Cung Le’s nose might be located on the side of his face now, but that’s irrelevant. When you can earn over a quarter of a million dollars in less than 10 minutes, the location of your nose is not really something you worry about. According to the official payroll records from the California State Athletic Commission-Cung Le was the top paid fighter of UFC 139-earning a very stack of 350,000 dollar bills. Here’s the full breakdown of UFC 139 salaries:
Dan Henderson: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. Mauricio Rua: $165,000
Wanderlei Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus)
def. Cung Le: $350,000
Urijah Faber: $64,000 (includes $32,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Bowles: $19,000
Martin Kampmann: $58,000 (includes $29,000 win bonus)
def. Rick Story: $19,000
Stephan Bonnar: $68,000 (includes $34,000 win bonus)
def. Kyle Kingsbury: $10,000
Ryan Bader: $48,000 (includes $24,00 win bonus)
def. Jason Brilz: $13,000
Michael McDonald: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
Alex Soto: $6,000
Chris Weidman: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Tom Lawlor: $12,000
Gleison Tibau: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Rafael Dos Anjos: $16,000
Miguel Torres: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Nick Pace: $4,000
Seth Baczynski: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Brown: $12,000
Danny Castillo: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Shamar Bailey: $8,000
Clearly, Cung Le is like the Jay Z of MMA with his ‘ball so hard’ payroll status. He doesn’t worry about a little nose relocation and deformity. He can walk into Dr. 90210’s office today and buy himself and every single one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills brand new noses and still have more money leftover than my W-2 reflects every year. [source]