UFC Atlanta made sure to give us some epic performances. The event had us witness the return of Kamaru Usman as he beat Joaquin Buckley via unanimous decision in the headliner bout. In the co-main event, Rose Namajunas secured a decision win over Miranda Maverick. But at the end of the event, the mixed martial arts world wasn’t able to accept the difference in the headliner and co-headliner winners’ paychecks. One such member of the fight world is Renato ‘Money’ Moicano who didn’t hold himself back from questioning this outcome.
During a recent episode of Show Me The Money podcast, the lightweight contender weighed in on the paychecks for the UFC Atlanta fighters. The list began with the highest-paid fighter at the event. ‘Thug Rose’ received half a million dollars just to show up for her fight against Maverick. And that’s exactly what got to ‘Money Moicano’. The Brazilian reacted, “Too much. Too f—— much. I was surprised on that, brother. What is going on, my brother? $500,000. You got a good manager, right?”
The #10 lightweight contender had similar thoughts for most of his fellow fighters. Kris Moutinho got $14,000, which was more than enough, according to the Brazilian. He claimed that Michael Chiesa’s $300,000, Court McGee’s $83,000, Cody Brundage’s $65,000, Andre Petroski’s $100,000, and even Rodolfo Bellato’s $12,000 were all too high. Moicano believes that these fighters deserved a lot less than what they got at UFC Atlanta. But with the former welterweight champion, things should have been a bit different.
The former welterweight champion received just $300K for showing up to his fight against ‘New Mansa’. His base pay was $200,000 lower than that of ‘Thug Rose’. For ‘Money Moicano’, this is a travesty. He claimed, “I think it’s too low for him.” So, how much should he have received? According to the Brazilian, the numbers should have been near about half a million dollars for him to just show up.
‘Thug Rose’ is a 2-time UFC champion with only 2 successful title defenses in her record. And while her performances against Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang were noteworthy, fans have repeatedly bashed her for her recent lacklustre performances. If you look at her record in the UFC, she has accumulated 12 wins and 6 losses, and her last 5 bouts ended in unanimous decisions.
Meanwhile, Usman was on a 19-fight win streak (excluding the exhibition fights at TUF 21) before he went on a 3-fight losing spree. He secured the welterweight belt in 2019 and defended it successfully 5 times before finally losing it to Leon Edwards at UFC 278. His UFC record reads 16-3, and he has 9 KO wins and 1 submission win under his belt. Hence, given his dominance and marketability, Moicano and others wished for him to receive more than $300K at UFC Atlanta.
But if we take a look at the complete payout (including bonuses), how much did ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ earn? Let’s find out all about it!
How much did Kamaru Usman make from UFC Atlanta apart from his base salary?
Needless to say, Kamaru Usman was content with his performance against the #7 welterweight contender. Following his win over ‘New Mansa’, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ said, “It’s been a while, I needed to get that monkey off my back. I know I’m still able to do this at the highest level… I wanted to open up a little bit more. But that comes with time, so I feel good. I just want to say thank you to everybody.”
And for his showing against Buckley, Usman received the $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus. On top of that, he also bagged a win bonus, which might have most likely been around $300,000. The former welterweight champion should have received $16,000 to $32,000 from his brand sponsorships. And then there’s the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay. The fight promotion paid a total of $260,500 as the Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay.
On the other hand, Namajunas received a similar amount for bonuses and Compliance pay. But there was no performance bonus for her. So, why did she receive $500K while the paycheck for Usman was only $300K? The answer seemingly lies in the #5 welterweight contender’s inactivity. This was actually the first time he fought and won since 2021. But should ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ continue to climb the rankings ladder, we can expect him to get a million dollars as base pay soon enough.
The post Renato Moicano Issues Clear Message to UFC for Kamaru Usman Injustice After Rose Namajunas’ $500K Atlanta Purse appeared first on EssentiallySports.
