Ilia Topuria Handed a Meagre $350K as Dana White’s Payout Surpasses $23 Million After Alexander Volkanovski-Headlined UFC 298

At the UFC’s second PPV event of the year, UFC 298, Ilia Topuria shocked the world and knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round to become the new UFC featherweight champion. The co-main event saw a war between middleweights Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa, who went all out for three rounds, with Whittaker winning a unanimous decision. Another notable bout was former champion Henry Cejudo‘s loss to the #2 ranked bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili.

As the dust settles from the event, attention has turned to how much the fighters made from the event in California. Let us take a look at the payout details from UFC 298 and see who secured big paychecks for their efforts.

Dana White pays out over $240k in UFC 298 compliance pay

UFC’s Compliance Pay is sponsored by its apparel partner, Venum, and is given out based on a few criteria. The first is that the fighters comply with the apparel and media interaction guidelines, along with fulfilling their media obligations as well as their conduct during the fight. The number of fights and how long a fighter has been in the promotion are also important considerations.

Former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski was the highest paid on the UFC’s second PPV event of the year, receiving $42,000 for the bout in Compliance pay. His opponent, the new featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, was the second highest and got paid $32,000 as an incentive. According to the UFC’s filings with the California State Athletic Commission, Volkanovski made $750k as show money, while ‘El Matador’ made less than half of it, at $350k for the fight, in addition to the compliance pay.

For the co-main event, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker got $21,000 plus $400k as show money and bonus, while Paulo Costa received $6,000 in compliance pay and a $350k show money. The undefeated welterweight Ian Machado Garry, too, got $6k even as his opponent Geoff Neal took home $11,000 under the outfitting program.

Merab Dvalsihvili and Henry Cejudo both walked away with $11,000 in compliance pay, as did Amanda Lemos and Mackenzie Dern after the former’s controversial decision win following their back-and-forth bout. This has taken the UFC’s total compliance pay up to over $23 million since the program was instituted. The card also saw its fair share of bonuses being handed out.

Ilia Topuria, Dern, and Lemos receive bonuses

For his utterly unexpected and spectacular knockout of Alexander Volkanovski, Ilia Topuria received the Performance of the Night bonus, along with Alexander Hernandez for dismantling the promising Roman Kopylov in their middleweight bout. In addition, Zhang Mingyang received the third performance bonus of the night for his emphatic first-round knockout of Brendson Ribeiro. Amanda Lemos vs. Mackenzie Dern won the Fight of the Night honors, after Dern’s valiant efforts against the fellow Brazilian after nearly losing in the second round.

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Although Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa did not receive any official bonuses despite their three-round war, UFC CEO Dana White announced that there would be some additional rewards for the pair. UFC 298 has been a spectacular card, that will have consequences for many of the weight classes in the promotion.

After this win, Merab Dvalishvili looks like the best candidate to fight the winner of champion Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera UFC 299 bout for the bantamweight title. Undercard winners Whittaker and Ian Machado Garry have gotten one step closer to a title shot in their respective divisions after their victories, with both being two to three steps away from a title shot.

Read More: UFC 298: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria – Results, News and Updates