Once upon a time, UFC president Dana White was in a good mood, so instead of the peanuts he generally pays his fighters, he made them feel better about getting hit in the head for a living. White agreed to pay the fighters $300,000 bonus after insistence from Max Holloway and did the same for UFC 304. But given that he’s already spent $20 million for The Sphere, the UFC president is not shaking those deep pockets for chump change again.
When Edgar Chairez asked the White to increase the bonus ahead of IFC 306, the fans started chanting his name. White, remained unmoved and didn’t even react to it. The UFC president responded to the request by asking what the next question was.
The fighters just tried asking Dana White to increase the bonuses for #NocheUFC
His response: “Next question.” #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/iJCxOjVKG3
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 13, 2024
White had already made this decision after the disaster of a card that UFC 304 was. Disappointed by how the fights played out despite increasing the bonuses, White had made a statement claiming that he wouldn’t be increasing it anymore.
Why White won’t increase bonues anymore?
Fair wages for fighters in the UFC has been a raging issue in the MMA community and Dana White hates that people even talk about it. So it’s only natural that he doesn’t want to keep increasing bonuses anymore.
But to be more official and take the word from the horse’s mouth, following the disappointment that was the UFC 304 card in Manchester, White had asserted that since the extra money doesn’t motivate anyone to go finish fights, he won’t be paying them anymore.
“I think tonight showed that we should not. Upping them doesn’t change anything, it doesn’t make anybody fight any harder….I’m not doing this again, ever. Today was the last.”
Dana White says he won’t be increasing the post fight bonuses during a press conference again.#UFC304 pic.twitter.com/JVppDHBlpb
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) July 28, 2024
Now, that is partially true. The whole card ended up being a little underwhelming and but a lot had to do with the kind of fighters on that card.
White feels he kept his end of the bargain by increasing the bonus. However, the fighters on the card failed to deliver exciting fights.
That is funny because most athletes at the top of their games in any sport of such renown wouldn’t really care for $50-$100k bonuses owing to their 7-8 figure bank accounts but UFC athletes have been paid pretty much the same bonus since the company was only worth a few million dollars.
