MMA Junkie reports the payroll from Saturday’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov totaled $942,000. The Ohio State Athletic Commission released the payroll information on Monday.
Via MMA Junkie:
Josh Barnett: $150,000 (no win bonus)
def. Sergei Kharitonov: $100,000
Daniel Cormier: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus)
def. Antonio Silva: $100,000
Luke Rockhold: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. Ronaldo Souza: $70,000
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal: $85,000 (no win bonus)
def. Roger Gracie: $80,000
Pat Healy: $17,500 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Maximo Blanco: $13,000
Mike Kyle: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima: $5,000
Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Yoel Romero: $10,000
Jordan Mein: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos: $20,000
Alexis Davis: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
def. Amanda Nunes: $7,500
Dominique Steele: $5,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Mierzwiak: $3,000
Payout Perspective:
The Heavyweights each receive 6 figures Saturday. I include Cormier since he received his $50K win bonus in addition to his $50K base. This likely is due to the fact he was an originally an alternate. Also, no win bonuses for Barnett or King Mo.
Its interesting that attendance and gate were not reported, when its usually announced after every other event. From the looks of the event on television, it did not seem like there were many in attendance which is a shame since this was a very good night of fights. If you are to believe some reports, there was poor attendance and Strikeforce comped many tickets. With a hefty payroll, it had to be a big money loss for Zuffa.
With the report of Cormier out with a broken hand, will Zuffa wait for him to recover to finish the HW Grand Prix or will there be a substitute to finish off this once good, now ill-fated idea. As many speculate, Strikeforce folding seems as imminent as Bellator moving to Spike. As Alistair Overeem, Jason Miller, Nick Diaz and Cung Le have left the promotion for one reason or another, each has emerged in the UFC. It seems like a matter of time before all Strikeforce fighters are folded into the UFC.
If you go back to mike kyles interview after his fight with bigfoot silva he says strikeforce offered him a flat fee or a show and win bonus. He said that while the flat fee pays more if you lose, it is essentially betting against yourself. So he opted for the higher risk reward, and came up short… but I wonder could that be the case here? Notice all the aka guys have show win fights but most else has a flat fee. Do you suppose everyone gets that option when they signed up?
The wrap up of the HWGP is probably the last thing I will watch that is SF related. There just doesn’t seem to be much of a point anymore. Anyone with any star power is headed over to the UFC. I can’t imagine SF being around for much longer than it takes to finish off the GP. The top male stars will all land in the UFC, but it’s a shame for women’s MMA. I hope Zuffa will consider keeping them around.
Roger Gracie appears to have been fed to the wolves. That’s the risk you take when you are inexperienced and command the salary of a mid to high-level UFC guy. You want payed like a big dog, you better be ready to swim with the sharks.
It would be nice to see Strikeforce stick around but it will have to be in a seriously diminished capacity to be feasible.
It’s odd Zuffa didn’t put more effort into promoting the event considering this was one of the higher Strikeforce payouts. It’s practically a guarantee this event lost a lot of money given the abysmal attendance (I’ve heard estimates from 1,500 to a few thousand). The writing seems to really be on the wall for Strikeforce. Hopefully Cormier’s hand will heal quickly and they can get the finals over before January, since Strikeforce currently only has 3 scheduled events left before it’s “reevaluated.”