Save for the main event snoozer between UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson, UFC 209 was a vast improvement over UFC 208’s slew of underwhelming fights. But despite a healthy showcase of knockout and submission finishes, UFC 209 wound up having its gate receipts overshadowed by the fighter payout.
As reported by MMA Weekly, the Nevada State Athletic Commission recorded the UFC 209 payroll at $3.075 million. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas pay-per-view event had an announced gate of $2.385 million. The big winners from the card were Alistair Overeem and Mark Hunt, who were each paid a purse of $750,000, while Tyron Woodley earned $500,000 for his narrow majority decision win over Stephen Thompson in the night’s main event.
A separate MMA Weekly report notes that UFC 209 drew 13,150 fans to the T-Mobile Arena, which while not being a bad turnout, still lacks the punch new UFC owners WME-IMG are looking for following a $4.2 billion purchase of the company. Meanwhile, there have yet to be reports on the prospective PPV buys of the event, which suffered from the cancellation of the highly anticipated clash between lightweight contenders Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title.
UFC 209 also got another unflattering distinction, getting the second-lowest athlete outfitting payout for a pay-per-view event. As reported by MMA Junkie, the UFC Athlete Outfitting pay – a program launched following the UFC’s deal with Reebok – saw the UFC 209 competitors take home a total of just $175,000, with Tyron Woodley taking home the highest payout at $40,000. Stephen Thompson took home $30,000, while everyone else apart from Rashad Evans took home less than $20,000. The Reebok deal has been a source of contention from the fighters, with many arguing that they made exponentially more from different sponsors before the UFC struck a deal with the athletic apparel company.
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