UFC 291 salaries: Kevin Holland headlines unique purse report from Utah

Kevin Holland led the disclosed purse report for UFC 291, however that doesn’t tell the full story from this past month’s pay-per-view event in Salt Lake City.

Holland took home a total of $356,000 for his submission of Michael Chiesa on the pay-per-view main card of the event at Delta Center, according to the Pete Suazo Utah Athletic Commission, which regulated the fight card.

However, the commission declined to release the majority of fighter purses from the event, citing a confidentiality clause certain fighters opted into beforehand that allowed them to keep their pay private. According to the Utah Attorney General’s Office, the commission chose to make that option available to fighters for UFC 291. The limited release was green-lighted one year after the commission released full salaries for UFC 278 over the objection of its executive director, Scott Bowles.

In its response to a public records request from MMA Fighting, the commission wrote athletes had expressed “valid concerns” about their pay being revealed publicly, as it would “negatively impact their individual ability to negotiate compensation or purse amounts for future events.” As a result, the commission considered the purse amounts akin to “trade secrets” that were protected by Utah law.

Below are the few salaries disclosed by the commission for UFC 291. As always, these figures do not represent a fighter’s total earnings, as certain sponsorship incomes, pay-per-view bonuses, or discretionary post-fight bonuses are not publicly disclosed.

• Bobby Green ($150,000 + $150,000 win bonus = $300,000) def. Tony Ferguson
• Kevin Holland ($178,000 + $178,000 win bonus = $356,000) def. Michael Chiesa
• Gabriel Bonfim ($12,000 + $12,000 win bonus = $24,000) def. Trevin Giles
• CJ Vergara ($30,000 + $30,000 win bonus = $60,000) def. Vinicius Salvador