UFC Phoenix salaries: Cain Velasquez made bank for Ngannou loss

Last Sunday night at UFC Phoenix, former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez returned to the cage after nearly three years away, where he battled fearsome heavyweight knockout artist Francis Ngannou.

While this fight went rather disastrously for Velasquez — he was stopped in less than thirty seconds and injured his knee — he was at least well compensated for his efforts.

MMA Fighting was able to acquire a full list of the UFC Phoenix salaries from the The Arizona Department of Gaming, which shows that Cain Velasquez led the paydays for the card by a significant margin.

The former champ pocketed a sizeable $450,000 for his loss to Ngannou, who in turn earned $220,000 ($110,000 to show and $110,000 to win).

Other top earners included Paul Felder, who pocketed $92,000 total, Cynthia Calvillo, who made $88,000, and Nik Lentz, who earned 106,000.

Here are the full salaries for last Sunday’s UFC Phoenix card.

Main Card (ESPN)
Francis Ngannou ($110,000 + $110,000 = $220,000) def. Cain Velasquez ($450,000)
Paul Felder ($46,000 + $46,000 = $92,000) def. James Vick ($65,000)
Cynthia Calvillo ($44,000 + $44,000 = $88,000) def. Cortney Casey ($50,000)
Kron Gracie ($27,000 + $25,000 = $52,000) def. Alex Caceres ($55,000)
Vicente Luque ($41,000 + $41,000 = $82,000) def. Bryan Barberena ($35,000)
Andre Fili ($37,000 + $37,000 = $74,000) def. Myles Jury ($36,000)

Preliminary Card (ESPN)
Aljamain Sterling ($70,000 + $70,000 = $140,000) def. Jimmie Rivera ($68,000)
Manny Bermudez ($14,000 + $14,000 = $28,000) def. Benito Lopez ($12,000)
Andrea Lee ($14,000 + $14,000 = $28,000) def. Ashlee Evans-Smith ($30,000)
Nik Lentz ($53,000 + $53,000 = $106,000) def. Scott Holtzman ($33,000)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+)
Luke Sanders ($19,000 + $19,000 = $38,000) def. Renan Barao ($53,000)
Emily Whitmire ($12,000 + $12,000 = $24,000) def. Aleksandra Albu ($12,000)

What do you think of the salaries for UFC Phoenix?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/22/2019.