UFC 278 Purses: Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards walk away as top earners, Paulo Costa earns less than Prelim fighters
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Find out the purses for the UFC performers at 278
The purses for Kamaru Usman, Leon Edwards, Paulo Costa and many others have been revealed for their performance at UFC 278 in Salt Lake City. Some of the purses are actually quite surprising when you consider the entertainment value they bought in.
UFC 278’s headliner saw Kamaru Usman head up against Leon Edwards. Both Edwards and Usman were of undefeated streaks of their own, Leon with 9 and Kamaru with 15. Leon won the fight via KO in the final round after losing everything from the second round on.
For this PPV, both fighters had opted not to have a win bonus, but instead have a share from the PPV revenues for the event. Without including that amount, Usman earned a purse of $500k flat. A UFC champion with 5 defenses under his belt earned less than a million despite having 3 finishes in his 6 title fights.
Leon on the other hand received a $50k performance bonus, added to his agreed-upon purse $350k show money. Leon will get the bigger share in their rematch since he holds the title if they were to come to a similar agreement.
Kamaru Usman , Leon Edwards walk away with PPV Points, Paulo Costa earns less than Merab Dvalishvili
This information was released by MMA Fighting who themselves got the numbers due to a freedom of information request to the commission, which regulated the event. The most surprising among the payouts is Paulo Costa’s purse. The Brazilian has been in nothing but exciting fights since he has been in the UFC. Someone like that would expect to be paid handsomely.
However Costa’s purse was lower than that of Merab Dvalishvili, who arguably had one of the more disappointing fights of the night. To add insult to injury, Mason Tybura who was on the prelims would’ve earned as much as Costa had he even just won his show money of $120k.
For all his troubles Costa was fighting for 65k/65k purse, thanks to his win, he bagged 130k in total for his appearance. Added to this is the 50k bonus that Rockhold and Costa received for their fight of the night performance. Luke, the veteran on the other hand earned $200k for his appearance as he retired.
Considering Costa has alleged that he was paid merely $35k for his fight against Vettori it is not difficult to understand why he has decided to fight out his contract.
The rest of the purses for the main card include:
Merab Dvalishvili $198000 ($99000 show/$99000 win) vs Jose Aldo $400k
Lucie Pudilova $46k ($23k show/23k win) vs Wu Yanan $20000
Tyson Pedro $86000 ($43k show/$43k win) vs Harry Hunsucker $12000
Also Read: WATCH: Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa get into an intense scuffle at the UFC PI
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)