Should Dana White pay extra bonuses for all events? Fans argue UFC can "EASILY" afford more than $50K
An event-specific UFC 300 bonus was unveiled during yesterday's pre-fight press conference. Instead of the usual $50,000 Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses, the fighters requested a $300,000 bonus, which the promotion's CEO, Dana White, was willing to oblige.
In a surprising turn of events, White agreed to it. Unfortunately, it is little more than a one-time act of compliance, as every follow-up event will return to the $50,000 bonus model. However, given the promotion's wealth, it is more than capable of dishing out higher bonuses going forward.
Check out the fighters' reaction to the UFC 300 bonus:
This can be assessed from the company's financial performance in 2023. According to SportsPro Media, last year, the promotions generated $1.3 billion in revenue, while another report from Observer News Enterprise revealed that it also had an operating income of $142.9 million in 2023. SportsPro Media also reported that the promotion had a net income of over $300 million two years ago.
Given the financials, it would require no effort to bump up the usual bonuses to $300,000. Various fan statements on the matter corroborated this. One fan highlighted the promotion's wealth in both 2022 and 2023.
"In 2022 UFC made 300 million in PROFIT, 23 was more, 24 will be more. If u take roughly 400 fights per year and let's say u take 100 mill, thats 250k per fight. and that would be WAY over 4-5x per fight. They can EASILY afford to pay 4 and 5x"
This sentiment was echoed by another fan.
"What's a couple million to the millions upon millions that they profit. The UFC could probably afford this every card and not suffer."
Others lamented that the fighters had to beg for the promotion to up the bonus.
"The fact that these fighters were begging Dana White for a few hundo LOL."
Check out more reactions below:
However, given White's stance on the company's financials, fans and fighters alike ought not to expect such changes to be permanent or even frequent.
UFC 300 had several proposed main events
While Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight title against Jamahal Hill in the headline, the pair was not the first main event choice. Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus du Plessis in a grudge match for middleweight gold was attempted, but the South African needed to recover from his war with Sean Strickland.
Similarly, Leon Edwards vs. Islam Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev, and Shavkat Rakhmonov were also proposed. However, the latter three could not commit to the bout due to Ramadan commitments.