UFC Payouts: Winner of Pavlovich vs Blaydes in for a Big Purse
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2 months ago
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By
Vladislav Tchakarov
A new week means a new fight card from the Ultimate Fighting Championship and in this event, Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes will decide the next Heavyweight contender. As we approach the event, let's discuss the UFC payouts expected for UFC Vegas 71.
UFC payouts will always be a hot topic unless Dana White and the promotion decide to increase the base UFC fighter pay. Of course, only the newcomers and unranked fighters receive the low figures. Main card fighters, veterans, contenders, and champions typically get huge payouts in comparison.
But even the highest-paid UFC fighters come nowhere near the average boxing payouts, for example. And we can argue that MMA is quickly catching up to boxing in popularity. In some places in the world, it has already surpassed it. Even like that, UFC pay remains disappointing.
Last week's event had some solid purses. After all, Max Holloway was in the main event and he is one of the most attractive fighters in the UFC. This week, we have Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes.
How much are they expected to get of the UFC Vegas 71 prize money?
Biggest UFC Payout Expected for Sergei Pavlovich
Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes have not fought for the title yet but they are the two main contenders now. Of course, Stipe will have his chance first but after this happens, it will be time for the winner of this upcoming main event. And as the #3 and #4 in the Heavyweight division, you can expect that they were promised a big purse.
Sergei Pavlovich is the former Fight Nights Global Heavyweight Champion and he has 17 wins in 18 MMA bouts. It is unlikely that anyone had doubts about the physical strength of Pavlovich after his fight with Tuivasa. No one has yet been able to knock down the strongest Tai with a simple jab. In just 50 seconds, Sergei turned the face of the most dangerous striker in the division into a bloody mess and did not even have time to sweat.
In that recent event in December, Sergei Pavlovich got a guaranteed purse of $200,000. He also received a win bonus of $100k, a $5k sponsorship bonus, and a $50k Performance of the Night bonus. In total, Pavlovic won $355k for his previous fight. In this case, he is in the main event and we expect an even higher purse. Nonetheless, we can confidently say that $200k will be guaranteed as a start.
Plenty of UFC Fighter Pay for Curtis Blaydes
What is Blaydes' UFC fighter pay? Let's start with some background information. For a bunch of years in the UFC, Curtis was never able to break into the media tops and still remains one of the most boring and overrated roster fighters. A fight with Pavlovich may bring him closer to the title, but for this to happen, he must have the brightest and smartest fight of his life.
We remember one of Blaydes's recent fights – against Chris Daukaus. In that event, Curtis was guaranteed a $131,000 purse, which was doubled after his win. This means that he received a total of $262,000 for this fight. We even saw a bigger number for his most recent bout but it remains unconfirmed.
Overall, both fighters will be guaranteed somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 to show up, and then at least $100k if they win. Of course, the total could increase with a performance bonus, if any.
UFC Vegas 71 Prize money: Entire Card
There is no doubt that this card will not be as grand as the previous one. Last week, we had Max Holloway vs Arnold Allen, and we also saw some of the biggest legends in the UFC – Edson Barboza, Clay Guida, and more. This week, the fight card is not as stacked and we do not think that the total UFC payouts will be as high.
Nevertheless, we envision over a million in total as the main event combined should surpass $500,000. Here are our UFC fighter pay predictions based on the recent purses of some of the fighters involved in this card.
Sergei Pavlovich – guaranteed $200,000 – $300,000
Curtis Blaydes – guaranteed $200,000
Bruno Silva – guaranteed $125,000 – $150,000
Bobby Green – guaranteed $150,000
Brad Tavares – guaranteed $125,000
Jared Gordon – guaranteed $85,000
Jeremiah Wells – guaranteed $60,000
Matthew Semelsberger – guaranteed $38,000
All figures you see above are based on the most recent information about the UFC payouts of each fighter, not including win bonuses, sponsorships, and performance bonuses. Depending on their performance, some fighters in the fight card may get paid much more.
We will provide an update on the actual prize money awarded once UFC Vegas 71 is over.
