UFC Bonus Winners: Who Cashes $100K Checks and How Often
Image credit: UFC.com
Four fighters walked out of UFC 332 with an extra $100,000 each. Six more left with $25,000. That is the bonus economy in the current UFC era: finish the fight, and the promotion pays you again on top of your purse.
UFC 332 (full recap here) produced 11 finishes in 13 fights, including a modern-era UFC record nine first-round knockouts or TKOs. Ten fighters collected a combined $550,000 in post-fight bonuses — a record-setting night for finishes and a showcase of the new pay structure.
The Four $100,000 Winners at UFC 332
No Fight of the Night was awarded. Instead, all four Performance of the Night checks went to first-round finishers:
- Johnny Walker knocked out Mick Parkin with a knee from the Thai clinch at 3:35 of round one — in his heavyweight debut.
- Damian Pinas needed just 75 seconds to knock Andrey Pulyaev out cold with an uppercut, breaking Pulyaev's jaw in the process.
- Imanol Rodriguez stopped Alden Coria at 3:11 of round one with a front kick to the body, staying unbeaten at 8-0.
- Roman Kopylov rallied from trouble to TKO Ateba Gautier at 3:12 of round one as a sizeable underdog.
The other six finishers on the card each banked $25,000: Payton Talbott, Marcus McGhee, Anthony Wint, Jacobe Smith, Alexander Hernandez, and Eric Nolan. Esteban Ribovics also finished his fight but was ruled ineligible after missing weight.
Dana White admitted the picks were difficult on a night this stacked. He noted Kopylov was a huge underdog and called out the sheer violence of Pinas's knockout and Walker's debut.
How the $100K Bonus Era Works
The current structure took effect in January 2026, starting with UFC 324 in Las Vegas.
The UFC doubled its long-standing bonus structure after signing its seven-year, $7.7 billion U.S. broadcast deal with Paramount. Traditionally, the promotion awarded four $50,000 bonuses per event — two to the top performers, and one to each athlete in the Fight of the Night. Those bonuses are now worth $100,000.
The other change matters more for most fighters: every athlete who records a finish but does not win one of the $100,000 checks now gets $25,000. No finisher goes home without extra pay.
This was not the first time bonuses spiked. White raised them to $300,000 each for UFC 300 in April 2024. But the January 2026 change is the first permanent, structural increase in the promotion's history.
The All-Time Leaders: Who Gets Paid the Most
The career leaderboard is dominated by one name.
Charles Oliveira holds the record with 21 post-fight bonuses: 14 Performance of the Night, 4 Fight of the Night, and 3 Submission of the Night (a category that no longer exists). He is the first and only fighter in UFC history to earn more than $1 million in post-fight bonuses — over $1,070,000 in total.
The next names on the all-time list:
- Donald Cerrone — 18
- Nate Diaz — 16
- Jim Miller — 15
- Joe Lauzon — 15
- Dustin Poirier — 15
- Anderson Silva — 14
- Justin Gaethje — 14
- Edson Barboza — 13
- Max Holloway — 13
The pattern is consistent: every fighter on the list is a finisher or a guaranteed-action brawler. Oliveira is also the UFC's all-time leader in finishes and submissions.
Fight of the Night: Gaethje's Record Tie
Justin Gaethje owns the most telling single stat in bonus history. At UFC 324 in January 2026, his five-round war with Paddy Pimblett — for which both men received $100,000 Fight of the Night checks — tied the record for most Fight of the Night bonuses at ten.
He shares the record with Dustin Poirier and Edson Barboza. The rate is the story: Gaethje reached ten in just 15 UFC bouts. Poirier and Barboza each needed 32.
Holloway's UFC 300 knockout of Gaethje brought in a reported $600,000 in post-fight bonuses — the biggest single-night bonus haul on record.
Who Gets Paid and Why
The data says one thing clearly: bonuses are a finishing bonus in practice, not just in name.
Performance of the Night winners are almost always finishers. Fight of the Night goes to both men in a war — even the loser. And in the $100K era, every finish that misses a headline bonus still pays $25,000.
UFC 332 is the model event. Nine first-round stoppages, eleven finishes, four six-figure checks, and $550,000 in total bonus payouts. Decision fighters can collect Fight of the Night honors in an all-time war, but they never collect the per-finish payout.
The formula is simple. Finish early, finish violently, and do it often — and the checks follow.
Common Questions
### How much are UFC bonuses?
Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses are worth $100,000 each since January 2026. Fighters who finish their bout without winning a main bonus receive $25,000.
### Who has the most bonuses in UFC history?
Charles Oliveira, with 21 post-fight bonuses and over $1,070,000 in career bonus earnings. Donald Cerrone is second with 18.
### How many bonuses did UFC 332 award?
Ten fighters collected $550,000 in total: four $100,000 Performance of the Night bonuses and six $25,000 finish bonuses. No Fight of the Night was awarded.
Sources
- UFC 332 bonus results — 10 fighters, $550,000 combined payouts, four $100,000 Performance of the Night winners (mmanews.com)
- UFC 332 bonus breakdown — fight-by-fight details for Walker, Pinas, Rodriguez, and Kopylov (sherdog.com)
- UFC doubles fight-night bonuses to $100K, adds $25K per-finish bonus effective UFC 324 (espn.ph)
- All-time bonus leaderboard — Oliveira 21, breakdown of his 14 POTN / 4 FOTN / 3 SOTN, $1,070,000 earned (bloodyelbow.com)
- Justin Gaethje ties Fight of the Night record at UFC 324 (theconwaybulletin.com)
- Dana White on picking the UFC 332 bonus winners, plus Pinas breaking Pulyaev's jaw and Kopylov as the underdog pick (ufc.com)
- Holloway's reported $600,000 bonus haul at UFC 300 (twsn.net)
Fight data compiled from public statistical sources (ufcstats.com) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). OctagonStats is an independent database, not affiliated with UFC / TKO Group.