Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to action for UFC 216: “Ferguson vs. Lee,” which went down last Saturday night (Oct. 7 2017) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and now it’s time to see who went home with the biggest Reebok sponsorship pie.
Demetrious Johnson was the biggest sponsorship earner of the night, as he earned an event high $40,000 after submitting Ray Borg in the co-main event of the evening, setting the all-time title defense record, in the process.
Event Headliner’s Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee each walked away with a nice $30,000 check from Reebok following their hard-fought title fight whic hsaw “El Cucuy” become the new interim Lightweight champion.
Let’s see how all of the payouts break down courtesy of MMA Junkie:
Tony Ferguson: $30,000 def. Kevin Lee: $30,000
Demetrious Johnson: $40,000 def. Ray Borg: $30,000
Fabricio Werdum: $10,000 def. Walt Harris: $5,000
Mara Romero Borella: $2,500 def. Kalindra Faria: $2,500
Beneil Dariush: $10,000 vs. Evan Dunham: $15,000
Cody Stamann: $2,500 def. Tom Duquesnoy: $2,500
Lando Vannata: $2,500 vs. Bobby Green: $10,000
Poliana Botelho: $2,500 def. Pearl Gonzalez: $2,500
Matt Schnell: $2,500 def. Marco Beltran: $5,000
John Moraga: $10,000 def. Magomed Bibulatov: $2,500
Brad Tavares: $10,000 def. Thales Leites: $15,000
Total: $242,500
According to the revamped 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.