Ahead of UFC 306 the UFC held the usual pre-fight press conference. During this conference the topic of bouses came up following the recent trend of fighters trying to raise bonuses. It also generally follows the trend of fighter pay being talking about and fighters becoming more vocal regarding pay. This has generally been a positive thing and has had benefits. However, this time not so much Dana White shutting the idea down.
Dana White Turns Down Fighters Request for Increased Bonus at UFC 306
For UFC 300 the fighters at the press conference asked for $300,000 bonuses to mark the occasion. On that occasion Dana obliged bumping the usual $50,000 bonus to $300,000. This was followed by a series of amazing fights throughout the card.
UFC 303 also experienced a similar treatment although it was only targeted towards Alex Pereira. For saving the event and having an excellent KO over Jiri Prochazka Dana White awarded Alex with a bonus. This bonus was $303,000 a very large sum of money.
Dana then agreed to up the bonuses for UFC 304 in Manchester going up from $50,000 to $100,000. However, with White viewing most of the fights as not sufficiently entertaining he vowed never to raise bonuses again. This was said in the post-fight press conference. Dana said, “I think tonight showed that we should not (give out bigger bonuses). Upping them doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make anybody fight harder. I’m not doing this again. Ever. Today was the last day I’m doing that.”
That response seems a little silly as their clearly was another factor that could have impacted performances. Dana and the UFC made the baffling decision to hold an event in England at U.S times meaning the fights were in the early hours of the morning in the UK. And considering many fighters on the card were based in the UK clearly the timing would have impacted performances. Tom Aspinall has said as much. There’s also the factor of the match ups that were made that impact if a finish happens or not.
UFC 306
So, at the pre-fight press conference for UFC 306 the fighters asked for a bonus range for the occasion. Chairez a fighter on the card said, “Listen, I think if we already have an event to celebrate the hardest-working people in the world, maybe a different kind of paycheck or some sort of additional bonus to reward us for such hard work, what do you think?”
Other fighters at the conference following this chanted “Dana” in an attempt to get the Dana to again raise the bonuses. Brian Ortega also shouted, “Pay the Mexicans!”. However, this had no effect with Dana moving on and asking for the next question. Kind of depressing to see the fighters pleading for more pay and to be shut down.
So there will likely be no bonus increase for UFC 306. This could likely be too how expensive this event apparently was Dana claiming it cost the UFC roughly $20 million. There’s also the fact Dana now seems to be under the impression increased bonuses don’t have a positive impact. Dana’s position on this may soften over time but it appears for the foreseeable future we won’t see bonus increases unless for very exceptional circumstances.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
