Derek T. Brunson or famous as Derek Brunson is a professional American mixed martial artist (MMA) who currently fights on Ultimate Fight Championship (UFC) in the middleweight category.He is currently ranked no. 7 in the UFC middleweight division.
A brown belt winner in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under the tutelage of David Branch. He also competed at the American MMA organization, Strikeforce.
He earns a good sum of money through his MMA career. His earnings from sponsorships with sports brands like Reebok. His net worth could be more than $2 million, as of 2021. Back in 2015, his net worth was reported to be around $1 million. Derek has so far earned $1,808,000 from his UFC career.
His Total UFC career earning is disclosed below down the table:
| Date | Event | Earnings |
| December 29, 2012 | UFC 155 | $30,000 |
| November 6, 2013 | UFC: Fight for the Troops 3 | $34,000 |
| January 15, 2014 | UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Philippou | $69,000 |
| August 30, 2014 | UFC 177 | $44,000 |
| January 31, 2015 | UFC 183 | $50,000 |
| August 8, 2015 | UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs. Saint Preux | $61,000 |
| February 21, 2016 | UFC Fight Night: Cowboy vs. Cowboy | $72,000 |
| September 17, 2016 | UFC Fight Night: Poirier vs. Johnson | $76,000 |
| November 27, 2016 | UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Brunson | $95,000 |
| February 11, 2017 | UFC 208 | $45,000 |
| June 11, 2017 | UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Hunt | $85,000 |
| October 28, 2017 | UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Machida | $134,000 |
| January 27, 2018 | UFC on Fox: Jacaré vs. Brunson 2 | $54,000 |
| November 3, 2018 | UFC 230 | $54,000 |
| May 4, 2019 | UFC Fight Night: Iaquinta vs. Cowboy | $93,000 |
| August 17, 2019 | UFC 241 | $190,000 |
Besides UFC, he has also competed at Strikeforce, Carolina's Summer Fight Series, and World Extreme Fighting through which he might have earned a decent sum. According to the source, his total fighting career earnings is reported to be more than $2 million
With a tremendous net worth and salary, he is living a lavish lifestyle. Further, he owns a Rolls-Royce worth $450,000.
Derek Brunson is reported to be married, his wife's name is not known. He has three children with his wife including 2 daughters and a son named Elijah. The details of his family and personal life is very much limited as he seems to be very secretive about his life.
Currently 35, he stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs around 76 kg. He has a reach of 76 inches which he effectively during his fight.
Derek Brunson is of American nationality with an African heritage. He was born on January 4, 1984, in Wilmington North Carolina United States. He did his schooling at John T Hoggard High School and got a scholarship in both cheerleading and wrestling. His wrestling coach at the school was Dan Willis.
Brunson was the three-time winner of Division II All American Wrestler from the University of North Carolina. After his graduation, he focused more on MMA and trained under Renzo Gracie in Jiu-Jitsu and MMA under Greg Jackson alongside Jon Jones.
He started his professional MMA career with a bout against John Bryant in May 2010 and won with a rear-naked choke hold within sixty seconds. Brunson later signed with another American MMA promotion, Strikeforce, and made his debut against Jermy Hamilton and won via a unanimous decision.
He was supposed to appear at the Ultimate Fighter 17 due to a contractual dispute he was not able to compete in.
Brunson later joined the renowned UFC and made his debut as a replacement for injured Karlos Vemola in a fight against Chris Leben on December 29, 2012, at the event, UFC 155. He won the fight via unanimous decision and signed a new four-year contract with the promotion on February 15, 2014.
Brunson was expected to fight against Lorenz Larkin on August 2, 2014, at UFC 176 and due to the show being canceled, the match instead took place at UFC 177 on August 30, 2014. He won the match by a unanimous decision.
Brunson faced Ronaldo Souza on January 27, 2018, in the main event of UFC and but lost via TKO in the very first round of the fight. He was defeated by Israel Adesanya on November 3, 2018, at UFC 230. Further, he marked his victory against Elias Theodorou and Ian Heinisch at UFC Fight Night: Iaquinta vs. Cowboy and UFC 241. Recently, he defeated Kevin Holland on March 20, 2021.
