Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to the hurt business last Sat. night (Aug., 25, 2018) with UFC Fight Night 135 from inside inside Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, airing live and free on FOX Sports 1, and now it’s time to see who went home with the biggest piece of the Reebok pie.
Leading the list of payouts was Jake Ellenberger, who racked up one final sponsorship check of $20,000 after getting knocked out by Bryan Barberena in the very first round in what proved to be his final fight of his career (recap here). Rani Yahya, meanwhile, also took home $20,000 from Reebok after submitting Luke Sanders.
The biggest winner of the night, Justin Gathje, only managed to collect a $4,000 check from the sports apparel giant following his first-round drubbing of James Vick ($10,000) in the headlining bout (relive it here).
But that’s not all. Take a look at the rest of the Reebok payouts courtesy of MMA Junkie.
Justin Gaethje: $4,000 James Vick: $10,000
Michael Johnson: $15,000 Andre Fili: $10,000
Cortney Casey: $5,000 Angela Hill: $5,000
Bryan Barberena: $5,000 Jake Ellenberger: $20,000
Deiveson Figueiredo: $4,000 John Moraga: $10,000
Eryk Anders: $4,000 Tim Williams: $3,500
James Krause: $5,000 Warlley Alves: $5,000
Cory Sandhagen: $3,500 Iuri Alcantara: $15,000
Andrew Sanchez: $4,000 Markus Perez: $3,500
Mickey Gall: $4,000 George Sullivan: $5,000
Joanne Calderwood: $5,000 Kalindra Faria: $3,500
Drew Dober: $10,000 Jon Tuck: $5,000
Rani Yahya: $20,000 Luke Sanders: $4,000TOTAL: $188,000
According to the payout structure (see it), the more fights you have combined with UFC and the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Strikeforce promotions, the more coin you have for your combat sports piggy bank. And the less fights you have under the ZUFFA banner … well, the less you get. If you have a problem with the structure, take it up with UFC … not Reebok.
According to the report, fighters will also receive royalty and payments up to 20-30 percent of any UFC-related merchandise sold that bears his or her likeness. That’s a great way for the Internet “morons” to help the cause.