With UFC 312 just hours away, the world of mixed martial arts has begun to raise the excitement around the event in Australia. The main event is a banger rematch between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland for the middleweight championship title. The co-main event would witness a battle between Zhang Weili and Tatiana Suarez for the strawweight belt. But the crazy part is that these 4 names are the only ranked fighters in the entire event! Nevertheless, the hype is real. And with that, the fighting community has wondered about the kind of money that the contestants at UFC 312 would receive for their performance. After all, the event would feature 7 debutants. But first, let’s take a look at the headliners’ paychecks.
What is Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland’s payout at UFC 312?
The last time Du Plessis fought Strickland, he received a base salary of $300K. His split decision victory got him another $300K as a win bonus. With another $32K from brand sponsorships, the South African’s total payout for UFC 297 was $632K. But his salary experienced a hike after he took control of the middleweight championship throne.
For his first-ever title defense, he took on Israel Adesanya and tried to settle the ‘real African’ debate at UFC 305. And his base salary for the match was a whopping $800K. Defeating the former 2-time middleweight champion by submission got him a win bonus of $800K. Of course, his paycheck also included the PPV payout, and that summed up to an estimate of $400K. With an additional $42K from brand endorsements, ‘Stillknocks’ received well over $2 million in his last bout. We can certainly expect Dricus Du Plessis to make similar figures at UFC 312.
On the other hand, Sean Strickland had a base salary of $1.2 million, fighting DDP and defending his belt the last time. The PPV payout for UFC 297 was estimated to be $150K. And the total payout? Well over $1.3 million. But once he lost the belt, his base salary dropped down to $600K at UFC 302. The win over Adesanya got ‘Tarzan’ another $600K as a win bonus. His sponsorship payout also witnessed a fall from $42K to $21K. But the total amount of money that he took home had similar numbers. It totaled to a sum of $1,221,000. And coming to UFC 312, he can expect to an amount over a million dollars.
The co-main eventer and strawweight champion, Zhang Weili, earned $2.8 million by defeating Yan Xiaonan in her last bout. She has a trend of earning around $500K to $1M. But her opponent has a trend of earning somewhere around $50K to $100K. At UFC 312, this amount is certain to rise. But what about the other fighters in the event? Let’s take a look at their purse.
UFC 312 salary of Justin Tafa, Tallison Teixeira, and others
The main card at UFC 312 will feature Justin Tafa in a bout against Tallison Teixeira. Tafa is reported to earn a guaranteed amount of around $38K per fight. This amount has the chance to go up with bonuses if he wins or impresses the UFC big guns with his performance. At UFC 293, his payout totaled at $44K. Meanwhile, the undefeated UFC debutant, Teixeira would probably earn a number between $20K-40K.
Jimmy Crute fought Alonzo Menifield at UFC 284 for a base salary of $90K. Coming into Qudos Bank Arena to fight Rodolfo Bellato, we can expect him to earn somewhere around $90K to $100K. Bellato is fairly new to the company, with UFC 312 being his 2nd bout in the promotion. His last fight in the UFC got him a base salary of $12K. And we might just witness a rise in his paycheck in Australia, provided he performs well enough.
Another fight that has captured the fight fans’ attention is the one between Jake Matthews and Francisco Prado. The 22-year-old Argentinian received $35K for his last fight. We can expect him to thicken his pockets with a similar amount at UFC 312. On the other side of the Octagon, ‘The Celtic Kid’ received a guaranteed pay of $48K for his victory over Andre Fialho. Of course, he got another $48K for the win and $50K as a Performance of the Night bonus. And in the upcoming fight, they can earn almost the same amount of money. But they all have the chance to enhance their earnings by 2 folds. Needless to say, getting a win is the one thing that the fighters can do to double their paycheck at the Australian event. But impressing Dana White and the audience with their performance can thicken the fighters’ wallets by $50,000 from Performance of the Night, or Fight of the Night bonus.
Are you excited to watch the fighters get rich on 8 February? Do you think the UFC is paying the fighters enough at UFC 312? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post UFC 312 Payouts: How Much Are Dricus Du Plessis, Sean Strickland, and Others Earning? appeared first on EssentiallySports.
