The WEC’s Bantamweight champion, Miguel Torres, earned $44,000 for his win over a tough, but clearly outmatched, Manny Tapia.
Torres controlled the fight from the start with a brilliant display of boxing prowess, using his reach advantage to pepper Tapia with stiff jabs and combinations en route to a second round TKO stoppage.
In his WEC debut, former IFL Featherweight champion, Wagnney Fabiano, earned $22,000 with a third round submission of Akitoshi Tamura. Mark Munoz was paid $20,000 for his TKO stoppage of Ricardo Barros.
Urijah Faber’s top student, Joseph Benavidez took home $17,000 for his unanimous decision win over Danny Martinez in the opening bout of the televised portion of the Wednesday’s card.
Even though there is no collective bargaining agreement in place for fighters, their salaries are still public record like every other sport governed by state athletic commissions. Any undisclosed bonuses that a promoter chooses to pay its fighters are not included in the numbers you see below.
Here is the full listing of the fighter payroll for WEC 37:
Miguel Torres: $44,000 (including $22,000 win bonus)
Manny Tapia: $6,000
Wagnney Fabiano: $22,000 (including $11,000 win bonus)
Akitoshi Tamura: $6,000
Brian Bowles: $16,000 (including $8,000 win bonus)
Will Ribeiro: $4,000
Joseph Benavidez: $17,000 (including $8,500 win bonus)
Danny Martinez: $2,000
Johny Hendricks: $16,000 (including $8,000 win bonus)
Justin Haskins: $3,000
Mark Munoz: $20,000 (including $10,000 win bonus)
Ricardo Barros: $3,000
Diego Nunes: $6,000 (including $3,000 win bonus)
Cole Province: $3,000
Bart Palaszewski: $8,000 (including $4,000 win bonus)
Alex Karalexis: $8,000
Cub Swanson: $10,000 (including $5,000 win bonus)
Hiroyuki Takaya: $5,500
Shane Roller: $16,000 (including $8,000 win bonus)
Mike Budnik: $4,000
In addition to the salaries listed above, the WEC announced their “fight night” bonuses of which each fighter received an extra $7,500 for their efforts. The fight night bonuses were as follows:
Fight of the Night: Cub Swanson and Hiroyuki Takaya
Knockout of the Night: Bart Palaszewski
Submission of the Night: Brian Bowles
-Doug Drexler