Song Yadong celebrated a major victory in his career with a technical decision over former two-division champion Henry Cejudo at UFC Seattle. This win not only marked a career highlight but also resulted in the largest payout of the event for Song.
Salary details from the UFC Seattle event, provided by the Washington State Department of Licensing through a public records request to MMA Fighting, show that Song and bantamweight veteran Rob Font were the top earners.
Song received $320,000 for headlining the event and securing his victory. This sum is divided into $160,000 as his show money and an additional $160,000 for winning. The technical decision was awarded after Cejudo could not continue due to an accidental eye poke that affected his vision. Referee Jason Herzog ruled the foul unintentional and did not deduct points.
As the fight progressed into the third round of a scheduled five rounds, the judges’ scorecards were consulted, leading to Song’s victory by technical decision.
Cejudo, despite the loss, earned $150,000 but missed out on a potential $150,000 win bonus.
Font also secured a $320,000 payout at UFC Seattle, matching Song’s earnings. This was for his split decision victory over Jean Matsumoto in a main card fight. Font’s earnings were also split into $160,000 for appearing and $160,000 for the win.
Here’s a breakdown of disclosed fighter salaries from UFC Seattle:
- Song Yadong: $320,000 (includes $160,000 win bonus)
- Rob Font: $320,000 (includes $160,000 win bonus)
- Anthony Hernandez: $144,000 (includes $72,000 win bonus)
- Brendan Allen: $210,000
- Ion Cutelaba: $190,000 (includes $95,000 win bonus)
- Ricky Simon: $160,000 (includes $80,000 win bonus)
- Henry Cejudo: $150,000
- Alonzo Menifield: $240,000 (includes $120,000 win bonus)
- Andre Fili: $110,000
- Modestas Bukauskas: $96,000 (includes $48,000 win bonus)
- Jean Silva: $90,000 (includes $45,000 win bonus)
- Nursulton Ruziboev: $74,000 (includes $37,000 win bonus)
- Melquizael Costa: $48,000 (includes $24,000 win bonus)
- Melsik Baghdasaryan: $35,000
- Ibo Aslan: $35,000
- Javid Basharat: $30,000
- Austin Vanderford: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
- Jean Matsumoto: $26,000
- Mansur Abdul-Malik: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
- Julius Walker: $12,000
- Nikolay Veretennikov: $12,000
- Eric McConico: $12,000
- Raffael Cerqueira: $10,000
- Nick Klein: $10,000
