UFC 200: Anderson Silva, $6 million payday?

Anderson Silva was paid $6 million to fight on short notice according to Chael Sonnen.

According to Chael Sonnen, Anderson Silva charged the UFC $6 million to try to save UFC 200.

Yeah, you read that right. $6 million to step in on short notice (two days to be exact) and fight the UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.

Sonnen was on “The Fighter and the Kid” podcast on July 12, 2016, talking about UFC 200. He was discussing who was offered the fight against Cormier and who offered their own name to fight the current king of the 205 pound division when he said this, “We didn’t know about if you could get Anderson or if you wanted to pay $6 million flat to get him and that is what he charged.”

Interesting.

It was reported that Silva earned a nice $500,000 purse for UFC 200 just to step in the cage, but that number doesn’t include pay-per-view revenue share and other bonuses the UFC pays their fighters.

Silva was coming back from a gallbladder surgery that took him off of the UFC 198 card for his scheduled bout against Uriah Hall. Ironically, after Silva underwent a successful surgery, his trainer Rogerio Camoes told Sherdog.com the following, “Thank God everything went fine and Anderson is already planning his return. He told me, ‘Master, pack everything up. We’re going to UFC 200.’ The most important thing is that he kept his mind strong and didn’t lose his motivation. On the contrary, he’s really motivated to take part at that historical UFC 200 event.”

It only took a Jon Jones failed drug test and according to Sonnen, $6 million to get “The Spider” in the cage at UFC 200 like he wanted.

Cormier dominated the fight, taking Silva down whenever he felt like it and landing strikes from the top. He cruised to an easy unanimous decision victory (30-26 on all three judges scorecards) defeating a fighter many call the greatest of all time.

The loss gives Silva four losses in his last five fights, with the only non-loss being ruled a no contest against Nick Diaz. Silva hasn’t won a fight since October 13, 2012 at UFC 153, but if Sonnen is correct about the $6 million Silva charged the UFC to step in on short notice at UFC 200; he is doing just fine.

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