The Stephen Thompson fallout from UFC 291 continues.
Less than two weeks ago, “Wonderboy” saw a fight with Michel Pereira fall through when “Demolidor” missed weight by three pounds for their main card bout in Salt Lake City, Utah. While the fight could have moved forward at a catchweight, Thompson declined the bout, citing the fact that he is at a critical point in his career at age 41, where any loss could scuttle his hopes for one last shot at gold.
“At my age and given what I’ve accomplished in this sport, I’m not here to be a gatekeeper, I’m here to fight for and win a UFC Welterweight Title. This isn’t a video game and both of us are putting our health and our careers on the line,” Thompson wrote, in part, on social media. “If I don’t finish my opponent, I risk losing a decision, even if it’s a split decision as what happened when I fought Darren Till and almost the same exact scenario played out back then. 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.”
Days and weeks later, it appears Thompson has yet to be paid for the fight. While the bout never took place, historically, fighters who have made weight have been paid something, often their show money, for successfully doing their part to make the fight happen.
Following Tuesday’s 2023 Contender Series debut, UFC President Dana White addressed the situation when asked for an update by reporter Alex Behunin.
I asked Dana about Wonderboy’s pay situation pic.twitter.com/pel34VJiEh
— Alex Behunin (@AlexBehunin) August 9, 2023
“So how that works is, guys don’t just get paid to not fight. That’s not how that works,” responded White, in what turned out to be a fairly comprehensive reply. “Guys have been paid, we’ve taken care of guys— 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 over weight, whatever it was, you get a piece of his purse if you take the fight.”
“If you decide you don’t want to take the fight, we also offered him another fight. There’s a much bigger story behind the scenes. And no, you don’t just show up and say ‘yeah I’m not going to fight, I want a quarter of a million dollars.’ That’s not the way it works. It hasn’t worked that way for anybody. So what we do it we try to get you another fight, we try to turn you around quickly. If you don’t turn around quickly, then we try to figure out, what did it cost for you camp? We’ll reimburse you. There’s a lot of different ways this gets worked out. You don’t just go ‘yeah this guy’s three pounds over, I’m not going to fight and no I won’t take another fight two weeks later, and pay me my show money.’ That’s not how it works.”
“You don’t fight, you don’t get paid necessarily, in the contract,” added White. “But we always make sure that we take care of everybody, and we’re working it out with Wonderbody right now. It’s all being worked out behind the scenes, and it should all be worked out by Saturday.”
There you have it — “Wonderboy” Thompson will get paid, something. The question is how much, and it at least seems like it will be enough to cover his expenses. Still a hard pill to swallow for someone else missing weight.
