Shortly after every UFC event, many mixed martial arts (MMA) outlets release announced salaries and win bonuses for every fighter on the card. However, most are aware that many fighters receive extra pay on top of their standard fight salary and win bonus.
In addition to endorsement deals with sponsors, several fighters also receive discretionary, unannounced bonuses from the UFC. Fighters Only Magazine recently reported on an explanation from UFC President Dana White on these mysterious bonuses.
“First of all, sometimes an event becomes bigger than we anticipated it to be. Sometimes there’s more money involved than we budgeted or thought could happen. What do we do? We share with them. We’re not going to go, ‘Hey, listen. That’s your deal, buddy. You signed that deal. I don’t care how big this event was,’ even though that’s our right to do so,” White said.
“The other reason a guy might get a bonus is because me and Lorenzo are sick, insane fight fans, and we might be sitting there in our chairs, and when we jump up out of our seat and start screaming, ‘Holy s–t!’ we’re writing that dude a check, no matter what. There have been many cases where the show didn’t do what we thought they were going to do, but we felt that he deserved that extra money.”
Despite the best efforts of the media, these discretionary bonuses have been kept secret for the most part. White explained that the media can ask him all they want, but it is the fighters who don’t want that information released.
“[The fighters] don’t want you to know, and they don’t want anyone else to know, either,” White said. “We’ve become accustomed to it with professional athletes because in all of the other big sports, it’s out there. You think they want it out there? It drives them nuts. But that’s the way these guys like it, and I don’t blame them one bit. But man, it kills the media. They want to know [about] that money so bad.”
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