UFC 235 went down last Saturday night (March 2, 2019) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a Light Heavyweight title fight that saw Jon Jones defend his strap by cruising his way to a unanimous decision win over Anthony Smith (see it). In the co-main event, Kamaru Usman dethroned Tyron Woodley after dominating him for five rounds to win the Welterweight strap (video here).
As standard payment for champions, Jones and Woodley earned a nice $40,000 sponsorship check from Reebok, while Smith and Usman raked in $30,000 payout from the sports apparel outfitter. Meanwhile, Ben Askren — who was making his UFC debut — only managed to collect a $3,500 from Reebok, which is the reason he was so outspoken against the “terrible” system prior to the fight.
But, that’s not all! Take a look at the entire UFC 235 Reebok payouts (courtesy of MMA Junkie):
Jon Jones: $40,000 def. Anthony Smith: $30,000
Kamaru Usman: $30,000 def. Tyron Woodley: $40,000
Ben Askren: $3,500 def. Robbie Lawler: $20,000
Weili Zhang: $3,500 def. Tecia Torres: $5,000
Pedro Munhoz: $10,000 def. Cody Garbrandt: $5,000
Zabit Magomedsharipov: $4,000 def. Jeremy Stephens: $20,000
Johnny Walker: $3,500 def. Misha Cirkunov: $5,000
Cody Stamann: $4,000 def. Alejandro Perez: $5,000
Diego Sanchez: $20,000 def. Mickey Gall: $5,000
Edmen Shahbazyan: $3,500 def. Charles Byrd: $3,500
Macy Chiasson: $3,500 def. Gina Mazany: $4,000
Hannah Cifers: $3,500 def. Polyana Viana: $3,500
TOTAL $275,000
According to the payout structure (see it), the more fights a fighter has accumulated — combined with UFC and the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Strikeforce promotions — the more coin he or she gets to fill his or her combat sports piggy bank.
And the less fights a fighter has under the Endeavor umbrella … well, the less he or she gets. According to the report, fighters will also receive royalty and payments up to 20 to 30 percent of any UFC-related merchandise sold that bears his or her likeness.
For complete UFC 235: “Jones vs. Smith” results, including play-by-play updates, click here.