Despite suffering his first Mixed Martial Arts defeat in the hands of hard-hitting Polish light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, Israel Adesanya still left the UFC 259 arena as the highest-paid fighter.
Adesanya, along with Blachowicz, women's bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes and challenger Meagan Anderson and Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling were the main card for the night but it was the Nigerian-born New Zealander who went home with the heaviest purse.
According to UFCsalaries.com, Adesanya took home an estimated $1m for the fight and a guaranteed $40,000 fight week incentive while his conqueror, Blachowicz earned $750,000 for his win and $40,000 fight week incentive.
Adesanya's pay for the fight could be further increased as his contract for UFC 259 included a payout from the overall Pay Per View income, estimated at $1m, but his opponent is not entitled to the PPV largess.
The 31-year-old earned $690,000 from his middleweight title defence against Brazilian Paulo Costa in September 2020.
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Another Nigerian, Kennedy Nzechukwu, who earned a second-round knockout win over Adesanya's teammate, Carlos Ulberg, was awarded the Fight of The Night award, which carried a bonus of $50,000. Nzechukwu's original pay was an $18,000 base fight salary, $18,000 win bonus and a $4,000 Reebok sponsorship deal.
Reviewed by Apeh Matthew
on
March 07, 2021
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