Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
UFC 245 went down last Saturday night (Dec. 14, 2019) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Kamaru Usman defeat Colby Covington via fifth round technical knockout (TKO) in a highly entertaining Welterweight title fight (see it).
In the co-headlining act, Alexander Volkanovski defeated Max Holloway to win the Featherweight title, while Amanda Nunes dominated Germaine de Randamie to retain her Bantamweight strap.
With three title fights on the card, Reebok had to pony up some serious sponsorship bread for the event, which was the second highest payout ever, according to MMA Junkie.
Among the highest earners were Kamaru Usman, Max Holloway and Amanda Nunes, who all scored an extra $40,000 for being champions entering the event. As for the challengers, Alexander Vokanovski — who is the new Featherweight champion — Germaine de Randamie and Colby Covington all scored $30,000 each.
Here are the rest of the payouts:
Kamaru Usman: $40,000 def. Colby Covington: $30,000
Alexander Volkanovski: $30,000 def. Max Holloway: $40,000
Amanda Nunes: $40,000 def. Germaine de Randamie: $30,000
Marlon Moraes: $5,000 def. Jose Aldo: $20,000
Petr Yan: $5,000 def. Urijah Faber: $20,000
Geoff Neal: $4,000 def. Mike Perry: $10,000
Irene Aldana: $5,000 def. Ketlen Vieira: $4,000
Omari Akhmedov: $10,000 def. Ian Heinisch: $4,000
Matt Brown: $20,000 def. Ben Saunders: $15,000
Chase Hooper: $3,500 def. Daniel Teymur: $4,000
Brandon Moreno: $5,000 def. Kai Kara-France: $4,000
Jessica Eye: $10,000 def. Viviane Araujo: $3,500
Punahele Soriano: $3,500 def. Oskar Piechota: $4,000
TOTAL: $369,500
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.
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 to 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.
For complete UFC 245: “Usman vs. Covington” results and play-by-play, click HERE!