With such a stacked card, the UFC 304 payouts are guaranteed to be massive. Some fighters will earn more than you think while the small purses of others will probably shock you. Here is everything we know days ahead of the event.
UFC 304 Payouts: What Will Edwards vs Muhammad Be Paid in Manchester?
The main event of the upcoming UFC 304 tournament in Manchester will feature the long-awaited rematch between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad. The first one ended with an unfortunate eye poke, forcing doctors to stop the contest. This time, the stakes will be much higher with the light heavyweight title on the line.
Thanks to this No Contest, both Leon and Belal have some of the longest streaks in the UFC right now. Leon Edwards’ last defeat was in 2015 when he faced Kamaru Usman for the first time. Since then, he won 12 fights in a row (not counting the NC).
Belal Muhammad last lost to Geoff Neal in 2019 and won nine fights since then. Many believe that he deserved this title shot a long time ago while others hate his fighting style and find it boring.
There have been some rumors about their UFC 304 payouts that sound unreasonable. It has been said that Leon Edwards will earn a $500,000 as a guaranteed purse but this amount sounds impossible based on his past earnings.
He was paid $350,000 for his first title fight against Usman in 2022, which is a typical purse for a contender in the heavier divisions. He got $500,000 for his first defense against the former champ and $1 million when he faced Colby Covington at UFC 296 in December 2023.
It is simply impossible that he gets 50% less for this defense. We believe that Leon Edwards will make at least $1,000,000 from the UFC 304 payouts, possibly more.
As for Belal Muhammad, preliminary reports suggest that he will get $80,000, which is an absolute joke. Fight Night main events get paid more and this is the main fight at a numbered event with a world title on the line.
Based on the fact that he has never earned a massive salary before, we predict that Belal Muhammad will get at least $350,000 at UFC 304. This amount will get doubled if he wins, and possibly tripled after the PPV bonus.
UFC Payouts: Expected Purses for Aspinall vs Blaydes
There will be one more title fight on Saturday, albeit an Interim, as Tom Aspinall defends against Curtis Blaydes. The curious fact is that this is also a rematch and it also ended in an unfortunate way. Tom Aspinall broke his leg in the opening seconds of the first round.
Speaking about money, we have data that Aspinall earned $500,000 as a base salary for his championship bout against Sergei Pavlovich. Since this is an Interim title bout, we doubt that he will get paid more from the UFC 304 payouts. As for Curtis Blaydes, we expect him to make between $350,000-400,000 from this fight, entirely based on his most recent earnings.
While there is an entire list of A-list fighters on that card, nobody else will come close to these figures. Predicting their potential purses would be pointless as the information is scarce. One thing is certain – the UFC will pay a few million in salaries for a single event.
