Mixed martial arts has reached the point where the elite, main-event fighters are making good money, but there's still a widespread perception among MMA fans that the mid-card fighters are getting a pretty raw deal.But one mid-card fighter, Alan Belcher, just signed a new four-fight contract with the UFC, and he thinks he's making out very nicely.
"It is a good contract, well over six figures,'' Belcher told the Biloxi Sun Herald. "The first fight will be $50,00 and the final one is $66,000. That doesn't include bonuses."
Those bonuses can be substantial: Belcher fought three times in 2009 and got bonuses after all of them, with a $100,000 Fight of the Night bonus following his loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 100, a $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus following his win over Wilson Gouveia at UFC 107 and a $40,000 Submission of the Night bonus following his win over Denis Kang at UFC 93.
Belcher was reportedly making a base salary of about $20,000 per fight and another $20,000 as a win bonus on his previous contract, so with bonuses he made somewhere around $300,000 in 2009. A guarantee of at least $50,000 for his next fight, against Patrick Cote at UFC 113, is a pretty significant bump in the base salary. He can't count on making $205,000 a year in "Of the Night" bonuses, but he'll still do quite well in 2010. It's easy to see why he thinks his contract is a good one.
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