UFC 281 bonuses and salaries: How much did fighters competing on the main card make?

The highly anticipated UFC 281 card saw electrifying performances and huge upsets. Let's take a look at how much each fighter made from their performances at Madison Square Garden this past Saturday.

Former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya reportedly raked in around $1.79 million from his base pay, pay-per-view shares, and sponsorship deals.

Newly crowned 185lbs champion Alex Pereira earned a purse of $932k from his base pay, Performance of the Night bonus, pay-per-view shares, and sponsorship deals.

Watch Dana White announce the fight bonuses for UFC 281 below:

In the co-main event, Carla Esparza raked in a reported $542k, including pay-per-view shares, while newly crowned strawweight champion Zhang Weili earned a total of $667k, including the Performance of the Night bonus.

Having bagged the Fight of the Night bonus, Dustin Poirier earned a payday of $1.01 million, while his opponent Michael Chandler made a respectable $760k.

In his retirement fight, UFC legend Frankie Edgar earned a total of $295k, while his opponent Chris Gutierrez earned $155k.

Fan-favorite Dan Hooker earned a total fight purse of $325k, while his opponent Claudio Puelles made $41k.

The fight purses of fighters on the prelim and early prelim cards are as follows:

Brad Riddell - $45k

Renato Moicano - $220k

Dominick Reyes - $245k

Ryan Spann - $140k

Molly McCann - $85k

Erin Blanchfield - $49k

Andre Petroski - $45k

Wellington Turman - $41k

Matt Frevola - $77k

Ottman Azaitar - $25k

Karolina Kowalkiewicz - $110k

Silvana Gómez Juárez - $25k

Michael Trizano - $39.8k

Choi Seung-woo - $40.8k

Julio Arce - $31k

Montel Jackson - $65k

Carlos Ulberg - $49k

Nicolae Negumereanu - $35k

(All the above figures are courtesy TOTALSPORTAL)

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Some stand-out performances at UFC 281

The biggest upset at UFC 281 was perhaps Alex Pereira's knockout win over Israel Adesanya. Down three rounds to one going into the fifth, a flurry of punches in the final round helped the Brazilian secure a TKO win over Adesanya.

Alex Pereira claimed his maiden UFC championship in his fourth fight with the promotion.

In another fine performance, Zhang Weili became a two-time strawweight champion with a second-round submission win over Carla Esparza.

Former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier faced some adversity but eventually locked in a rear-naked choke in the third round to secure a win over Michael Chandler.