(When Cowboy finds out that’s not a woman, he’s going to lose his shit. Photo courtesy of the WEC 45: After the Weigh ins set on CombatLifestyle.)
In the interest of equal time, we’d like to present the payout information for Saturday’s WEC card, in which 20 fighters split a combined $212,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses. Only Donald Cerrone and Joseph Benavidez earned more than $20,000. It’s a good thing that all of these guys have well-paying day jobs and fighting is just something they do to supplement their income on the weekends. Here are the numbers, courtesy of MMA Junkie…
Donald Cerrone: $34,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus, $10,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Ed Ratcliff: $19,000 (includes $10,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Anthony Njokuani: $18,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus, $10,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Chris Horodecki: $12,000
Joseph Benavidez: $25,000 (includes $12,500 win bonus)
def. Rani Yahya: $9,000
Scott Jorgensen: $19,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus, $5,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Takeya Mizugaki: $13,000 (includes $5,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Bart Palaszewski: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Anthony Pettis: $3,000
Zach Micklewright: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Muhsin Corbbrey: $4,000
Chad George: $5,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. John Hosman: $3,000
Brandon Visher: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
def. Courtney Buck: $3,000
Brad Pickett: $16,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus, $10,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Kyle Dietz: $2,000
Erik Koch: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Jameel Massouh: $3,000
We won’t get into our traditional underpaid/overpaid breakdown, because everybody on this card is underpaid to some degree. But consider the case of Anthony Njokuani, who has won Knockout of the Night bonuses in his last three fights. In the UFC, that would make him a wealthy man. Here, he’s barely scraping by due to his $4,000 show-money and the meagerness of the bonuses themselves. And at this point, Donald Cerrone might be better off leaving the WEC and finding out if there’s another organization who’d offer him more than $12,000 in base salary.
@ Skeletor – are you out to lunch man? Cerrone’s fight against Henderson was a fight of the year candidate. The dude always comes out and puts on one hell of a show. Joe Stevenson is getting $96,000 in the UFC and Cerrone is making 12,000 to show? Ridiculous. I agree no one is forcing these guys to do it but I think at this point Cerrone has put in the work and has the skills to start looking for a better offer. Then again fighting Ed “Who???” Ratcliff isn’t exactly a big purse guarantee. Who knows, maybe his Zuffa loyalty will pay off in the long run. Either way I don’t see how anyone can dog the guy.