A fighter on the UFC 186 card could become the highest paid UFC athlete ever by the end of the weekend

When you think of the highest overall earners on the UFC roster, names like Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and Chuck Liddell spring to mind.

Predictably enough, middleweight legend Anderson Silva is currently sat in first place in terms of highest paid fighters. But it's a less obvious name entirely who could claim top spot this week depending on his performance at UFC 186 on Saturday night. Michael Bisping is less than $300,000 behind The Spider and, with a Performance of the Night bonus over upcoming opponent CB Dolloway, he could become the fighter whose bank account has most benefited from the UFC. Bisping has fought 22 times in the UFC since his promotional debut in 2006, winning 15 of his fights, nine by KO/TKO with plenty of POTN bonuses thrown in so his earnings are not altogether shocking. A couple of caveats have to be considered when looking at the numbers compiled by MMA-Manifesto such as the fact that the fighters' salaries were not released by athletic commissions before 2004 and that the amounts only reflect official payouts from the promotion, rather than any unofficial "locker room" bonuses but we think if you had offered Michael Bisping $5 million at the start of his career, he'd have bitten your hand off for it.