Last night, the UFC returned to our screens with UFC Fortaleza, an action-packed, 12-fight card featuring top talent from Brazil and further afield.
In the main event, we watched former welterweight contender Kelvin Gastelum burst into middleweight title contention with a dominant, first-round destruction of Vitor Belfort. In the co-main event, we saw Mauricio “Shogun” Rua deliver a vintage knockout over the game Gian Villante. Elsewhere on the card, finally, we saw impressive wins from lightweight contender Edson Barboza, flyweight contender Ray Borg, and rising welterweight Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira.
At the moment, the fight purses for the 24 athletes on the UFC Fortaleza bill are not yet known. We do, however, know how much the card’s competitors took home through the UFC’s oft-criticized outfitting deal with Reebok.
Under the UFC’s deal with Reebok, fighters are paid based on the amount of fights they’ve had in the UFC’s Octagon, and in the Zuffa-owned eras of Strikeforce (April 2011 and after) and WEC (January 2007 and after). Champions and title challengers, however, are paid $40,000 and $30,000 respectively, regardless of their experience in the aforementioned promotions. These are the two highest payouts possible under this UFC-Reebok partnership.
Under this framework, the card’s biggest winner was the veteran Vitor Belfort, who took home $20,000. The next biggest winners on the card were Shogun, Barboza, and Joshua Burkman, who pocketed $15,000 apiece.
Here’s a full rundown of the Reebok figures for UFC Fortaleza (via MMAJunkie.com).
Kelvin Gastelum: $10,000
def. Vitor Belfort: $20,000
Mauricio Rua: $15,000
def. Gian Villante: $10,000
Edson Barboza: $15,000
def. Beneil Dariush: $10,000
Ray Borg: $5,000
def. Jussier Formiga: $5,000
Bethe Correia: $5,000
draw vs. Marion Reneau: $5,000
Alex Oliveira: $5,000
def. Tim Means: $10,000
Kevin Lee: $5,000
def. Francisco Trinaldo: $10,000
Sergio Moraes: $5,000
def. Davi Ramos: $2,500
Joe Soto: $5,000
def. Rani Yahya: $15,000
Michel Prazeres: $5,000
def. Josh Burkman: $15,000
Jeremy Kennedy: $2,500
def. Rony Jason: $5,000
Paulo Borrachinha: $2,500
def. Garreth McLellan: $2,500
What do you think of the Reebok figures for UFC Fortaleza? Sound off, PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/12/2017.