[The Seer]

UFC 81 Salaries and more

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Despite suffering a first-round submission loss to Frank Mir on Saturday, Brock Lesnar collected a cool quarter-of-a-million dollars in his UFC debut.

The former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion and World Wrestling Entertainment performer was the highest-paid fighter at UFC 81, according to paperwork acquired by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

UFC 81 took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and aired live on pay-per-view.

Mir earned a base salary of $80,00 for the fight — which was the fourth-highest behind Lesnar and main-event fighters Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira ($200,000) and Tim Sylvia ($100,000).

The total disclosed payroll for the event was $892,000.

The full list of salaries included:

* Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira ($200,000) def. Tim Sylvia ($100,000)
* Frank Mir ($80,000) def. Brock Lesnar ($250,000)
* Nate Marquardt ($52,000) def. Jeremy Horn ($25,000)
* Ricardo Almeida ($40,000) def. Rob Yundt ($5,000)
* Tyson Griffin ($36,000) def. Gleison Tibau ($11,000)
* Chris Lytle ($24,000) def. Kyle Bradley ($4,O00)
* Tim Boetsch ($12,000) def. David Heath ($6,000)
* Marvin Eastman ($14,000) def. Terry Martin ($12,000)
* Rob Emerson ($16,000) def. Keita Nakamura ($5,000)
All the winning fighters received pay that awarded 50 percent “to show” and 50 percent as a “win bonus” — except for Lesnar, who would have earned a $200,000 win bonus.

Now, the usual disclaimer: the figures do not include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes. Additionally, the figures do not include money paid by sponsors, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter’s income. They also do not include any other “locker-room” or special bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays.

In other words, these are simply base salaries reported to the NSAC and do not represent the total amounts earned by each fighter.
Plus bonus'
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Tim Sylvia, Chris Lytle and Frank Mir each collected $60,000 “Fight Night” bonuses stemming from their performances at UFC 81.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed the winners and the bonus amounts with sources close to the fighters — with help from our friends at Yahoo! Sports.

Saturday’s event took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The event aired live on pay-per-view.

Main-event fighters Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tim Sylvia won Fight of the Night awards, the only bonuses that are awarded to the fight’s winner and loser. Rodrigo survived two rounds of abuse to eventually secure a third-round victory submission via guillotine choke. With the win, Rodrigo earned the UFC’s interim heavyweight title.

Lytle earned the event’s Knockout of the Night bonus for a quick and impressive victory over UFC newcomer Kyle Bradley. As Lytle mentioned in an MMAjunkie.com story earlier this week, he’s adopted a new, go-for-broke fighting style that paid huge dividends at Saturday’s event. Lytle immediately went on the offensive and tagged and dropped his opponent for the knockout victory just 33 seconds into the first round.

Submission of the Night went to Mir, who posted one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories in recent UFC history. Former WWE performer and decorated collegiate wrestler Brock Lesnar tossed around and battered his opponent. However, on the brink of defeat, Mir grabbed a leg, tripped Lesnar, and secured a knee bar to force the tap-out at 1:30 of the first round.

The $60,000 bonuses are the biggest in UFC history. Recently, the organization issued $35,000 bonuses for UFC 80, $15,000 bonuses for The Ultimate Fighter 6, and $55,000 bonuses for UFC 79.

For more information about Saturday’s event, check out the UFC 81 Recap here on MMAjunkie.com.