MMA: Dana White’s Solution To Low Fighter Pay – Remove “F–king” Bonuses

Dana White

Aside from all the buzz surrounding UFC 162: Silva vs. Weidman, which is coming up this weekend, another hot topic that’s breaking waves right now in the world of MMA is low fighter pay in the UFC. In fact, the topic is getting pretty heated since newcomer Tim Kennedy commented on it recently, and who later apologized. Although UFC President Dana White isn’t coming out now with a solution because of what was said, but figured he’d address low fighter pay last Monday with the media.

White’s solution with CEO Lorenzo Fertitta of Zuffa, LLC, is to remove fight night bonuses and to allow fighters to negotiate a better contract with the company. Here is what he said, according to USA Today:

“You don’t like the structure? Alright, we’ll pay the lower-level guys more money — no more f–king bonuses. You guys come in, you negotiate your contracts, and we do away with all bonuses. That’s what I’m thinking about doing.”

“The bonuses are something we’ve been doing out of the kindness of our f–king hearts. It was something we liked to do. Apparently, people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money.”

At the moment, removing bonuses is only a consideration, not official, but it sounds like White is completely frustrated about the topic. Most likely he’s hoping people will think twice before they open their mouths again on low fighter pay.

“All these f–king morons have no idea what goes into this and what it takes to build a sport and a company at the same time. And we’ve been very fair to guys.”