UFC on ESPN 8 salaries: Overeem tops list at $400k

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No one else on the card received six-figures in show money. The fighter purses have been released for this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 8 card in Jacksonville, Florida. Unsurprisingly, Alist…

UFC Fight Night: Overeem v Harris

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

No one else on the card received six-figures in show money.

The fighter purses have been released for this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 8 card in Jacksonville, Florida. Unsurprisingly, Alistair Overeem topped the list of highest earners at $400,000. Since the Florida State Boxing Commission doesn’t separate show/win money, we don’t know the structure of Overeem’s pay but it’s quite likely a flat fee without a win bonus. The last time he fought in a jurisdiction that released payouts, he received $800,000 without a win bonus for his victory vs. Fabricio Werdum at UFC 213 in 2017. Prior to that, he got $750,000 with no win bonus for his KO of Mark Hunt earlier that year.

Whatever the case, I think we can make a fairly educated guess (based on previous reported payouts for other fighters who cleared six figures total) that Overeem was the only fighter on the entire event who had a six-figure base purse, which is sad. Walt Harris was ranked #9 entering his bout vs. Overeem and only got $75,000. Honestly I don’t even know what to say to that, especially given the circumstances surrounding this bout. His previous reported payout was $72,000 against Andrei Arlovski back in 2018, in case you’re wondering.

Your next highest earners on this event were Claudia Gadelha and Krzysztof Jotko, both of whom got a reported $108,000 for their respective decision wins. Bad luck for Angela Hill, who presumably would’ve been the one on $108,000 had she gotten the nod vs. Gadelha. Dan Ige and Cortney Casey round out the list of fighters who got at least $100,000 in purse money.

Here’s the full list of payouts.

NOTE: These numbers do not include any potential taxes, fines, or percentages paid to managers, coaches. Neither do they include any potential discretionary aka “locker room” bonuses, or sponsorship payouts.

Main Card

Alistair Overeem: $400,000
Walt Harris: $75,000

Claudia Gadelha: $108,000
Angela Hill: $54,000

Dan Ige: $100,000
Edson Barboza: $79,000

Krzysztof Jotko: $108,000
Eryk Anders: $61,000

Song Yadong: $96,000 + $50,000 FOTN bonus
Marlon Vera: $65,000 + $50,000 FOTN bonus

Preliminary Card

Miguel Baeza: $24,000 + $50,000 POTN bonus
Matt Brown: $85,000

Kevin Holland: $52,000
Anthony Hernandez: $12,000

Giga Chikadze: $28,000
Irwin Rivera: $14,000

Nate Landwehr: $26,000
Darren Elkins: $62,000

Cortney Casey: $100,000 + $50,000 POTN bonus
Mara Romero Borella: $20,000

Rodrigo Nascimento: $20,000
Don’Tale Mayes: $10,000