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World Series of Fighting 1 Salaries: Arlovski Nets Enough Money to Buy an Entrance Song that Isn’t Terrible

“My management paid HOW MANY Pitbull bucks for this song?! Paulo Filho won’t be impressed.”

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released fighter salaries for the inaugural World Series of Fighting event, held last Saturday night in Las Vegas. Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski made the most money that evening, bringing home $60,000 for crushing Devin Cole in the main event. While we’re all glad to see Arlovski get paid, hopefully he spends some money on better entrance music; having some rapper bark your name is something that an amateur on the undercard of a local show would do to get people to notice him (assuming none of his friends knew how to shave stars into his hair, of course), not something a former UFC champion should do to keep people interested in his career. Just saying, it was pretty cheesy.

Taking home the second-largest purse of the evening was Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, who earned $55,000 for his highlight reel knockout against D.J. Linderman. Since moving up to a weight class that he should reasonably be fighting at, Anthony Johnson has looked pretty impressive. It’s a shame that he sacrificed so much of his career – not to even mention his health – cutting to welterweight, but at twenty-eight years old it’s by no means over for the UFC veteran.

Keep in mind that none of these salaries include any undisclosed bonuses or end of the night bonuses that World Series of Fighting may have given out. Also, even though this promotion is riding a lot of hype and had recognizable talent throughout the card, keep in mind that WSoF is a brand new promotion that just put on its first event. Basically, no one made Anderson Silva money, is what I’m trying to say:

“My management paid HOW MANY Pitbull bucks for this song?! Paulo Filho won’t be impressed.”

World Series of Fighting 1
Nov 3, 2012
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Andrei Arlovski: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Devin Cole: $10,000

Anthony Johnson: $55,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. D.J. Linderman: $10,000

Marlon Moraes: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Miguel Torres: $18,000

Tyrone Spong: $27,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
def. Travis Bartlett: $4,000

Tyson Steele: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Gregor Gracie: $25,000

Brian Cobb: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Ronys Torres: $12,000

Steve Carl: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Ramico Blackmon: $10,000

Josh Burkman: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Gerald Harris: $15,000

JZ Cavalcante: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
def. T.J. O’Brien: $5,000

David Branch: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Dustin Jacoby: $5,000

Total Payroll: $352,000

Overpaid: In the spirit of the upcoming US presidential election, we’ll start off with the safest answer possible: It’s hard to call anyone anyone on this card overpaid. Now, in the spirit of CagePotato: Twenty-five grand (more than Miguel Torres made, mind you) for a 7-2 fighter who holds no notable victories, has never fought in a major North American promotion and, by the way, fought on the undercard? Damn it must feel good to be a Gracie.

Underpaid: If you ever wondered why guys like Ed Soares get paid as much as they do, it’s because good management is at a premium in this sport. Case in point, Devin Cole fought a former UFC champion in the main event of a nationally televised show on a weekend when there was absolutely no competition. I’m no agent, but if I could only negotiate a fighter in Cole’s position the same amount of show money that Ramico Blackmon’s management earned for him, let’s just say I wouldn’t be drinking coffee for a while.

Likewise, I already had respect for Travis Bartlett for stepping up to fight Tyrone Spong when no one else – including Houston Alexander – was willing to. Then again, perhaps the measly four grand Bartlett made for that beating he took explains why no one wanted the fight. Major props to Travis for being tough enough to fight such a dangerous kickboxer for such a small paycheck, but buddy, your brain damage is worth more than that.

@SethFalvo

WSOF 1 Payout: Andrei Arlovski Nets $60K, Anthony Johnson Takes $55K

World Series of Fighting handed out a reported $352,000 in fighter pay during their first event, with former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski topping the payroll.For his knockout win over Devin Cole, Arlovski made a cool $60K ($3…

World Series of Fighting handed out a reported $352,000 in fighter pay during their first event, with former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski topping the payroll.

For his knockout win over Devin Cole, Arlovski made a cool $60K ($30,000 to show, $30,000 to win).

Anthony Johnson, one of several UFC veterans on the card, almost made the same amount with $55K ($30,000 to show, $25,000 to win), stopping D.J. Linderman in a particularly brutal “walk-off” knockout victory.

Here’s the full list of reported pay for each fight that night, courtesy of Bloody Elbow:

WSOF 1 Main Card

Andrei Arlovski: $30,000 base + $30,000 win vs. Devin Cole: $10,000
Anthony Johnson: $30,000 + $25,000 win vs. D.J. Linderman: $10,000
Marlon Moraes: $6,000 + $6,000 win vs. Miguel Torres: $18,000
Tyrone Spong: $20,000 + $7,000 win vs. Travis Bartlett: $4,000

WSOF 1 Preliminary Card

Tyson Steele: $5,000 + $5,000 win vs. Gregor Gracie: $25,000
Brian Cobb: $6,000 + $6,000 win vs. Ronys Torres: $12,000
Steve Carl: $8,000 + $8,000 win vs. Ramico Blackmon: $10,000
Josh Burkman: $8,000 + $8,000 win vs. Gerald Harris: $15,000
Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante: $7,000 + $7,000 win vs. T.J. O’Brien: $5,000
David Branch: $8,000 + $8,000 win vs. Dustin Jacoby: $5,000

Despite losing a close fight to unheralded Marlon Moraes, Miguel Torres made $6,000 more than his opponent in a split-decision loss. After Moraes defeated Torres, the WSOF announced that Elite XC and King of the Cage veteran Tyson Nam would face the winner at the promotion’s next event.

Tyson Steele’s purse had the fourth-largest discrepancy between opponents. He only made $10,000 for his KO win over famed grappling-world champion Gregor Gracie, who pocketed $25,000 just to step in the cage.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

World Series of Fighting Announces Date for Next Card

On Saturday night, the World Series of Fighting made its debut, and it went down as a total success. Highly regarded kickboxer Tyrone Spong made his MMA debut, and he won it with a “walk-off” knockout in the first round.In addition to Spong’s victory, …

In addition to Spong‘s victory, former UFC welterweight and catchweight fighter Anthony Johnson picked up his third straight victory at light heavyweight and fourth straight overall since leaving the UFC. Then, in the main event, Andrei Arlovski got back on the winning track, as he knocked out Devin Cole in the first round.

Miguel Torres was undoubtedly the biggest loser of the night, though, as he was upset by Marlon Moraes, who took home a split-decision victory. Moraes will now face Tyson Nam at the second World Series of Fighting card, which will take place on January 26 in Las Vegas, Nev. It was also announced that the third WSOF would likely be taken “on the road.”

After the success of this first card, expect there to be several more high-quality cards coming from Ray Sefo and the World Series of Fighting.

Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

World Series of Fighting 1: Impressions from the First Event

By CagePotato contributer Andreas Hale

The World Series of Fighting held their first event at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, NV. Although the main card appeared to be stuffed with squash matches, it was a pretty good night of fights and I was there to get a good gauge on the atmosphere and if WSoF could become a player in the MMA world that Dana White rules with an iron fist.

First things first, it wasn’t the sellout they promised as word is that they only sold 1500 tickets and comped double that to ensure a nice fight atmosphere. Nevertheless, it was a good evening of fights that the crowd was receptive to. Oh yeah, ring girls. Lots of ring girls. They were like a platoon that switched in and out. I didn’t know ring girls needed breaks but whatever. It’s enough variety to keep fans engaged between rounds. I mean, Brittany Palmer and Arianny Celeste are great but six beats two every single gotdamn time. Right? But I digress…

Media sat on a stage that put us eye level with the cage and we could damn near touch it (or slap a cameraman) if we tried hard enough. We could actually feel some of the punches landed. Pretty good stuff. Oh yeah, and there were fights.

By CagePotato contributer Andreas Hale

Andrei Arlovski def. Devin Cole via 1st round TKO (2:37)

In the main event, Arlovski walked out to some rap song where the chorus barked “Andrei Arlovski.” Cool or corny, I’m not sure. I’ll probably roll with corny. At any rate, all I was thinking about was “if he gets knocked out this great rap song will all be a waste.” Devin Cole’s biggest victory was against Mike Kyle back in 2006 so the chances he would beat Arlovski were slim to none.

Trying to rival Bruce Buffer, the announcer’s catch phrase heading into the main event was “Can you feel it!?!?” Nope, sure can’t. Not with that.

Anyways, Arlovski did exactly what was expected as he smashed an overhand right into Cole’s temple and sent him to the canvas. Arlovski followed him there and hammerfists met Cole’s face.

The end.

Anthony Johnson def. DJ Linderman via 1st round KO (3:58)

Yeah, we all knew that Anthony Johnson could separate your body from your spirit in one punch, but this was ri-goddamn-diculous. Johnson continued his crusade to destroy foes in the 205 division as he wrecked DJ Linderman with a right hook that sent him face first into the canvas. Here’s how it went…

Johnson and Linderman danced around a bit. Johnson kicked Linderman in the nuts real, real hard. Linderman got himself together and Johnson went after him. A poke in the eye had Johnson in trouble. Herb Dean didn’t see the eye poke and urged the blinking Johnsno to continue. Instead of Linderman being cordial, he decided to rush him. Hey, all is fair in war, right? Unfortunately, that just pissed Johnson off and he uncorked a right hook that landed with the impact of Thor’s Hammer and sent Linderman face planting to the canvas. Even referee Herb Dean looked down like “Damn!” before checking to see if Linderman was dead. Fortunately, he wasn’t.

Marlon Moraes def. Miguel Torres via split decision (30-27 & 29-28 for Moraes, 29-28 Torres)

Once upon a time, Miguel Torres was considered to be unbeatable. A punch by Brian Bowles in 2009 shattered his unbreakable image and it hasn’t been the same for him ever since (3-5 in his last 8 fights after going 37-1). A stint in the UFC was chopped down by Michael McDonald and a rape van tweet that he couldn’t shake. His debut in WSoF was thought to be a rebirth but it was a rather rude awakening that perhaps the game has passed him by. Torres looked out of sync and lost against Brazilian Marlon Moraes as his stalking style was disintegrated in the first minute of the fight when Moraes clocked him with a combination and blood trickled from his scalp. From there — with a bizarre mixture of boos and Ric Flair “woos” echoing through the crowd — Torres was out struck by Moraes as he proved to be the faster and stronger fighter. It wasn’t the most exciting fight but Moraes was so comfortable that he attempted a jumping roundhouse in the third round. You wouldn’t have done that to Torres five years ago. But today, it’s a different story. A late takedown during a relatively competitive third sealed his fate. Well, almost. Somehow, one judge inexplicably scored the fight 29-28 for Torres but the other two judges managed to get it right with scores of 30-27 and 29-28 for Moraes.

Tyrone Spong def. Travis Bartlett via 1st round TKO (3:15)

101-5-1 is Tyrone Spong’s kickboxing record before deciding to head to the world of MMA. Obviously, his debut was hyped. Poor Travis Bartlett stood in the way of Spong becoming 1-0. That didn’t last long. The kickboxing beast handed out a savage beating to Bartlett that will likely have light heavyweights crapping their pants. After nearly kicking Bartlett’s head into the audience on several occasions, Spong settled for a straight right hand that dropped his foe to the canvas in a “no mas” manner eerily reminiscent of how Forrest Griffin collapsed to the canvas against Anderson Silva. It was ugly, it was brutal, it was beautiful.

—

Elsewhere on the card…

Tyson “The Man Of” Steele stopped Gregor Gracie in the first round with a hulk smash TKO. Time of stoppage was 2:11

Brian Cobb ended Rony Torres two-year, 11-fight win streak with a split decision victory.

Steve Carl pulled a nifty transition from crucifix to rear naked choke to elicit the tapout at the 2:11 mark.

Josh Burkman was impressive as he earned a unanimous decision victory over Gerald Harris.

JZ Cavalcante bent TJ O Brien’s leg like a pretzel as he scored a first round submission in 63 seconds.

David Branch’s workman like performance earned him a unanimous decision victory over Dustin Jacoby.

Spotted In The Crowd: Jake Shields, Urijah Faber, Rashad Evans, Travis Browne, Pat Militich, Vitor Belfort, Martin Kampmann, Ian McCall, Jay Heiron, TJ Lavin, Josh Barnett, Rampage Jackson, Chael Sonnen, Joseph Benevidez & Frank Trigg

Five Reasons to Watch ‘World Series of Fighting 1? This Saturday

In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been all about the inaugural World Series of Fighting event around here lately. We’ve snagged interviews with former UFC welterweight Josh Burkman, who is taking on fellow UFC vet Gerald Harris on the undercard, and world renowned badass/WSOF President Ray Sefo. In the meantime, we’ve been doing our best to undermine the legitimacy of the UFC, in turn allowing the WSOF to rise to MMA supremacy and grant us exclusive press passes for all future events.

And regardless of whether or not our preposterous pipe dream ever becomes a reality, we will be tuning in on Saturday to catch all the action. Sherdog will be hosting a live stream of the undercard starting at 8 pm. EST and the NBC Sports Network will be picking up the main card at 10 p.m. EST, so none of you should really have any excuse to miss this. On the off chance you still do, however, here are five of our attempts to convince you otherwise.

1. Shit is Stacked

At first glance, the above event poster looks like some kind of sick joke. You’ve got three UFC veterans — two of which are former UFC/WEC champions — in Andrei Arlovski, Miguel Torres, and Anthony Johnson, taking on three completely unknowns in Cole, Moraes, and Linderman. On the other hand, squash matches are the new black, so if it’s good enough for the UFC, why not WSOF? Besides the fact that the main card pairings are all but guaranteed to end in vicious fashion because of their experience discrepancies, just look at the rest of that card. You’ve got Tyrone Spong‘s MMA debut, a Gracie in action, and more big promotion veterans than you could shake a stick at. For Christ’s sake, the WSOF undercard has more recognizable names on it than most UFC undercards these days, and the fact that not one of the fights has been cancelled or even changed due to injury should be reason enough to tune in.

2. Tyrone Spong Goes MMA

As we just mentioned, Tyrone Spong will be making his MMA debut this Saturday against the 7-2 Travis Bartlett. You should be excited about this because Tyrone Spong is one bad motherfucker. Don’t believe us? Just check this out:

Spong’s kickboxing record currently stands at 68-6 (42 KO’s), with vicories over Ray Sefo, Alistair Overeem, and Melvin Manhoef, and he retired kickboxing legend Peter Aerts in his last fight. So yeah, dude can fight. And on Saturday night, we’ll get to see just how well The Blackzilians have been able to round off the rest of his MMA game. If he has truly been able to develop his grappling and ground game, we could be looking at a future heavyweight champion here, people.

3. Anthony Johnson: LHW Wrecking Machine

Despite his past troubles with the scale, there is little denying that when “Rumble” shows up to fight, he does so with the intent of brutalizing his opponent as much as humanely possible (Dan Hardy notwithstanding). You can argue that R.A. the Rugged Man was talking about Vietnam all you want, but we stand by our belief that he was describing an Anthony Johnson fight when he wrote “Body parts flying, loss of limbs, explosions, bad intentions” on the Jedi Mind Tricks track “Uncommon Valor.” And now that Johnson has finally settled down in a weight class he can actually compete in, a big win over Bellator veteran D.J. Linderman could easily earn him another shot in the UFC, who are apparently completely absent of actual 205 lb. contenders at the moment. If not, we will get to see either a brilliant knockout or a tremendous upset at the minimum, so everybody wins.

4. Sink or Swim

Since the boom of the sport, we’ve seen hundreds of MMA promotions spring up across the country, only to fold just as quickly. The fact that World Series of Fighting has a fighter at the helm in Ray Sefo is a good indicator, but you should tune in on Saturday out of pure curiosity. Will WSOF go the way of OneFC, featuring an emphasis on local talent and quality matchups, or will it go the route of Super Fight League, wherein lavish productions and fancy entrances take precedence over the actual quality of the fights? Or even worse, will they go down the path of Affliction and literally spend themselves dry in a matter of months?

Since the UFC is dead set on absorbing any promotion that may pose a threat then leaving them to slowly decay, World Series of Fighting could provide a much needed fix for MMA fans in between UFC cards with the help of Bellator and InvictaFC, so let’s hope they’ve got a solid head on their shoulders heading into this expedition.

5. Did We Mention This Card is Stacked?

Seriously, you guys, this may be the most stacked card outside of the UFC that we have seen in years. Ronnys Torres vs. Brian Cobb has the potential for FOTN written all over it, as does the Cavalcante/O’Brien matchup. And to kick off the night, we’ve got the supremely overlooked Waylon Lowe — who, like Harris, was released after just one appearance in the UFC — taking on Fabio Mello, who has scored seven straight victories including two under the Bellator banner. Are we making the same point twice? Yes. Deal with it. This card is freaking stacked. Okay, three times.

–J. Jones

Andrei Arlovski, Miguel Torres, Anthony Johnson, And More UFC Vets Booked for ‘World Series of Fighting 1? on November 3rd

(Now that Anthony Johnson competes at light-heavyweight, we can all stop freaking out about this photo.)

You don’t call yourself the “World Series of Fighting” without lofty aspirations. The upstart MMA promotion launched by former K-1 star Ray Sefo (!) will be hosting its first event on November 3rd at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and has already inked a deal to air its first card live on the NBC Sports Network (?!?).

And to give viewers a reason to tune in, the WSOF has been hard at work snatching up as many big name ex-UFC fighters as possible, and putting them in surprisingly competitive fights. Here’s a little taste of what the matchmakers have planned for World Series of Fighting 1…

– In the night’s main event, Andrei Arlovski will be returning from his no-contest/moral victory against Tim Sylvia to face Strikeforce vet Devin Cole, who won unanimous decisions over Shawn Jordan and Gabriel Salinas-Jones in his last two appearances.

– Anthony Johnson, now 2-0 as a light-heavyweight, will look to make it three in a row against 14-3 moneyweight DJ Linderman, who holds the Cage Warriors heavyweight title and was a semi-finalist in Bellator’s season 4 light-heavyweight tournament last year.

(Now that Anthony Johnson competes at light-heavyweight, we can all stop freaking out about this photo.)

– Miguel Torres will make his first appearance since his recent UFC firing, facing two-time Brazilian national Muay Thai champion and BJJ brown belt Marlon Moraes (8-4-1), a training partner of Edson Barboza.

– Fresh off a successful welterweight debut in May, former middleweight/TUF vet/funnyman Gerald Harris will be facing fellow 170-pounder Josh Burkman, who’s gone 5-1 since being released by the UFC in 2008.

– Riding an 11-fight win streak — including an armbar victory over a dude named, no shit, Wanderson Silva — Ronys Torres will face UFC one-and-doner Brian Cobb, who most recently dropped a decision to Antonio McKee in a classic “you’re both getting fired” match under the MFC banner.

The current lineup is below. Additional undercard bouts will be confirmed shortly.

Main Card
Andrei Arlovski vs. Devin Cole (HW)
Anthony Johnson vs. D.J. Linderman (LHW)
Miguel Torres vs. Marlon Moraes (BW)
Gregor Gracie vs. Tyson Steele (WW)

Preliminary Card
Josh Burkman vs. Gerald Harris (WW)
Ronys Torres vs. Brian Cobb (LW)
Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante vs. TJ O’Brien (LW)
Tyrone Spong vs. Travis Bartlett (LHW)
David Branch vs. Dustin Jacoby (MW)
Steve Carl vs. Ramico Blackmon (WW)
Waylon Lowe vs. Fabio Mello (FW)