Bellator 228 Salaries: Patricio Freire Earns Event-High $200K for First-Round Tourney Win

Two-division champion Patricio Freire took home the highest payday of any fighter at Bellator 228.

Freire earned $200,000 for his five-round verdict over Juan Archuleta ($75,000) in the opening round of the promotion’s 145-pound grand prix at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Saturday night. The California State Athletic Commission first released a list of salaries from the event to MMAFighting.com over the weekend.

Elsewhere, Gegard Mousasi and Lyoto Machida pocketed $150,000 apiece for their headlining middleweight bout. Mousasi edged Machida via split decision in a rematch of a UFC matchup won by “The Dragon” some five years ago.

Note: The disclosed purses reported by state athletic commissions do not include any performance-based or discretionary bonuses that may be awarded to a fighter by the promotion. Additionally, the reported figures do not reflect any deductions made by the commission for taxes, insurance, etc., and do not include any sponsorship money that a fighter may acquire for their performance.

Bellator 228 Salaries:

Gegard Mousasi: $150,000
Lyoto Machida: $150,000

Patricio Freire: $200,000
Juan Archuleta: $75,000

A.J. McKee: $50,000
Georgi Karakhanyan: $30,000

Darrion Caldwell: $125,000
Henry Corrales: $30,000

Daniel Weichel: $80,000 (includes $40,000 win bonus)
Saul Rogers: $20,000

A.J. Agazarm: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
Jonathan Quiroz: $2,000

Ava Knight: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
Shannon Goughary: $3,000

Antonio McKee: $25,000
William Sriyapai: $5,000

Johnny Cisneros: $8,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus)
Mike Jasper: $10,000

Leandro Higo: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
Shawn Bunch: $13,000

Weber Almeida: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
Castle Williams: $2,000

James Barnes: $4,500 (includes $2,250 win bonus)
David Duran: $2,250

Joshua Jones: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
Dominic Clark: $2,000

Adrian Najera: $2,400 (includes $1,200 win bonus)
Jason Edwards: $1,200

Benji Gomez $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus)
Jonathan Santa Maria ($2,000)

Osman Diaz: $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus)
Andre Walker ($1,500)

Ian Butler: $3,000 (includes $1,500 win bonus)
Emilio Williams: $1,200