UFC 66: Official Earnings

UFCJunkie.com has posted the earnings of the fighters on the UFC 66 card. These numbers come directly from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Some very interesting numbers here. Note that these figures don’t include things like additional bonuses for fight of the night, knockout of the night, or submission of the night, not to mention insurance fees, licenses, etc.

Chuck Liddell def. Tito Ortiz — TKO (strikes) in Round 3, 3:59
Chuck Liddell: $250,000 ($250,000 to fight; no win bonus)
Tito Ortiz: $210,000 ($210,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Keith Jardine def. Forrest Griffin — TKO (strikes) in Round 1, 4:41
Keith Jardine: $14,000 ($7,000 to fight; $7,000 win bonus)
Forrest Griffin: $16,000 ($16,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Jason MacDonald def. Chris Leben — Submission (guillotine choke) in Round 2, 4:03
Jason MacDonald: $10,000 ($5,000 to fight; $5,000 win bonus)
Chris Leben: $7,000 ($7,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Andrei Arlovski def. Marcio Cruz — KO (strikes) in Round 1, 3:15
Andrei Arlovski: $145,0O0 ($90,000 to fight; $55,000 win bonus)
Marcio Cruz: $5,000 ($5,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Michael Bisping def. Eric Schafer — TKO (strikes) in Round 1, 4:24
Michael Bisping: $24,0O0 ($12,000 to fight; $12,000 win bonus)
Eric Schafer: $4,000 ($4,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Thiago Alves def. Tony DeSouza — KO (knee) in Round 2, 1:10
Thiago Alves: $22,000 ($11,000 to fight; $11,000 win bonus)
Tony DeSouza: $7,000 ($7,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Gabriel Gonzaga def. Carmelo Marrero — Submission (armbar) in Round 1, 3:22
Gabriel Gonzaga: $18,000 ($9,000 to fight; $9,000 win bonus)
Carmelo Marrero: $5,000 ($5,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Yushin Okami def. Rory Singer — Submission (strikes) in Round 3, 4:03
Yushin Okami: $16,000 ($8,000 to fight; $8,000 win bonus)
Rory Singer: $5,000 ($5,000 to fight; no win bonus)

Christian Wellisch def. Anthony Perosh — Decision (unanimous)
Christian Wellisch: $6,000 ($3,000 to fight; $3,000 win bonus)
Anthony Perosh: $3,000 ($3,000 to fight; no win bonus)

UFC 66: Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz II thoughts

Due to being out the night of the UFC 66 card, I can’t give a full run down of my thoughts on the card. I caught just this fight last night when I got home. My quick thoughts on the fight:

Tito was standing up too long for this fight to go his way. The early knock down by Chuck and the non-stoppage in the first round made it clear that this fight was easily Chuck’s fight if he played it his way. Tito went for a few take downs but nothing that really made Chuck flinch. Tito went for quite a few inside leg kicks which looked to be in his game plan for later take down attempts, but the fight obviously didn’t go long enough for Tito to go that route. The stoppage in the third, in my opinion, was fine. Tito got his gift in the first round, and if McCarthy was reffing the match, it would have been stopped. It was nice to see that Tito really was able to go another couple of rounds after getting nailed pretty good in round one.

Ultimately, Chuck Liddell is the best fighter in the world at 205, and it looks like we’re in for a possible Quinton Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell fight for the title, but first Jackson needs to beat Eastman to indentify himself with the UFC crowd. Shotgunning Jackson to a title shot right out of the gate would show that 205 is in a weak state, one that could use a couple of fresh faces. In my opinion, we’ve got Liddell vs. Jardine, Ortiz vs. Sobral or Ortiz vs. Griffin II, and that’s pretty much it. Honestly, I think an Ortiz win would have been better overall for the UFC and the 205 division as it would have opened up more avenues for potential big money matches (a win by Ortiz and a win by Griffin would have setup a nice sequel with a title shot that would have had a better back story; Liddell vs. Ortiz III as a rubber match).

I’ll post more tomorrow after I watch the entire card.