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A highly anticipated rematch took place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, on Saturday night. Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker featured in the headliner of UFC 271.
Reports suggest that Israel Adesanya pocketed the biggest paycheck at the event, walking away with $1,542,000. The Kiwi's payout included a $1,000,000 base salary and a pay-per-view share worth $500,000. In addition to payouts from the UFC, he also received $42,000 from Venum.
Robert Whittaker, on the other hand, walked away with a total of $632,000 with a base salary of $600,000 and Venum's sponsorship bonus of $32,000.
Derrick Lewis received $321,000 inclusive of his base salary of $300,000 and a sponsorship bonus of $21,000. The victor of the heavyweight co-main event, Tai Tuivasa, pocketed $101,000 with a base salary of $90,000 and a sponsorship bonus of $11,000.
Both Jared Cannonier and Derek Brunson received a base salary of $100,000 and a sponsorship bonus of $11,000 and $16,000, bringing their total earnings to $111,000 and $116,000, respectively.
Alexander Hernandez bagged $66,000 and Renato Moicano received $61,000. Bobby Green walked away with $88,000 and Nasrat Haqparast earned $66,000.
Israel Adesanya responds to Robert Whittaker's claims of them being above the middleweight division
UFC 271 main event saw Israel Adesanya emerge triumphant. He walked away with a unanimous decision victory at the end of his five-round battle against Robert Whittaker.
In the aftermath of their clash, Whittaker claimed that he and Adesanya are well above the competition in their division as far as skills are concerned. While in conversation with the media during the post-fight press conference, Adesanya addressed those claims.
He admitted that while the statement is true, Whittaker still has a long way to go to reach his level:
"Yeah, but I mean, he's a few steps below me as well."
Check out Israel Adesanya's interaction with the media below:
Regardless of his losing record of 0-2 against 'The Last Stylebender', the Australian has called for a trilogy fight. The champion himself is hardly sold on the matter, having bested the former middleweight champion at UFC 243 and now at UFC 271.
However, in the same interaction with the media, he admitted that he might consider another fight against Whittaker if he is able to rack up more wins.
