"Knocking them down to $25,000 for this" - When Dana White declined to raise UFC 200's fight bonuses to $200,000
UFC CEO Dana White raised the performance bonuses at the milestone UFC 300 pay-per-view event from the usual $50,000 to a whopping $300,000.
However, it was not the same story a century of numbered events ago at UFC 200. The card was held at the same venue as the latest event, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, on July 9, 2016.
Ahead of the event, White was asked if he would consider raising the performance bonuses to $200,000 going by the precedent set at UFC 100. White was having none of it as he immediately shut down the idea citing that the fighters earned sufficient and significant amounts of money, as opposed to in previous events.
The UFC CEO said:
"No, bonuses are the same. No, these people are making a lot of money now, man. No. [I'm] knocking them down to $25,000 for this fight."
UFC 200 suffered a dramatic turn of events with regards to its main event, as star fighters Conor McGregor and Jon Jones were initially set to headline but were removed for various reasons.
Ultimately, bantamweight champion Miesha Tate defended her title against Amanda Nunes in the main event.
Check out Dana White's full comments below on YouTube:
Dana White promises to take care of fighters who did not receive a performance bonus
Dana White has come a long way. In stark contrast to UFC 200, the boss was willing to raise the bonuses to a whopping $300,000 this past weekend.
However, that was not all, as White made further promises to reward other fighters who shone on the night but could not outdo the UFC 300 bonus winners.
In the post-fight press conference, after announcing the bonuses, White named four other fighters whom he would make sure 'got what they deserved'.
He said:
"It wasn’t difficult at all [to assign performance bonuses]. I mean, if you were watching these fights tonight, it was pretty – it’s pretty clear but this was one of those special nights. Obviously, I’m going to take care of [Deiveson] Figueiredo. I’ll take care of [Renato] Moicano, Diego [Lopes], Kayla [Harrison]. Take care of those guys too. We’re going to make sure everybody leaves here in a good mood and feeling like they got what they deserved."
Check out Dana White's full comments below in the press conference [0:35]: