Now that we’ve had a couple of day’s to absorb the event that was “UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop” we at The MMA News are wondering if “Fight Night” bonuses are enough to motivate fighters to put in a great performance.
Has the UFC’s policy of “one and done” got fighters so scared they’re unwilling to take risks that could end up costing them the fight and their job. Looking back at the past two UFC events, UFC 119 and UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares conspiracy theorists might see a trend emerging that points to yes.
UFC president Dana White offered fighters $70,000 “Fight Night” bonuses for this past weekends UFC 119 event. It was a higher payout than the usual $60K offered during normal pay-per-view events, but no where near the highest bonus payouts of $100K handed out at UFC 100. Maybe White new the card was a little flat and felt he could motivate fighters with a bigger payout.
Fighters taking part on the Sept. 15 UFN 22 in Austin, Texas were offered $40,000 “Fight Night” bonuses, a 33.3% increase over the usual $30,000 bonuses handed out at recent UFC Fight Night events.
Both event cards featured a total of 21 bouts, 13 of which went to decision.
The headliner for UFC 119 was certainly headed that way but Frank Mir’s third round knee to opponent Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovi? stopped the fight before the bell. At UFN 22, five straight bouts went to unanimous decision on the preliminary card with another two on the Spike TV broadcast going that way also. Thankfully Cole Miller was able to submit Ross Pearson in the second, and Efrain Escudero was finally caught by Charles Oliveira in the third with a rear-naked-choke to end that fight before the judges could preside over that bout.
Is this a trend mixed martial arts fans are doomed to witness in future events? One could never know, but as fighters look to protect their livelihood and training camps prepare their fighters to earn a Win, the answer appears to be yes.
Fighters not in the top tiers of their division have to deal with the fact that one loss could put them on the unemployment line. Coming out and laying it all “on the line” for an exciting fight just isn’t worth it when you compare job security in the UFC to the chance of earning a big bonus for a win.
So fighters are looking at ways of winning that reduces their chances of being cut from the UFC.
A perfect example was a bout many had tagged as a “Fight of the Night” candidate, between lightweights Melvin Guillard and Jeremy Stephens. The fight was anything but “Fight of the Night” material.
Not to point the finger at either fighter, but BloodyElbow.com had an interesting article on Guillard and the untypical strategy he employed against Stephens.
The article notes that since joining the Greg Jackson camp, Guillard dropped his typical exciting fighting style for the Jackson “Winning Above All” strategy against Stephens. Basically the fighter dances in and out while never putting themselves in danger, all the while doing just enough to win the fight.
Not an exciting strategy from a fans perspective, but one that wins fights using the Ten Point must system.
So will we be stuck watching unexciting fights for the foreseeable future?
For the short term the answer would be yes, but we can see a move by the UFC to change the rules or offer fighters some greater incentive to put on a great fight if the trend continues.
One easy change the UFC could employ which would certainly go a long way, would be dropping their right to release any fighter after a loss, that would certainly encourage fighters to put on an exciting bout.
Telling the UFC that you were simply “laying it all on the line” to earn a “Fight Night” bonus definitely won’t save your, especially after your opponents hand has been raised and yours wasn’t. But employing a strategy that looks to minimize the danger to you while scoring points will certainly keep you around for the next fight.