Severn's suplexes. Inoki's slaps. Coleman's daughters. The entrance. The face-off. The blood. The towel. The destroyed limbs. The shaving gel endorsement. The agony and the ecstasy. The subtitle of this film is "MMA Is Just a Sport." We know better than that. Two more GY PRODUCTION films are after the jump. Happy Monday.

(Tito Ortiz complains about not getting UFC 106's Fight of the Night bonus, and disputes the scoring of his match against Forrest Griffin. Koscheck's expression at 2:34-2:36 pretty much sums it up. Props: Cagewriter)

— Though Josh Koscheck and Dana White have reportedly butted heads in the past, it's clear that Kos is back on DW's good side. For his second-round submission of Anthony Johnson at UFC 106 last night, Koscheck picked up both the $70,000 Submission of the Night bonus, and a $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus (which Johnson also received). As Dana White explained, "I have to publicly say that [Koscheck] always steps up, always wants to fight, fights the best in the world, and I’m blown away with his performance tonight." Still, is that enough justification to reward the chaotic mess that Koscheck vs. Johnson turned out to be?

Koscheck's $140,000 bonus take adds to the $106,000 in show/win money he earned from the fight, meaning he came up just short of headliners Ortiz and Griffin, who were paid $250,000 in disclosed salary. UFC 106's Knockout of the Night bonus went to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who needed just under two minutes to run over Luis Cane.