Anti-Trust Lawsuit Documents Reveal That UFC Gave Lyoto Machida $100,000 Stoppage Bonus

Former UFC fighters are currently in the midst of a lawsuit against the very promotion that they had once worked for.

Bloody Elbow has obtained redacted passages from Hal J. Singer, who is the expert witness for the Plaintiff’s and one of those documents show that former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida, who now fights for Bellator MMA, was at one point in time subject to a $100,000 stoppage bonus.

The exact passage from the lawsuit states:

“…an agreement with Lyoto Machida that awards a stoppage bonus (“Further, Zuffa shall pay Fighter a Stoppage Bonus for such Bout in the amount of One Hundred Thousand Dollars (US $100,000), less all permissible or required deductions and withholding. For purposes of this Agreement, a Stoppage occurs if and only if Fighter is declared the winner of the Bout by Knock Out, Technical Knock Out or Submission by the applicable Athletic Commission.”).”

It has yet to be revealed if the $100,000 bonus offer was for the length of Machida’s UFC tenure or for just a single bout. Machida made his promotional debut at UFC 67 in February of 2007 and stayed with the UFC until fighting for the final time under their auspices at UFC 224 in May of 2018. 

If Machida did get the $100,000 bonus for every stoppage, it would have earned the fighter a total of $1,300,000 according to Bloody Elbow.