Tag: Stephen Thompson

Dana White will hand Nelk Boys handler Gabe Souza $50,000 if he can shed a few pounds over the next few months.

White’s relationship with the Nelk Boys has been a contentious one for MMA fans. Things seemed to reach a boiling point when the UFC CEO gifted one of the YouTube troupe’s founders — Kyle Forgeard — $250,000 for his birthday while the debate over fighter pay continued to rage on.

In a recent video clip shared by Jed I. Goodman on X, White was once again seen offering up a ridiculous sum of money to Souza, the executive assistant of Kyle Forgeard and the Nelk Boys. If he can drop his body weight down to 190 pounds by May 16, White agreed to hand him 50k in cold hard cash.

“May 16, if you come in at 190 pounds, I’m gonna give you $50,000,” White said in the video.

In the clip, it’s revealed that White has already gifted Souza $45,000 during his weight loss journey, meaning if he meets the agreed-upon goal, he will have banked almost 100k in less than a year.

Fight fans online had an understandable reaction to the video and White’s willingness to throw copious amounts of money at the Nelk Boys while many UFC fighters continue to go into debt to pay for their fight camps.

“Dana will pay a Nelk boy for making weight but won’t pay Wonderboy,” one commenter wrote.

“Crazy how Dana throws money at these corny, rich influencers but rostered UFC fighters are fighting for pennies,” another added.

Dana White Defends Not Paying ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson

In July, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thomspon was scheduled to fight Michel Pereira at UFC 291. Pereira stepped on the scale three pounds overweight prompting Thompson to bow out of the contest altogether.

“I made weight this morning as I have done every fight during my 11+ year UFC career,” Thompson wrote in a statement published to his Instagram on July 28. “My opponent did not. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an opponent miss weight and given how that played out previously, myself and my team felt that it’s ultimately not smart for us to move forward with this fight.

“This isn’t a videogame and both of us are putting our health and our careers on the line… Fighters who miss weight face far too few consequences and are often allowed to fight with a significant competitive advantage. This appears to be happening more and more these days. Hopefully, the decision to not move forward with the fight will discourage others from missing weight in the future. I also hope to encourage fighters that face this situation to follow suit and not allow this to happen to them. I’m healthy and I will look to get back in the Octagon [as soon as possible] but on a level playing field…”

Despite showing up for work and making the agreed-upon weight, ‘Wonderboy’ never received his fight purse which prompted backlash from fans.

“So how that works is, guys don’t just get paid to not fight,” White told reporters during a post-fight press conference. “It’s not how that works. Guys have been paid. We’ve taken care of guys. Hey, listen, if you come in, and you’re making short money, we take care of you.

“You come in and you don’t fight — first of all, you decided not to fight. The guy was three pounds overweight, whatever it was, you get a piece of his purse if you take the fight. But if you deter you decide you don’t want to take the fight. We also offered him another fight.”