UFC lightweight Evan Dunham has a bit of a financial horror story preceding his retirement bout.
Evan Dunham has had one of the more respectable careers in the UFC. He’s a bit of an iron man, in fact — making his UFC debut at UFC 95 against Per Eklund with a KO victory, and amassing 19 fights against top competition over the last (near) decade.
Perhaps that’s what makes his current financial troubles all the more curious. Stemming from his TKO loss to Olivier Aubin-Mercier at UFC 223, Dunham claims the UFC failed to process his ambulance bill.
Dealing with collections right now ufc never paid my ambulance bill from two fights ago. Even though I sent the bill in multiple times to whoever is suppose to be handling it. #ufc
— Evan Dunham (@evandunham155) September 10, 2018
In some ways, this isn’t that unexpected. Rumblings about the UFC’s insurance policy being insufficient has been whispered about for years. Jacob Volkmann described the UFC’s healthcare plan as “horrible”, citing his high deductible and lack of a retirement fund. The lack of a retirement fund is how Mark Coleman famously had a GoFundMe page created to raise money for his medical bills. Leslie Smith couldn’t afford treatment for her stomach tumor. And so forth…
The UFC has a medical insurance policy, but their current policy works more to exempt the UFC from liability in the event of a brain injury — not provide full and comprehensive coverage. Could this all simply be a mixup? Maybe.
Dunham is facing Francisco Trinaldo September 22 at UFN 137. In August, he posted on Instagram that it will be his last bout.