Would You Take A Beating For $5,000?

I came across this article that list the pay-outs the fighters received at UFC’s last two pay per view events, UFC 63 & 64. You can read the entire list of salaries for every fighter on the cards here. Here are a few of the notables:

(from UFC 63)
Matt Hughes: $130,000 (defeated BJ Penn)
BJ Penn: $50,000 (lost to Matt Hughes)
Rashad Evans: $24,000 (defeated Jason Lambert)
Danny Abaddi: $5,000 (lost to Jorge Gurgel)

(from UFC 64)
Anderson Silva: $50,000 (defeated Rich Franklin)
Sean Sherk: $22,000 (defeated Kenny Florian)
Rich Franklin: $21,000 (lost to Anderson Silva)
Kenny Florian: $8,000 (lost to Sean Sherk)
Kalib Starnes: $5,000 (lost to Yushin Okami)

I have no idea how the UFC and the fighters arrive at these amounts. You can see Matt Hughes got paid the most but I can understand that, as he is one of the more popular men in the UFC. However, I can’t help but thinking Rich Franklin got screwed. If wonder if it was really worth the $21 large for Rich to get his nose seriously smashed by Silva’s knees?