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Bloody Elbow has obtained more unsealed documents coming from the UFC antitrust lawsuit, and these latest batch of recently unredacted filings include several full contracts from UFC stars.
As we previously detailed on our first post that unveiled several payouts for UFC’s biggest stars, full contracts from a couple of former UFC champions had been unsealed.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC contract
A full UFC contract of Khabib Nurmagomedov was unsealed, showing a page which had the lightweight star’s signature and dated December 13, 2013, years before he won the title. At the time, Khabib was 21-0 and has already gone 5-0 in the UFC.
Khabib signed a contract that paid him $21,000, with a $21,000 win bonus. With each win, he would receive a slight pay bump of $3000, going to $24,000/$24,000, $27,000/$27,000, and up to $30,000/$30,000.
Zuffa was contracted to provide him with 1 hotel or motel room, and 2 round trip economy class fights for him and one cornerman. If he is involved in a championship bout, that goes up to two 2 hotel or motel rooms and 3 economy flights.
Khabib also had a per diem of $50 for meals, or meal vouchers for three meals a day, plus two free tickets to the event.
Matt Hughes’ UFC contract
Hall of Famer Matt Hughes’ much older UFC contract that was signed on October 8, 2001 was also unsealed. That date was prior to his UFC debut.
Hughes signed a contract that paid him $15,000 with a $15,000 win bonus. The escalating pay bumps was much bigger with each win for Hughes’ old contract, as he would get bumped up by $5000 with each win to $20,000/$20,000, and $25,000/$25,000.
UFC’s contract language on flights, hotel room, and per diem didn’t change in the 12 year difference between this and Khabib’s deals.
More full UFC contracts revealed
On the latest batch of unsealed documents John S. Nash and Bloody Elbow has obtained, several more full UFC contracts of their stars have since been revealed.
CM Punk
Phil Brooks, more commonly known as CM Punk, signed a deal with the UFC on November 30, 2014, two years before he even made his debut with the promotion.
His base purse was $500,000, with no win bonus, and it would remain the same for the duration of the contract.
He also got a standard cut of the PPV at the time: $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000, and $2.50 for each buy over 600,000 buys.
Incidentals:
- 3 hotel or motel rooms, and 3 economy airline tickets for fighter and cornermen.
- $100 per diem for meals, three meals per day. 2 cornermen will receive $50 per meal.
- 4 free tickets for each fight, and if main event, seats will be within 10 rows of the Octagon.
As Bloody Elbow reported earlier, CM Punk took home $1,042,736 for his UFC debut loss to Mickey Gall after his PPV cut.
Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar’s UFC contracts were a bit different from their other fighters.
The former WWE star signed another deal in July 3, 2009, when he held the heavyweight title and was coming into UFC 100. Lesnar’s contract paid him through his company “DEATHCLUTCH,” with a purse for UFC 100 set at $1,500,000 with no win bonus and no cut of the PPV.
His subsequent fights, if still champion, will have a purse of $1,375,000, with a pay-per view cut of $2 per PPV buy over 700,000 buys. Other champions normally earn a PPV cut from a much lower PPV buy threshold.
If not a champion, he’d get a reduced purse at $750,000, with a win bonus of $250,000 and no cut of the PPV.
For Incidentals, Lesnar was the only one we saw with a specific note on having a hotel suite:
- 2 hotel or motel rooms, with Lesnar’s room being a suite if he’s the champion. 1 first class and 2 economy flights for cornermen.
- $50 per diem for meals, three meals per day for 1 fighter and 2 cornermen.
- 10 free tickets for each fight, and if main event, the seats will be within 10 rows of the Octagon.
Rousey previously requested for a hotel suite as well, but unlike Lesnar, UFC didn’t put that on her contracts.
Ronda Rousey
Bloody Elbow has obtained multiple contracts from Ronda Rousey from her MMA career, including another document that detailed negotiations that took place for the decorated champion, revealing dozens of requests from her camp, such as better pay and a separate deal for Cris Cyborg.
You can read more about it here, but below is a basic summary of her actual UFC contracts.
Rousey’s first UFC contract
A 6-0 Strikeforce champion in Ronda Rousey signed her first UFC contract on November 2012, and her initial purse was at $45,000 to show, with a $45,000 win bonus. With each win, she would receive a slight pay bump of $5,000, going to $50,000/$50,000, $55,000/$55,000, $60,000/$60,000, $65,000/$65,000, and up to $70,000/$70,000 if she won every fight.
She also has a cut of the PPV, where she gets $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000, and $2.50 for each buy over 600,000 buys.
Incidentals:
- 2 hotel or motel rooms up to 8 days prior to the event, 1 business class airline ticket and 2 economy tickets for cornermen.
- $50 per diem for meals, three meals per day, for fighter and 2 cornermen.
- 4 free tickets to each fight, within 10 rows of the Octagon, or if main event, 8 free tickets within 5 rows from the Octagon.
As Bloody Elbow previously reported, Rousey’s first bout on this contract had her taking home $574,720 against Liz Carmouche after her PPV cut. Rousey’s base purses for her next bouts would seem to indicate that she stayed on this deal during her historic streak of defenses of the women’s bantamweight crown.
Rousey’s final UFC contract
On September 10, 2015, with six dominant title defenses under her belt, Ronda Rousey signed another deal with the UFC when she was on the very peak of her career.
For title fights, Rousey’s 2015 contract had her receiving a base purse of $3,000,000, with no win bonus.
She would also receive a slightly better PPV cut than before: $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000 buys, $3 for each buy between 600,000 and 900,000 buys, and $4 for each buy over 900,000 buys.
If she loses her belt and isn’t in a title fight, her purse drops to $500,000, with no win bonus, and no PPV cut.
Incidentals remained largely the same from her contract three years prior.
Rousey would get upset and lose her very first bout on this contract against Holly Holm. As Bloody Elbow noted, Rousey would end up with a payout of over $4.4 million for that fight. Rousey’s other full payouts for several of her fights can be seen here.
Gilbert Melendez
In 2014, Melendez tried to test free agency and join Bellator, but UFC used their contract clauses to hold on to the former Strikeforce champion and not allow a different person to sign a high-profile fighter. Bloody Elbow previously obtained now infamous text messages between Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta celebrating their “Fukn cut throat nasty business” moves regarding the matter.
Contrary to earlier reports, Joe Silva also noted how “we did not match the bellator offer. Ours was deemed a better offer due to our history of ppv and him on tuf. Good for us actual money-wise but tough perception-wise in that people think we gave him what we wanted and now others will demand the same.”
This is the much discussed contract that Gilbert Melendez eventually signed on February 23, 2014, after they agreed on a few revisions.
Melendez would be paid $200,000 per fight, without any win bonus.
If he won his first bout and the title, he would get better pay for other bouts (listed below), but if he loses at any point, he would go back to his flat $200,000 fee:
- If Melendez would win the UFC title, his pay would increase by $25,000 with each win to $225,000, $250,000, $275,000, $300,000, $325,000, up to $425,000 for his ninth contracted bout.
- If challenging or defending a UFC title, Melendez would receive a PPV cut of $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000, and $2.50 for each buy between 600,000 and 1,000,000 buys, and $3 for each buy over 1 million buys.
- For non-title bouts, Melendez would receive a “performance bonus” of $25,000.
Melendez had slightly better incidentals compared to others:
- 3 hotel or motel rooms, 1 business class airline ticket and 3 economy tickets for cornermen.
- $100 per diem for meals, three meals per day. 2 cornermen will receive $50 per meal.
- 6 free tickets to each fight, within 6 rows of the Octagon. If in a title fight, it will be floor tickets.
Melendez went on to lose his bout with Pettis for the title, and never got the additional contract terms and PPV cut above for his next fights. Joe Silva originally said that the contract was really “good for us actual money-wise,” but without the pay bumps coming in, it ended up even better for the UFC and cost them even less than projected.
Apart from the contract, Lorenzo Fertitta also previously pointed out how the move was even better for the UFC because of its effect on other promotions.
“We gotta keep taking these f—rs oxygen till they tap out. We have sacrificed too much to let anyone get traction now,” he wrote on a leaked text message to White.
Urijah Faber had UFC contract clauses for Conor McGregor, Cruz, Dillashaw
On August 26, 2015, Urijah Faber signed another UFC contract. This was his 12th fight with the UFC, and the former WEC superstar had won six of his last eight fights, with a loss on his UFC Manila main event bout against Frankie Edgar.
Faber’s contract started at $150,000/$150,000, with each win bumping both base purse and win bonus by $10,000 up to potentially $220,000/$220,000 for the eight fight if he won every bout.
As detailed earlier, Faber had contract clauses specifically for potential bouts with fighters like Conor McGregor.
- If he faces McGregor in a non-title bout, his base purse goes up to $250,000, with a $150,000 win bonus.
- If it’s a non-title bout in a main or co-main event slot of a PPV card, his pay gets bumped up to $400,000, with a $100,000 win bonus.
- If it’s a featherweight or lightweight title fight with McGregor, Faber’s pay goes up to $750,000, with no win bonus.
Faber, like many others, will get a PPV cut only if he’s a defending champion. Interestingly enough, there’s also specific contract language on him also getting a PPV cut if he’s challenging for the bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw or Dominick Cruz.
He would get a standard PPV cut on those scenarios: $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000, and $2.50 for each buy over 600,000 buys.
Incidentals:
- 1 hotel or motel rooms, and 2 economy flights. If in a title fight, it becomes 2 hotel rooms and 3 economy flights.
- $50 per diem for meals, three meals per day, for fighter and 2 cornermen.
- 4 free tickets to each fight, and if main event, seats will be within 10 rows from the Octagon.
Faber coached against McGregor at TUF 22, but they were never planned to fight each other after the season concluded.
Holly Holm had UFC contract clause for Ronda Rousey, other perks
As Bloody Elbow reported earlier, Holly Holm had a pretty unique deal coming into the UFC that likely shed more light on why Dana White “hated” her manager.
Holm signed her first UFC contract on July 9, 2014, and her deal was quite different than most from the get go.
Her deal started out with a $25,000 purse, with a $25,000 win bonus. Instead of typical UFC contracts with pay escalations per win, Holm’s purse and win bonus would only increase by $5,000 after every two wins.
As we detailed earlier, Holm already had a clause for a Ronda Rousey fight from the very start of her deal with the promotion. For a title fight against Rousey, her base purse would be bumped up to $50,000 with no win bonus.
She also had a standard PPV cut if she is a defending champion: $1 for each PPV buy between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 for each PPV buy between 400,000 and 600,000, and $2.50 for each buy over 600,000 buys.
Holm’s incidentals also had clauses not found in other UFC contracts:
- 2 hotel or motel room, 2 economy tickets for fighter and cornerman. For title bouts, it becomes 2 rooms and 3 economy flights.
- $50 per diem for meals, three meals per day for 1 fighter and 1 cornerman.
- 6 free tickets for each fight. If main event, seats are within 10 rows of the Octagon.
- Manager also receives 2 free tickets, within 4 rows of the Octagon. Manager and wife will also get 2 credentials and access to fighter’s dressing room.
- Fighter has the right to purchase 100 pre-sale tickets to the event. If opponent is Ronda Rousey, Holm’s camp will have the right to purchase 1000 pre-sale tickets.
Holm eventually fought Rousey about a year and a half after this UFC contracted deal. As Bloody Elbow previously reported earlier, Holm had a side deal and bonuses that led to her taking home $1,100,000 for that upset win, and much more on her next bout when her PPV cut kicked in.
More details on Faber and Holm’s unique deals can be seen here.
Chael Sonnen
Chael Sonnen signed another UFC contract on August 20, 2013. This was days after his win over Shogun Rua, and after his two failed title bids against Anderson Silva and Jon Jones.
Sonnen’s deal would have a similar base purse as his bout with Shogun, at $100,000, with no win bonus.
Incidentals:
- 2 hotel or motel rooms, and 3 economy flights.
- $50 per diem for meals, three meals per day, for fighter and 2 cornermen.
- 4 free tickets to each fight, and if main event, seats will be within 10 rows from the Octagon.
Sonnen also normally had side deals for his fights, with his bout with Shogun netting him $250,000 more than his disclosed purse of $100,000 (plus $50,000 performance bonus). He previously tried to defend the UFC’s low fighter pay by claiming he received several millions against Anderson Silva, but the numbers don’t support his outlandish claim.
Alistair Overeem
After eight fights in the promotion and on a four-fight winning streak at the time, Alistair Overeem signed another UFC contract on February 14, 2016. Much like many of the top stars from other promotions like Strikeforce, Overeem’s deal was structured slightly differently.
His purse started at $700,000, with…
Read the rest of the post over at our Substack page
In the full post, we detail several more UFC contracts from other stars and former champions, and how they differ from each other through the years.
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