THE CANADIAN PRESS
Light-heavyweight champion Lyoto (The Dragon) Machida made a basic purse of US$200,000 for his controversial win over Mauricio (Shogun) Rua at UFC 104 on Saturday in Los Angeles.
Rua collected $155,000 for being on the losing end of a unanimous decision that has been questioned in some quarters.
The purse figures, released Tuesday by the California State Athletic Commission, do not tell the whole financial story. Elite fighters often get a lucrative cut of the pay-per-view revenue and the UFC routinely only announces select bonuses.
Machida was given a 60-day medical suspension for a cut on the lip.
Heavyweight Pat Barry was a big winner on the night, picking up $134,000 for stopping Antoni Hardonk. Barry made $127,000 of that in bonuses: $7,000 for winning, $60,000 for best knockout bonus and $60,000 for fight of the night. Hardonk made $76,000, including a $60,000 bonus for his part in the fight of the night.
In the co-main event, heavyweight Cain Velasquez picked up $70,000 for stopping (Big) Ben Rothwell ($50,000)
In other bouts:
— Lightweight Joe (Daddy) Stevenson made $94,000 for stopping Spencer (The King) Fisher ($26,000).
— Heavyweight Stefan (Skyscraper) Struve made $74,000, including $60,000 for submission of the night, for stopping Chase Gormley via triangle choke ($10,000).
— Middleweight Chael Sonnen earned $54,000 for his unanimous decision over Yushin (Thunder) Okami ($18,000)
— Lightweight Gleison Tibau made $38,000 for beating Josh (The Dentist) Neer ($14,000).
— Middleweight Jorge (El Conquistador) Rivera collected $36,000 for his TKO of Rob (The Rosedale Reaper) Kimmons ($9,000).
— Welterweight Anthony (Rumble) Johnson picked up $30,000 for knocking out Yoshiyuki (Zenko) Yoshida ($12,000).
— Light-heavyweight Ryan (Darth) Bader received $30,000 for his unanimous decision over Eric (Red) Schafer ($13,000).
— Light-heavyweight Kyle Kingsbury earned $16,000 for his split decision over Razak Al-Hassan ($3,000).
The UFC gave out attendance of 16,000 but the California commission said it was 14,892, producing a net gate of $1.76 million.
