UFC 333 payouts: how much did Volkanovski, Yan and every fighter make?
UFC 333 payouts and bonuses: four $100,000 awards, $839,500 verified, and our estimate of every fighter's night, led by Volkanovski at about $1.09 million.
- Author
- Mate Bersenadze
- Published
- Oct 24, 2026
- Read time
- 10 min read
- Tags
- Fighter PayBonusesUFCUFC 333Alexander VolkanovskiPetr YanMerab Dvalishvili
Alexander Volkanovski knocked out Movsar Evloev at 4:54 of the second round at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to keep the featherweight title, and the finish added a $100,000 Performance of the Night award to what we estimate is a flat purse of about $985,000. That makes his night worth roughly $1.09 million by our estimate, the biggest on the card by a distance. In the co-main event, Petr Yan beat Merab Dvalishvili for the second time since December, and both men collected $100,000 for Fight of the Night. Across all 14 bouts, the verified minimum payout for UFC 333 comes to $839,500, and our estimate of what the 27 fighters we can price took home runs to about $4.88 million. Our estimates below follow the same rule as the live payout table for the card.
Who won the UFC 333 bonuses?
The UFC handed out three awards, one of them split between both corners:
- Performance of the Night: Alexander Volkanovski ($100,000), a second-round knockout of Evloev in the featherweight title fight.
- Fight of the Night: Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili ($100,000 each), five rounds for the bantamweight title that Yan won by unanimous decision.
- Performance of the Night: Lone'er Kavanagh ($100,000), a knockout of Ramazan Temirov at 4:28 of the first round.
Under the bonus structure the UFC has run since UFC 324 (January 24, 2026), each award pays $100,000, and any fighter who wins by knockout or submission without collecting one banks a separate $25,000 finish incentive instead. The two do not stack, so Volkanovski and Kavanagh get the award and nothing more.
Five more winners collected the $25,000: Aaron Pico (a 1:14 knockout of Losene Keita), Dominick Reyes (a first-round knockout of Azamat Murzakanov), Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev (a first-round knockout of Nikita Krylov), Abus Magomedov (a submission of Cam Rowston at 1:44 of the first) and Kody Steele (a first-round knockout of Noah Gugnon). That is $125,000 in incentives on top of $400,000 in awards. Seven of the 14 bouts ended inside the distance, and all seven paid a finisher.
The other seven went to the judges, and a decision pays no incentive however it arrives. Colby Thicknesse closed at +448 on the sportsbook consensus against a debuting Asaf Chopurov at -620 and won a split decision, the biggest upset of the night by price. It was worth exactly his $4,500 tenure tier in verified money.
UFC 333 payouts: what every fighter made
The tables combine three things: the promotional guidelines compliance pay tier for each fighter's UFC tenure (as reported by MMA Junkie), the bonus or finish-incentive money on top of it, and our own estimate of what each fighter's night was worth, built from 18 years of disclosed UFC purses. The two title fights sit on separate rungs of that ladder: $42,000 for a champion and $32,000 for a challenger, in place of the tenure tier. The first two columns of money add up to a verified floor. The last column is estimated show money, plus an equal win bonus for winners whose contracts we estimate carry one, plus the bonus dollars already listed, typically within about ±30% by our own error checks. UFC bouts count Saturday's fight and leave out Contender Series appearances.
Main card
| Fighter | Result | UFC bouts | Compliance pay | Bonus / incentive | Verified minimum | Our estimate (night) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Volkanovski | won (KO/TKO, R2) | 19 | $42,000 | $100,000 (PotN) | $142,000 | ~$1,085,000 |
| Movsar Evloev | lost (KO/TKO, R2) | 11 | $32,000 | none | $32,000 | ~$159,000 |
| Petr Yan | won (unan. dec.) | 17 | $42,000 | $100,000 (FotN) | $142,000 | ~$820,000 |
| Merab Dvalishvili | lost (unan. dec.) | 18 | $32,000 | $100,000 (FotN) | $132,000 | ~$450,000 |
| Lone'er Kavanagh | won (KO/TKO, R1) | 6 | $6,000 | $100,000 (PotN) | $106,000 | ~$266,000 |
| Ramazan Temirov | lost (KO/TKO, R1) | 4 | $4,500 | none | $4,500 | ~$61,000 |
| Alexander Volkov | won (unan. dec.) | 20 | $16,000 | none | $16,000 | ~$257,000 |
| Rizvan Kuniev | lost (unan. dec.) | 4 | $4,500 | none | $4,500 | ~$55,000 |
| Aaron Pico | won (KO/TKO, R1) | 3 | $4,000 | $25,000 (finish) | $29,000 | ~$83,000 |
| Losene Keita | lost (KO/TKO, R1) | 3 | $4,000 | none | $4,000 | ~$71,000 |
Prelims
| Fighter | Result | UFC bouts | Compliance pay | Bonus / incentive | Verified minimum | Our estimate (night) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominick Reyes | won (KO/TKO, R1) | 16 | $16,000 | $25,000 (finish) | $41,000 | ~$325,000 |
| Azamat Murzakanov | lost (KO/TKO, R1) | 8 | $6,000 | none | $6,000 | ~$74,000 |
| Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev | won (KO/TKO, R1) | 4 | $4,500 | $25,000 (finish) | $29,500 | ~$123,000 |
| Nikita Krylov | lost (KO/TKO, R1) | 23 | $21,000 | none | $21,000 | ~$99,000 |
| Abus Magomedov | won (sub, R1) | 9 | $6,000 | $25,000 (finish) | $31,000 | ~$161,000 |
| Cam Rowston | lost (sub, R1) | 4 | $4,500 | none | $4,500 | ~$33,000 |
| Grant Dawson | won (unan. dec.) | 16 | $16,000 | none | $16,000 | ~$178,000 |
| Nurullo Aliev | lost (unan. dec.) | 5 | $4,500 | none | $4,500 | ~$48,000 |
Early prelims
| Fighter | Result | UFC bouts | Compliance pay | Bonus / incentive | Verified minimum | Our estimate (night) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colby Thicknesse | won (split dec.) | 4 | $4,500 | none | $4,500 | ~$54,000 |
| Asaf Chopurov | lost (split dec.) | 1 | $4,000 | none | $4,000 | not yet priced |
| Abubakar Vagaev | won (unan. dec.) | 2 | $4,000 | none | $4,000 | ~$62,000 |
| Jacob Malkoun | lost (unan. dec.) | 10 | $6,000 | none | $6,000 | ~$62,000 |
| Daniel Santos | won (unan. dec.) | 7 | $6,000 | none | $6,000 | ~$94,000 |
| Bolaji Oki | lost (unan. dec.) | 6 | $6,000 | none | $6,000 | ~$34,000 |
| Kody Steele | won (KO/TKO, R1) | 3 | $4,000 | $25,000 (finish) | $29,000 | ~$69,000 |
| Noah Gugnon | lost (KO/TKO, R1) | 2 | $4,000 | none | $4,000 | ~$22,000 |
| Iasmin Lucindo | won (unan. dec.) | 8 | $6,000 | none | $6,000 | ~$116,000 |
| Nicolle Caliari | lost (unan. dec.) | 4 | $4,500 | none | $4,500 | ~$22,000 |
"Our estimate (night)" is the fighter's estimated show money plus, for winners, an estimated win bonus of the same size, plus the bonus dollars already shown in the bonus column. The only verified money it leaves out is compliance pay, the other half of the "Verified minimum" column. Four contracts on the card, Volkanovski's, Yan's, Dvalishvili's and Alexander Volkov's, are ones we estimate as flat deals, paid the same win or lose, which is why those two winners' figures do not double. "Not yet priced" means we have no current estimate on file: Chopurov was making his UFC debut, and our live payout table leaves him out too.
Add up the bolded verified minimums and the card's floor is $839,500 across 28 fighters: $314,500 in compliance pay, $400,000 in awards and $125,000 in finish incentives. Add up the estimate column instead and the 27 fighters we can price were worth about $4.88 million; folding their compliance pay back in, plus Chopurov's verified $4,000, puts the known plus estimated payroll near $5.2 million.
How much did Alexander Volkanovski make in total?
Photo: NAPARAZZI / CC BY-SA 2.0
Roughly $1.13 million, by our estimate: a flat purse of about $985,000, the $100,000 Performance of the Night check and $42,000 at the champion's compliance tier. Only $142,000 of that is verified. The $1,085,000 night total is the biggest on the card, $265,000 ahead of Yan, and his salary page carries the full breakdown of his estimated contract. Treat it as a lower bound: disclosed purses never showed the side terms a champion can negotiate, and our estimates tend to undercount them.
The man across from him is the sharper number. Evloev walked in unbeaten in ten UFC fights and closed at -109 on the sportsbook consensus, exactly the same price as the champion. By our estimate his contract pays about $159,000 to show and the same again to win, so the fight that the market could not separate was worth roughly $318,000 to him if he won and $159,000 if he lost. He lost, and leaves with $32,000 verified at the challenger tier and about $191,000 by our estimate once that tier is added. That is about a sixth of the champion's night for a fight the betting market priced as a coin flip.
What the knockout bought Volkanovski is narrower than it looks. A flat purse does not move with the result, so on our estimate the only money the win itself added to his night was the $100,000 award. Evloev's contract was the one built around the outcome, and the outcome went the other way.
Merab Dvalishvili lost and, by our estimate, out-earned 12 winners
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Yan closed at -156 against Dvalishvili's +131 and won a unanimous decision over five rounds, his second straight win over the man who beat him in March 2023. By our estimate Yan is on a flat purse of about $720,000; add the Fight of the Night check and his night comes to about $820,000, or about $862,000 with the $42,000 champion tier. Only $142,000 of it is verified.
Dvalishvili is the more interesting line. We estimate his contract as a flat deal too, about $350,000 win or lose, and the shared award put another $100,000 on it. That is about $450,000 for a loss, more than every winner on the card except Volkanovski and Yan, and nearly triple Evloev's estimated night in the other title fight. His verified floor is $132,000: $32,000 at the challenger tier and the bonus. The two challengers lost on the same card, one in a five-round fight that earned a bonus and one in a knockout, and the gap between their nights is mostly the shape of their contracts and $100,000 for the way they lost.
The trilogy has been good business for both of them. Their first fight, in March 2023, paid no bonus. The second, at UFC 323 in December 2025, was Fight of the Night at the old $50,000 rate, and Saturday's paid $100,000 each. That is $300,000 in post-fight money across two rematches, split evenly between a winner and a loser.
Dominick Reyes and the prelim paydays
Reyes was the underdog against Murzakanov, +164 on the sportsbook consensus against -196, and knocked him out at 2:40 of the first round. With an estimated $150,000 to show, the same to win and the $25,000 incentive, his night comes to about $325,000 by our estimate, the fourth biggest on the card and ahead of Kavanagh's, award included. Murzakanov, eight UFC fights in and on the $6,000 tier, leaves with about $74,000.
The fight Arnold Allen left is the odd one. Our card log shows Allen out on October 7 and Keita booked against Pico the same day. By our estimate Keita's contract pays about $71,000 to show, more than double Pico's $29,000. Pico won in 74 seconds and turned it into $29,000 verified and about $83,000 by our estimate. Keita lost and still leaves with about $71,000, within $12,000 of the man who knocked him out.
At the other end of the tenure ladder, Krylov's 23 UFC fights were the most on the card, worth the top $21,000 tier. He closed at +408 against Yakhyaev and was stopped in the first round; Yakhyaev, in his fourth UFC fight, took $29,500 verified and about $123,000 by our estimate.
Why don't we know the exact purses?
No purses from Saturday's card have been made public, and the UFC does not publish them. What we can verify is compliance pay (a published minimum tied to tenure and title status) and official bonuses; what we can estimate is show money and the win bonus that usually matches it, built from years of disclosed purses in states that still published them. For the long history of what used to be public and why it stopped, see what a decade of disclosed UFC pay showed, and browse every fighter's estimate at /salaries.
The receipts
Saturday's award is Volkanovski's seventh post-fight bonus in the UFC and his first Performance of the Night since he stopped Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273 in April 2022. It is also his first finish since he knocked out Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 in July 2023. The other five were Fight of the Night: at UFC 232, UFC 266, in his UFC 284 loss to Islam Makhachev, and in both fights with Diego Lopes. Priced at each night's rate, five at $50,000 and the last two at $100,000, that is $450,000 in bonus money.
Yan and Dvalishvili now have six post-fight bonuses each, and at each night's rate both careers come to exactly $350,000.
Kavanagh's number is the one to keep. He has fought three times in 2026: a decision over Brandon Moreno in February that earned Performance of the Night, a submission loss to Brandon Royval at UFC 329 in July that earned Fight of the Night, and Saturday's knockout. Three fights, three $100,000 checks. By our estimate his contract pays about $83,000 to show. This year the UFC has paid him $300,000 for how he fights, more than three times what it pays him to turn up.