It pays to be king. Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks easily topped the salary report for last Friday’s Bellator 136 event, pocketing $72,000 for his successful title defense over season seven tournament winner Dave Jansen, according to information released to MMAFighting.com by the California State Athletic Commission.
Fighting for the first time as the undisputed Bellator lightweight champion, Brooks overcame a slow start to capture a unanimous decision over Jansen, extending his current win streak to seven straight. Jansen took home $12,000 in the losing effort.
World-ranked American kickboxer Joe Schilling ended up falling to a distant second to Brooks in the earnings department. Schilling suffered a split decision loss to Rafael Carvalho in the night’s main event, cutting his reported purse to $27,000. Carvalho, a streaking Brazilian who exploited Schilling’s inexperience on the ground, earned $8,000 for his upset win.
Bellator 136 took place April 10 at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif. The night’s main card aired live on Spike TV.
A complete breakdown of Bellator 136’s salary figures can be seen below, although these figures do not represent a fighter’s total earnings, as sponsorship money and discretionary bonuses are not publicly disclosed.
Main Card (Spike TV)
Will Brooks: ($36,000 + $36,000 = $72,000) def. Dave Jansen ($12,000)
Rafael Carvalho ($4,000 + $4,000 = $8,000) def. Joe Schilling ($27,000)
Marcin Held ($13,000 + $13,000 = $26,000) def. Alexander Sarnavskiy ($11,000)
Tony Johnson ($8,000 + $8,000 = $16,000) def. Alexander Volkov ($10,000)
Preliminary Card (MMAFighting.com)
John Teixeira ($4,000 + $4,000 = $8,000) def. Fabricio Guerreiro ($8,000)
Saad Awad ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Rob Sinclair ($8,000)
Joey Beltran ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Brian Rogers ($10,000)
AJ McKee ($1,500 + $1,5000 = $3,000) def. Marcos Bonilla ($1,000)
Chad George ($1,500 + $1,500 = $3,000) def. Mark Vorgeas ($2,000)
Justin Goverale ($1,000 + $1,000 = $2,150) def. Jay Bogan ($1,500)
Steve Ramirez ($1,000 + $1,000 = $2,000) def. Jonathan Santa Maria ($2,500)
Chris Herrera ($1,500) vs. Luc Bondole ($1,500)
Cleber Luciano ($3,000 + $3,000 = $6,000) def. Aaron Miller ($2,000)