Julian Erosa made a lot more money than he expected on Saturday.
Erosa opened up the UFC Vegas 47 main card against Steven Peterson in a highly anticipated bout. The fight exceeded expectations as the combatants went to war for the full fifteen minutes. In the end, it was Erosa who won the contest by split decision. Although the plan was for Erosa to be more technical, he is happy that the fight was entertaining.
“I knew Peterson was a tough, durable, gritty dude whose willingness to fight was about as high as mine,” Erosa said to BJPENN.com. “The plan was to start off technical out of the gate, which I think I did in the first round and then sometimes a fight breaks out in an MMA match and that is what happens in the second round on. I expect that kind of fight. In the second round, he caught me with a couple of shots that had me fuzzy and I heard his corner talk about finishing me and I ended up defending myself. On the flip side, I had him hurt a few times but something you can’t take away from either of us is our durability and toughness to stay in the fight.”
Not only did Erosa get the decision win, but their scrap was the Fight of the Night. However, Peterson missed weight which Erosa says was surprising but because of that, Julian took home both $50k checks along with 30% of Peterson’s purse.
With that, Julian Erosa claims he made more money from taking Peterson’s $50k and the 30% than he did from his own show and win payouts.
“I was a bit surprised he showed up and missed weight after I talked s**t to him to get this fight and called him out on missing weight last time,” Julian Erosa said. “But, I showed up to fight and if I didn’t take the fight, I would’ve been a lot less richer than I am now. I could’ve just taken my win bonus but I wanted to fight. Then, as a fighter, you dream of three checks, your show money, win money, and the bonus. For me, for this fight, I got five checks as I got the show, win, his fine for missing weight, and both $50k checks for the bonus. It worked out great and it has really never been seen before.
“I took more money off him than I thought I would make from the fight in general. Just that in itself is crazy,” Erosa continued. “People have asked me if I feel bad that he didn’t get any of that bonus money but we signed that contract four months ago, he had four months to make weight. Him not making it shows a lack of discipline and I have no sympathy for it.”
With Erosa making more money than expected, he says he plans to look into buying a house in Las Vegas. Even with all the extra money, he still wants to be as active as possible and wants to return in the summer with two names in mind.
“I want to remain active and hopefully get three fights this year. I’m thinking around June, like the May-July timeframe,” Erosa concluded. “But, I’m open to a short notice fight if one comes up. One person I want to fight is Alex Caceres is because I’ve been a fan of his and we both always put on entertaining fights. Maybe if he wins his fight we can book that or Hakeem Dawodu got a win on this card too so maybe that makes sense.”
Who would you like to see Julian Erosa fight next?