The UFC shelled out a collective $843,000 to its fighters on April 21 at UFC 70: "Nations Collide" in Manchester, England, according to MMANews.com.
With a live gate hovering around 2.6 million and a merchandise sales record at the Manchester Evening News (M.E.N.) Arena, I'd say the return to the United Kingdom for the Fertittas and company was a success.
Here are the individual purses:
-Gabriel Gonzaga ($60,000) def. Mirko CroCop ($350,000)
-Andrei Arlovski ($160,000) def. Fabricio Werdum ($80,000)
-Michael Bisping ($24,000) def. Elvis Sinosic ($8,000)
-"Lyoto" Ryoto Machida ($40,000) def. David Heath ($6,000)
-Cheick Kongo ($40,000) def. Assuerio Silva ($8,000)
-Terry Etin ($12,000) def. Matt Grice ($3,000)
-Junior Assuncao ($6,000) def. David Lee ($2,000)
-Alessio Sakara ($20,000) def. Victor Valimaki ($3,000)
-Jess Liaudin ($6,000) def. Dennis Siver ($3,000)
-Paul Taylor ($8,000) def. Edilberto Crocota ($4,000)
Since there was no "governing body" and the UFC more or less sanctioned itself that night, I'm going to go with MMANews.com on authority for gathering these numbers.
In addition, keep in mind that these figures don't include fighter bonuses and other payments from sponsors, etc.
In fact, FightNetwork.com reported the following the other day:
-Fight of the Night - Michael Bisping–Elvis Sinosic
-Submission of the Night - Terry Etim
-KO of the Night – Gabriel Gonzaga
Each of these participants recieved a little extra scratch from the UFC brass -- not to mention oodles more from sponsors.
Cha-ching.
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