Las Vegas — For years, you’d hear tell of “locker room bonuses” handed out to UFC fighters who Dana White and other promotion execs felt were deserving of a little something extra.
Those days are in the past.
Per White, those bonuses, which were not normally disclosed publicly outside of off-hand comments by the UFC CEO and President during press conferences, have been replaced by the new $25,000 finishing bonuses.
“What has been happening forever in this company, since we started this company, is that every night, I would tell you ‘okay this guys won these bonuses’ but everybody on the card would get a check, for different dollar amounts depending on how they fought,” White told media outlets including Cageside Press following UFC 324 on Saturday. “Ranking anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 dollars. Every event.”
“Those are going a way, and now finishes will get a $25,000 bonus,” added White.
The UFC’s new finishing bonuses were revealed on Saturday, first by the Sports Business Journal, citing White, and then on the UFC 324 broadcast. Welterweight Ty Miller, making his promotional debut, would have been the first to snag said bonus. However, after being awarded a Performance of the Night bonus instead, it’s not 25K, but 100K, that Miller will take home.
Waldo-Cortes Acosta and Nikita Krylov, however, did qualify. Alex Perez, who missed weight for his fight with Charles Johnson, does not. Despite Perez earning a TKO finish, fighters who miss weight will be ineligible for the award, as they are with Performance and Fight of the Night bonuses.
