Despite losing badly, B.J. Penn scored the highest reported salary at UFC Phoenix.
The UFC’s first event of 2017 didn’t exactly break the bank. The promotion’s latest trip to Phoenix had just three fighters with six-figure salaries, and only one other competitor breaking the 50k mark. B.J. Penn, who came out of retirement again just to get badly beaten up by Yair Rodriguez, was the top earner with $150,000, while the man that defeated him made $100,000.
Veteran Joe Lauzon had the second-highest salary, taking home $116,000.
Here are the full numbers, which were released by the Arizona Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts Commission. As usual, these are just the reported salaries for each fighter, and don’t include performance bonuses or extra discretionary money from the promotion.
Yair Rodriguez: $100,000 ($50,000 win bonus)
B.J. Penn: $150,000
Joe Lauzon: $116,000 ($58,000 win bonus)
Marcin Held: $20,000
Ben Saunders: $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus)
Court McGee: $35,000
Sergio Pettis: $54,000 ($27,000 win bonus)
John Moraga: $28,000
Drakkar Klose: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
Devin Powell: $10,000
Augusto Mendes: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
Frankie Saenz: $20,000
Aleksei Oleinik: $48,000 ($24,000 win bonus)
Viktor Pesta: $10,000
Tony Martin: $32,000 ($16,000 win bonus)
Alex White: $14,000
Nina Ansaroff: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger: $10,000
Walt Harris: $24,000 ($12,000 win bonus)
Chase Sherman: $10,000
Joachim Christensen: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
Bojan Mihajlovic: $10,000
Cyril Asker: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
Dmitrii Smoliakov: $10,000