StrikeForce “Melendez vs Thomson” Fighter Payouts (Salaries)

Josh "The Punk" Thomson might have went home with the gold at last Friday’s StrikeForce event but Gilbert Melendez took home the green walking away with a cool $50,000.

Thomson, who earned the second highest salary of the night, out classed "El Nino" taking all five rounds to secure the unanimous decision victory over the former champ.

"The Punk" earned a base salary of $20,000 and a win bonus of $15,000. Coming in a close second was Bobby Southworth who also retained his title in another five rounder. The StrikeForce light heavyweight champion took home $25,000 for his troubles. His opponent, Anthony Ruiz, on the other hand made out with a mere $200 although he was paid most of his salary in advance thus diminishing his fight purse.

The official payroll for the June 27th event was $203,200. StrikeForce, usually successful at drawing large crowds, drew in 7,288 for a live gate of $355,487.

StrikeForce "Melendez vs Thomson" Fighter Payout’s

• Alexandre Trivino: $1,500 ($500 win bonus) def. Eric Jacob: $1,000
• Jorge Interiano: $1,500 ($500 win bonus) def. Travis Johnson: $2,000
• Cyrillo Padilha: $2,500 ($750 win bonus) def. Jesse Jones: $2,000
• Brian Caraway: $3,000 ($1,000 win bonus) def. Alvin Cacdac: $3,000
• Bobby Stack: $3,000 ($1,000 win bonus) def. Jose Palacios: $3,000
• Chris Cariaso: $6,000 (no win bonus) def. Anthony Figueroa: $5,000
• Jeremiah Metcalf: $8,500 ($5,000 win bonus) def. Raymond Daniels: $10,000
• Miesha Tate: $1,500 ($500 win bonus) def. Elaina Maxwell: $4,000
• Bobby Southworth: $25,000 ($10,000 win bonus) def. Anthony Ruiz: $200*
• Billy Evangelista: $14,000 ($7000 win bonus) def. Nam Phan: $10,000
• Josh Thomson: $35,000 ($15,000 win bonus) def. Gilbert Melendez: $50,000
• Eric Lawson: $8,000 ($1,000 KO/submission bonus) def. Jesse Gillespie: $3,500

* Received the majority of his salary in advance thus the small fight purse

As usual, the payout’s listed above are base salaries and do not include deductions for insurance licenses, taxes etc. Nor do they include money paid by sponsors which can make up for a large part of the fighters income.

Payout’s are as reported by the California State Athletic Commission per MMAJunkie.com.

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