UFC 191 salaries: Anthony Johnson event's top earner with $230,000 purse

Anthony Johnson

Anthony Johnson was the top earner at this past weekend’s UFC 191 event and was one of four men to make six figures. Johnson, who scored a TKO victory over Jimi Manuwa at the event, edged out Andrei Arlovski by $5,000 to take the top spot on disclosed payouts. Johnson also took home one of the event’s four $50,000 performance bonuses to raised his overall take for the event to $280,000.

MMAjunkie recently requested and received the list of disclosed paydays from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

UFC Fight Fight Night 71 took place this past Saturday, Sept. 5, at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

In the headliner, flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson (23-2-1 MMA, 11-1-1 UFC) scored a dominant unanimous-decision win over John Dodson (17-7 MMA, 7-2 UFC) for his seventh consecutive title defense.

The total disclosed payroll for the event was $1,353,000.

The individual payouts included:

Demetrious Johnson: $191,000 (includes $58,000 win bonus)
def. John Dodson: $60,000

Andrei Arlovski: $225,000 (no win bonus)
def. Frank Mir: $200,000

Anthony Johnson: $230,000 (includes $115,000 win bonus)
def. Jimi Manuwa: $24,000

Corey Anderson: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Jan Blachowicz: $34,000

Paige VanZant: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Alex Chambers: $12,000

Ross Pearson: $90,000 (includes $45,000 win bonus)
def. Paul Felder: $18,000

John Lineker: $48,000 (includes $24,000 win bonus)
def. Francisco Rivera: $23,000

Raquel Pennington: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Jessica Andrade: $20,000

Tiago Trator: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Clay Collard: $10,000

Joe Riggs: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
def. Ron Stallings: $12,000

Joaquim Silva: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Nazareno Malegarie: $10,000

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, including the official UFC-Reebok sponsorship program pay. They also do not include any other “locker room” or special discretionary bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays.

For example, as previously reported, UFC officials handed out additional $50,000 UFC 191 bonuses to Pennington, Anthony Johnson, Lineker and Rivera. Pennington and Johnson earned “Performance of the Night” bonuses while Lineker and Rivera were given “Fight of the Night” honors.

In other words, the above figures are simply base salaries reported to the commission and do not reflect entire compensation packages for the event.

For more on UFC 191, check out the UFC Events section of the site.