Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Connelly was a last-minute replacement and the biggest underdog on the card. He walks away with a win and six figures in the bank.
Tristan Connelly is having one hell of a week. The Vancouver native was plucked from relative obscurity on five days notice to fight flashy madman Michel Pereira on the main card of UFC on ESPN+ 16. The odds were quite literally stacked against the 13-6 fighter. Vegas bookies has Pereira a -500 favorite, with Connelly a +400 dog. And not only did the lightweight have to move up to welterweight for the occasion, his opponent missed that higher weight as well.
But after all the spinning kicks and backflips and breakdancing ended, Connelly methodically took over the fight and ended up pulling off a decision win. And because his opponent missed weight, he also walked away with a pretty massive stack of cash.
Who knows how much the UFC pays someone to step in last second to fight on the main card … we’d assume it’s probably not much above the normal pay grade because that’s just how the promotion seems to roll. But Connelly got 20% of Pereira’s purse (the Brazilian earned $73,500 for his UFC debut in May) and because Pereira wasn’t eligible for fight bonuses, the UFC threw his $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus Connelly’s way.
Here’s Tristan on the ESPN+ post-fight show learning he was making a cool $100,000 bonus.
Another one!! Connelly learns he takes $100k bonus cause Pereira missed weight #UFCVancouver pic.twitter.com/MlcSGJCIhx
— Pissed Off Twood (@chosen1twood) September 15, 2019
Here’s Tristan Connelly’s reaction when he found out he was getting a $100K bonus for his win after accepting this fight on five days notice #UFCVancouver pic.twitter.com/6tgwZieAvL
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) September 15, 2019
And all this is in American dollars, which as of this writing is worth $132,260 Canadian. Not bad for Tristan Connelly’s UFC debut, which didn’t even seem imminent just two weeks ago.