It’s hard to call the upcoming card special, as we’ll mainly be looking at young fighters and ones that have to win at all costs. With the absence of an elite line-up, the UFC on ESPN 58 payouts will potentially be smaller than usual. Here is everything we know.
UFC Fighter Pay: What Will Perez vs Taira Be Paid at UFC on ESPN 58?
In most cases, main event fighters get paid extremely well even if it is a smaller Fight Night event. In this situation, however, we doubt that the purses will be that impressive due to several key reasons.
Alex Perez has been part of the promotion since 2017. For several years, he was a hot prospect, and he was knocking out everyone on his way to the title fight. But even when he faced Deiveson Figueiredo, he got a small purse. Flyweights simply attract less attention than their heavier colleagues.
There have been reports that indicated a $135,000 purse when Perez fought Jussier Formiga in 2020. Normally, his salary should have increased since then but in his case, it is impossible.
Perez only fought five times since June 2020. He has not only been inactive but he lost three of his last four bouts. His last appearance was against Matheus Nicolau in April 2024. We already reported that his expected salary would be $135,000 for that fight.
Since he won the match convincingly, the American will potentially get an increase for the UFC on ESPN 58 payouts. We expect a purse in the range of $160,000-180,000. And this would still be more than he earned when he fought for the title, which shows the continuous growth of the promotion and the overall improvement in the salaries.
When it comes to Tatsuro Taira, his case is more complicated. Predicting the purses of the newer fighters is nearly impossible. There have been reports that he made $28,500 when he fought Edgar Chairez at UFC 290 in 2023.
He later faced Carlos Hernandez in December and knowing the usual salary increases, we suspect he earned between $40,000 and $66,000. But regardless of his previous purses, he is guaranteed to get a massive increase for his debut as a headliner.
If this bout wasn’t the main event, we would have predicted the same $66,000 for Taira. But in this case, he has to make at least $100k. After analyzing hundreds of events throughout the years, we know that $110,000 is a very common figure in the UFC.
The purses in MMA are far more standardized than the salaries in boxing which makes it fairly easy. To sum up, we expect Alex Perez to earn around $180,000 and Tatsuro Taira to earn $110,000 from the UFC on ESPN 58 payouts.
UFC Payouts: What the Rest of the Card Can Expect?
As a card that includes mainly lesser-known fighters, you can’t expect to see big purses in the undercard. Ikram Aliskerov is the only other well-known fighter and he is not even ranked either.
We know for a fact that he made at least $50,000 for his previous fight. He will undoubtedly receive a boost and we envision a $81,000 guaranteed purse. As for his opponent, a debutant, even $40,000 sounds too much.
The only way to earn that much from the UFC payouts as a newcomer is if you have a successful career elsewhere. Antonio Trocoli is not famous and doesn’t have an impressive career behind him. We only predict the $40k because it is the co-main event. An unusual fight overall.
Lucas Almeida is another name that we can talk about here. He last fought at UFC 296 in December 2023 and earned $28,500 for his defeat to Andre Fili. He will either get the same salary or a slight increase to $40,000.
Tagir Ulanbekov is another fighter from that infamous UFC 296 card and he got paid $34,500 as a guaranteed purse. Since he beat Cody Durden, he will certainly move up and earn at least $40,000 from the UFC on ESPN 58 payouts.
In the absence of reliable information about the other fighters on the card, we will not attempt to make predictions about their salaries. What we know is that the majority of the fighters on this card will receive between $12,000 and $40,000, and these figures do not include the win bonuses and sponsorships.
Vlad is a former amateur MMA fighter. After a series of injuries, he found a different way to connect with the sport and its fanbase - through writing. He's been covering everything-UFC for over 5 years on various platforms and has been part of the team at NYFights since early 2022.
