UFC 278 salaries: Kamaru Usman nets $500,000 in KO loss, Paulo Costa bags $130,000 for co-headliner win

Disclosed salaries following last month’s UFC 278 event in Salt Lake City, Utah have surfaced ahead of the organization’s pay-per-view return this weekend, with now-former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman scoring a disclosed $500,000 payday in his headlining fight against newly-minted titleholder, Leon Edwards.

Taking main event honors at the Vivint Arena in the promotion’s return to Salt Lake City, Kamaru Usman, who attempted to secure his sixth successful defense of the welterweight title, suffered a brutal fifth round high kick knockout loss to challenger, Edwards, in a massive rallying performance from the Birmingham native.

In the night’s co-headliner, former middleweight title chaser, Paulo Costa turned in a memorable back-and-forth clash with the returning, and since retiring former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold – landing a unanimous decision victory.

Kamaru Usman scores $500,000 despite his KO loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 278

As per an initial report from MMA Fighting reporter, Steven Marrocco, Usman led the line for total disclosed payouts at UFC 278 last month in Utah, netting himself $500,000 for his efforts in the night’s headliner, with neither himself nor Edwards receiving win bonuses – with both likely sharing pay-per-view points as a result.

Below, find an entire list of both main card and preliminary card fighter payouts from UFC 278 in August.

Main Card:

Kamaru Usman ($500,000) (no win bonus) – Leon Edwards ($350,000) (no win bonus)

Paulo Costa ($65,000 and $65,000 win bonus) – Luke Rockhold ($200,000)

Merab Dvalishvili ($99,000 and $99,000 win bonus) – Jose Aldo ($400,000)

Lucie Pudilova ($23,000 and $23,000 win bonus) – Wu Yanan ($20,000)

Tyson Pedro ($43,000 and $43,000 win bonus) – Harry Hunsucker ($12,000)

Preliminary Card: 

Marcin Tybura ($120,000 and $120,000 win bonus) – Alexandr Romanov ($36,000)

Jared Gordon ($47,000 and $47,000 win bonus) – Leonardo Santos ($44,000)

Sean Woodson ($24,000) – Luis Saldana ($14,000)

Ange Loosa ($12,000 and $12,000 win bonus) – A.J. Fletcher ($10,000)

Early Preliminary Card:

Amir Albazi ($16,000 and $16,000 win bonus) – Francisco Figueiredo ($14,000)

Aoriqileng ($12,000 and $12,000 win bonus) – Jay Perrin ($12,000)

Victor Altamirano ($10,000 and $10,000 win bonus) – Daniel Lacerda ($10,000)