Israel Adesanya tops UFC 248 salaries with half-million dollar fight purse

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

While UFC 248 had the feel of a major PPV event for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, it didn’t come with a notably high salary payout. Outside of the main event, only five fighters broke $100,000 in purse money—with Weili Zhang taking home $200,000 for her victory over Joanna Jedrzjeczyk. As the former queen of 115 lbs, Joanna herself earned $106,000 to show—a number that was eclipsed by Neil Magny, Alex Oliveira, and Beneil Dariush who all got their win bonus as well.

Here’s a look at the complete UFC 246 salary figures, as provided to Bloody Elbow by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

NOTE: These numbers do not include any potential taxes, fines, or percentages paid to managers, coaches. Neither do they include any potential PPV points, locker room bonuses, or sponsorship payouts.* These are just the raw numbers as released by the NSAC.

ISRAEL ADESANYA: $500,000 (no win bonus)
YOEL ROMERO: $350,000

WEILI ZHANG: $200,000 ($100k to show/win) + $50,000 FOTN bonus
JOANNA JEDRZEJCZYK: $106,000 + $50,000 FOTN bonus

BENEIL DARIUSH: $140,000 ($70k to show/win) + $50,000 POTN bonus
DRAKKAR KLOSE: $40,000

NEIL MAGNY: $152,000 ($76k to show/win)
JINGLIANG LI: $64,000

ALEX OLIVEIRA: $128,000 ($64k to show/win)
MAX GRIFFIN: $35,000

SEAN O’MALLEY: $70,000 ($35k to show/win) + $50,000 POTN bonus
JOSE QUINONEZ: $33,000

MARK MADSEN: $66,000 ($33k to show/win)
AUSTIN HUBBARD: $12,000

RODOLFO VIEIRA: $28,000 ($14k to show/win)
SAPARBEG SAFAROV: $22,000

GERALD MEERSCHAERT: $60,000 ($30k to show/win)
DERON WINN: $12,000

GIGA CHIKADZE: $24,000 ($12k to show/win)
JAMALL EMMERS: $10,000

BATGEREL DANAA: $20,000 ($10k to show/win)
GUIDO CANNETTI: $14,000

All of which makes for a reported salary payout of $2,286,000. And with a reported gate of $2,742,906.20, it looks like the UFC covered their fighter costs on just ticket sales alone.

*Assuming the UFC’s Reebok pay tiers haven’t changed: Batgerel, Chikadze, Emmers, Winn, Vieira, Madsen, Hubbard, & O’Malley all earned the lowest Reebok pay tier of $3,500. Cannetti, Meerschaert, Safarov, Quinonez, Griffin, & Klose earned $5,000 at tier 2. Jingliang earned $10,000 at tier 3. Dariush & Oliveira earned $15,000. Magny took home $20,000. Romero and Jedrzejczyk got $30,000 as title challengers. And Zhang and Adesanya made $40,000 as champions.

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About the author

Zane Simon

Zane Simon is a senior editor, writer, and podcaster for Bloody Elbow. He has worked with the website since 2013, taking on a wide variety of roles. A lifelong combat sports fan, Zane has trained off & on in both boxing and Muay Thai. He currently hosts the long-running MMA Vivisection podcast, which he took over from Nate Wilcox & Dallas Winston in 2015, as well as the 6th Round podcast, started in 2014. Zane is also responsible for developing and maintaining the ‘List of current UFC fighters’ on Bloody Elbow, a resource he originally developed for Wikipedia in 2010.