(Cormier spent more on Popeye’s delivery that night than Durkins made for getting his ass kicked. / Props: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports, via MMAJunkie)
The UFC paid out $843,000 in disclosed salaries to the fighters who competed at UFC 170: Rousey vs. McMann, according to figures released today by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, in addition to $200,000 in performance bonuses.
Before we get into the numbers, let’s take a moment to point out that they’re basically meaningless, since the UFC doesn’t reveal how much its fighters earn from undisclosed “locker room bonuses” and pay-per-view incentives. (And sometimes, the show/win figure itself is rather suspicious.) For example, UFC 170 headliner Ronda Rousey made just $160,000 in disclosed money for her delightfully controversial TKO of Sara McMann, but everybody knows that she really makes more that GSP, Anderson, and Lesnar combined.
The full UFC 170 salary list is below…
Ronda Rousey ($110,000, including $55,000 win bonus and $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)
def. Sara McMann ($16,000)
Daniel Cormier ($160,000, including $80,000 win bonus)
def. Patrick Cummins ($8,000)
Rory MacDonald ($150,000, including $50,000 win bonus and $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Demian Maia ($114,000, including $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Mike Pyle ($96,000, including $48,000 win bonus)
def. T.J. Waldburger ($18,000)
Stephen Thompson ($78,000, including $14,000 win bonus and $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus)
def. Robert Whittaker ($15,000)
Alexis Davis ($30,000, including $15,000 win bonus)
def. Jessica Eye ($8,000)
Raphael Assunção ($56,000, including $28,000 win bonus)
def. Pedro Muhnoz ($8,000)
Aljamain Sterling ($16,000, including $8,000 win bonus)
def. Cody Gibson ($8,000)
Zach Makovsky ($24,000, including $12,000 win bonus)
def. Josh Sampo ($10,000)
Erik Koch ($30,000, including $15,000 win bonus)
def. Rafaello Oliveira ($14,000)
Ernest Chavez ($16,000, including $8,000 win bonus)
def. Yosdenis Cedeno ($8,000)
Not sure if underpaid or overpaid: Let’s be real, Patrick Cummins could have been killed in there. On the other hand, would you rather take a 79-second ass-whuppin’ from Daniel Cormier, or work for 800 hours in a coffee shop making hot drinks for assholes at $10/hour? Cummins got an opportunity that most up-and-coming fighters would probably take for free, sadly.
I’d say that Cummins is “not ready for the UFC” at this point, but of course he is. At 4-1, he’s more than qualified to compete on the prelims of an international Fight Pass event, where he’d face off against another too-green prospect for the opportunity to fight on future Fight Pass cards.
That’s the best case scenario for Cummins right now, because he accepted an invite to the big show too soon. In the UFC, you’re either a fighter the promotion wants to develop, or the meat that gets fed to them. Maybe two or three years from now Patrick Cummins could have been a prospect that the UFC was actually interested in. Instead, he chose to be the meat, after being fooled by one of the biggest lies in the MMA promoter’s handbook: Anything can happen in this sport.