“Strikeforce: Evolution” Payouts; King Mo fined for post-fight celebration
Although he ended up with the first defeat on his professional fighting record during this past weekend’s “Strikeforce: Evolution” card, it was former Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le that ended up the big winner in the financial category for the event, earning $150,000 for his troubles.
FiveOuncesofPain.com was recently able to obtain a full list of the disclosed payouts for the event from the California State Athletic Commission.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza displayed that he’s in very good hands with his current management team as the decorated submission specialist took $65,000 home to Brazil for his first round arm-triangle submission of Matt Lindland.
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal had 10% of the $10,000 he had been guaranteed to show up due to his post-fight celebration that saw the undefeated superstar spraying Rockstar energy drink over portions of the cage canvas.
Daisuke Nakamura seems to have come up on the really, really short end of the stick for his unanimous decision losing effort at the hands of Justin Wilcox, apparently making the trip all the way from Japan to scoop up a disclosed $200 paycheck.
Below is a full list of the disclosed salary information for “Strikeforce: Evolution”:
Scott Smith: ($55,000) def. Cung Le: ($150,000)
Gilbert Melendez: ($55,000) def. Josh Thomson: ($30,000)
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza: $65,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Matt Lindland: $50,000
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal: $19,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)* def. Mike Whitehead: $30,000
Antwain Britt: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Scott Lighty: $5,000
Justin Wilcox: $5,000 def. Daisuke Nakamura: $200
Alex Crispim: $4,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus) def. AJ Fonseca: $2,000
*Lawal was docked 10 percent of his $10,00o “show money” for dousing the canvas with Rockstar energy drink during his post-fight celebration.
Cory Brady is the managing editor of FiveOuncesOfPain.com, along with being a regular feature writer with Ultimate MMA Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/corybrady
| All posts by Cory Brady
Kinda funny, how ‘King’ Mo is all about the cash, wears all the jewels including a crown and cape, hell the man even fights at ‘money weight.’…yet after his fight he dumped out 2 thousand dollars worth of Rock Star Energy drink all over the mat for no reason.
LOL!
Even a real King wouldn’t flush 10% of his money down the toilet…no matter how rich he was!
Way to break the bank Nakamura.
Don’t spend it all in one place!
“He also works for Dream, thus Dream is paying his salary is not reported the CSAC purse. Just like the old Pride days when they came to the United States, but their pay was very sub-standard. Of course they give them under the table money that is not reported in the purses. ”
This is from a different site about the Nakamura pay, it is likely only reported at 200 for tax purposes
Yeah…I’m sure either DREAM paid him or he has some kind of weird contract that pays his salary over fixed monthly incriments.
I’m just guessing that DREAM probably paid him though.
But in a few rare occassions, I have seen fighters collect small amounts like this for their actual fights because they had contracts that paid them the bulk of their money in flat monthly rates.
Funny to see Cung Li made as much as Strike force did… Hope they sold alot of Souveniers.
I thought 200 was a typo when I saw it on other sites. That bites the big one, but like keyboard said, he is definitely making more. Kind of reminds me of Forrest Griffin’s first fight which ended up against Dan Severn and he earned something like 300 dollars for that one.
I still cant get over Whitehead being koed like that, by a gyt that is still new to the sport. I think king Mo is going to be able to demand so much money at the end of his contract it will make Hendersons asking price seem resonable.
I’m sure Rockstar either gave him the product or paid him a nice sum to do it. Probably both.
That makes a lot more sense. Or maybe he just wanted a free trip to San Jose? Probably not.
I like Mo, but I’m glad they fined him for spraying that rockstar drink everywhere at the end. Those mats are nasty enough to begin with people bleeding all over them, it must have been like fighting on the floor in a movie theater after that. Idiot.
Good to see Scott Smith getting paid!
What? You’ve never done that?