TUF Nations Finale: Fighter Payouts

It’s become customary for MMA news sites to report fighter payouts after major events.  Unfortunately, only a handful of US state athletic commissions publish the salary info.  For international events, or in US states which do not report fighter payouts, the salary info is not available.   This doesn’t stop folks from still reporting fighter payouts – except since they lack the actual info for the event, they report the last known payout for each fighter.

This can be fairly accurate in some cases, and extremely outdated in others.  While the websites that publish this info typically include a disclaimer stating that the payouts are estimated (see http://mma-manifesto.com/root/ufc-fighter-salary-database-root/tuf-nations-finale-bisping-vs-kennedy-fighter-purses-attendance-gate.html), what they do not mention is how recent the last reported salary info is for each fighter.

This of course is an important factor – a UFC fighter whose last payout was officially reported two years and several fights ago is not likely to be still on the same salary.  For example, MMA-Manifesto is reporting a payout of $8,000 for Kyle Noke.  This is based on his last reported payout at TUF 11 Finale – almost 4 years ago!  The base salary of 8K to show, 8K to win has been the standard for entry level TUF contestants in their first UFC fight;  however Noke has amassed a record of 4-2 in the Octagon prior to fighting Cote.   UFC contracts are typically structured so that fighter pay goes up with wins, and Noke almost certainly received a new – and more lucrative – contract when he was picked to be a coach on TUF Nations.  So it’s very likely that his actual purse for this fight was far above 8K.

For other fighters, it’s impossible to find any official payout info.  Take Ryan Jimmo: with a 2-2 record in the UFC, all four of his previous fights took place in jurisdictions which do not report salary info.  Again, it’s highly unlikely that he is still at the 8K base pay level, four fights and two wins into his contract.

Keeping this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of payouts for the TUF Nations Finale card, while including the source of last officially reported payout for each fighter: