Former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is expected to earn $2.6 million from his fight against Brazilian Alex Pereira at UFC 281 at Maddison Square Garden in New York despite not successfully defending his title.
According to Mixed Martial Arts salaries, the amount can be broken down into a base salary of $2 million, a bonus of $600,000 and endorsement earnings of $42,000. Pereira is expected to earn $332,000.
Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) defeated Adesanya for the third time in his combat sports career when he stopped the then-champion with a fifth-round TKO. The loss was Adesanya’s first at middleweight and his first stoppage.
The Last Stylebender was winning the fight in the early rounds. However, he caught him in the final sequence of the fight against Pereira. The loss means Adesanya has lost his UFC middleweight title to Pereira, who won the belt in October 2019 after defeating Robert Whittaker.
The pair, who have a long history, fought twice in kickboxing, with the Brazilian winning twice, the last being a 2017 knockout of Adesanya.
Since his first career loss to Jan Blachowicz in March, Adesanya has won three fights with wins over Jared Cannonier, Whittaker and Marvin Vettori.
However, the winning streak has come to an end after this defeat, and the Nigerian will now build on the defeat and work harder for a potential rematch.
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