The salary list for UFC 148 was released on Monday, and one number that jumped out was the $50,000 paid to Chael Sonnen, who faced Anderson Silva in the main event for the UFC Middleweight Championship.
Now, $50,000 is certainly a hefty pile of money, and much more than the majority of the UFC's fighters made on Saturday night. It's certainly not bad for seven minutes of work, which is what Sonnen put in before succumbing via second-round TKO. However, it's far less than Sonnen deserved for his role in making Saturday night's fight the most anticipated rematch in UFC history.
Here's a quick list of fighters who made more money on Saturday night than the "Gangster from America:" Anderson Silva, Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, Cung Le, Demian Maia and Melvin Guillard. Silva is the champion, and certainly earned his $200,000 (plus an additional $75,000 for the Knockout of Night). Griffin and Ortiz, as former UFC Champions who had major roles in the development of the sport, certainly earned their keep (plus an extra $75,000 each for the Fight of the Night). Le ($150,000 with no win bonus) isn't quite as easy to justify, but given that he turns down film work to go through the rigors of training and fighting, his price can certainly be respected. Where it gets interesting, however, is Maia and Guillard. The fact that Guillard, who didn't even fight on the main card, would have earned just $14,000 less than Sonnen just for showing up is hard to fathom.
Silva is undoubtedly an all-time great, arguably the greatest of all time, but before he encountered Sonnen, the entertainment value of his fights was dropping, and "The Spider" had grown stale as a draw as a result. Being pushed to the limit by Sonnen at UFC 117 pushed Silva into a new gear, and he followed his stunning triangle-choke victory that night with a highlight-reel knockout of Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 and a thorough domination of Yushin Okami at UFC 134, both polar opposites of his frustrating victories over Demian Maia at UFC 112 and Thales Leites at UFC 97. Throw in the way Sonnen sold the return encounter with his never-ending stream of trash talk, and there's a reason why UFC 148 was as hotly anticipated as it was. That reason, apparently, did not affect the official payroll.
Of course, that's just the official payroll, the caveat being that the numbers reported to the state athletic commission do not include "locker room" bonuses. Given what Sonnen has done for the UFC in recent months, it's hard to imagine that he wasn't far better compensated than we officially know. Still, the five-figure sum for his name certainly raises a few eyebrows.
