Bonus money in the UFC is set to double with the launch of the promotion’s new broadcast deal with Paramount+, with the company also set to introduce a finish incentive as well.
That’s per a report on Saturday from the Sports Business Journal, citing UFC CEO and President Dana White.
That means the usual $50,000 bonuses for Performance and Fight of the Night will shift to $100,000. At the start of the UFC’s modern era, bonuses occasionally crept up on Pay-Per-View cards, before a flat 50K was eventually settled on. There were of course a few exceptions, including $300,000 post-fight bonuses at UFC 300.
That said, the double bonus money is good news, and is accompanied by another perk (or perhaps motivational tool, if you prefer): a finish bonus of $25,000 will be awarded to all fighters who knock out or submit their opponent on UFC cards moving forward. Winners of the $100,000 Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses won’t qualify for the finishing bonus, so there will be no doubling up.
UFC 324, which kicks off the UFC’s U.S. broadcast deal with Paramount+, has seen talk once again shift to fighter pay. That, after Cageside Press asked headliner Justin Gaethje about how he had invested some of his post-fight bonus money over the years.
Gaethje immediately lamented having 14 post-fight bonuses that still didn’t add up to a million dollars. He also noted that he wasn’t being paid any more money under the Paramount+ deal than he had been previously, despite comments from promotion officials including White and analyst Daniel Cormier that fighters would be paid more moving forward (White later stated that the UFC had offered Gaethje more money, but had not heard back from the lightweight star).
At Thursday’s UFC 324 pre-fight press conference, Gaethje shot down further questions about fighter pay.
If nothing else, the bonus news, and finish incentive, is a step in the right direction— though it remains to be seen how the promotion will address the loss of Pay-Per-View bonus points, now that PPV is a thing of the past in most regions. Nor does it address the embarrassingly low starting wage in the UFC, which has not increased from $10,0000 to show and $10,000 to win in a decade.
