By the grace of god, #10 ranked lightweight Renato Moicano finds himself in the most important fight of his life. The Brazilian, of course, is set to fight Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 for the latter’s title on two-days notice. Arman Tsarukyan, who was originally set to face the Dagestani has pulled out due to a back injury. And since ‘Money’ was already set to fight on the Inglewood, California card, he got the green light and will now fight for everything he ever hoped for- a UFC title and the opportunity to become a global superstar.

Moicano is already pretty popular among fans, and comes into UFC 311 on good momentum with four consecutive victories. However, there are levels to this game, as they say, and Makhachev is at the highest one. What is Moicano’s level? Well, we’ll find out this weekend. But speaking of levels, there is another thing that has levels- how much fighters get paid by the UFC. In this article, we take a look at how much money Moicano and Makhachev are likely to make for their fight.

Renato Moicano’s salary at UFC 311

Let’s start off with a couple of disclaimers. UFC salaries are almost never revealed publicly, except when the promotion holds events in California, where it is required to disclose them publicly. This means that the salaries we discuss are based upon reports and estimates and are not authoritative.

The other thing to keep in mind is that UFC payouts are usually broken into four main buckets- show money, which fighters get to make weight; win bonus, which they get on winning a fight; performance/ fight of the night bonus, which the UFC gives to the best-performing fighters; and PPV cut, which is given to champions and contenders according to a pre-set formula based upon PPV buys.

Now let’s discuss how much Moicano could make at UFC 311. ‘Money’ reportedly made $90k in show money and $90k in win bonus for his UFC 300 clash against Jalin Turner, making his total payout for the anniversary mega-card to nearly $200k (including the sponsorship money). We do not have any information about how much Moicano made for his last fight, which was against Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC Paris last year.

But what we do know is that a UFC fighter’s pay depends on their contract, and since Moicano hasn’t signed a new contract with the promotion since UFC 300, it is likely he made $90k to show, $90k to win and some sponsorship money for UFC Paris. He will probably make the same amount in show and win money at UFC 311, but probably with one main difference.

Since he is now headlining the bout, he may well get a share of the PPV, which would definitely add low to mid six figures to his payout and probably take his total payout to over half a million dollars, which may increase if the card sells well. On the other hand, there is also a possibility Moicano doesn’t get a PPV cut, in which case his payout will be around $100k to $250k based upon the result of the fight.

What is Islam Makhachev’s UFC 311 salary?

All of the same disclaimers, of course, apply when discussing Islam Makahchev’s UFC 311 clash too. That being said, reports suggest that the Dagestani made a total of over $1.8 million for his last fight, which was against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302. It seems Makhachev has a flat payment contract with the promotion, instead of the show and win money separately.

We say this because ‘MMASalaries.com’ reports his base pay as $1.5 million in base pay, zero in win bonus, $200k in PPV cut, and $100k in performance bonus. For his fight before that- at UFC 294, the Dagestani reportedly made $1.6 million in base pay along with $850k in PPV cut for a total payout of over $2.5 million for the Abu Dhabi card.

This is why we are confident in predicting that Makhachev will make in the ballpark of $1.5 million in base pay, along with a share of the PPV cut, sponsorship money, and whatever (if any) bonuses he can earn on the night. What are your predictions for the UFC 311 Makhachev-Moicano fight?