TUF 11 Payouts: $406,000

The Staff at MMAJunkie.com are reporting that the total fighter payouts for The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale came to $406,000. Also note that the attendance and gate for the event have been reported at 1,708 and $430,250.

Court McGee: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Kris McCray: $8,000

Matt Hamill: $52,000 ($26,000 win bonus) def. Keith Jardine: $55,000

Chris Leben: $70,000 ($35,000 win bonus) def. Aaron Simpson: $13,000

Dennis Siver: $34,000 ($17,000 win bonus) def. Spencer Fisher: $26,000

Rich Attonito: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus) def. Jamie Yager: $8,000

John Gunderson: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus) def. Mark Holst: $6,000

Brad Tavares: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus) def. Seth Baczynski: $8,000

Kyle Noke: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus) def. Josh Bryant: $8,000

Chris Camozzi: $16,000 ($8000 win bonus) def. James Hammortree: $8,000

Travis Browne: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus) def. James McSweeney: $8,000

TOTAL: $406,000

Bonus Awards:

Fight of the Night: Matt Hamill vs. Keith Jardine ($25,000 each)
KO of the Night: Chris Leben ($25,000)
Submission of the Night: Court McGee ($25,000)

Payout Perspective:

It wasn’t long ago that these events were paying $150,000 and the majority of it went to the headliners, but here we see that Hamill and Jardine received just 25% of the overall payout (granted, Leben made 70k). Additionally, no fighter made less than $6,000 in base and that’s twice as much as what the minimum used to be for some shows.

None of this factors in potential discretionary bonus pay or sponsorship money (which should, in part, be attributed to the UFC given that companies are usually sponsoring fighters to gain access to the UFC audience).

However, it’s also fair to say that fighter pay still has a way to go before every fighter is making a comfortable living. I question whether market forces will ever truly allow this to happen, but I also think the bottom pay for fighters has room to grow even under said market conditions.