Dana White refuses to increase post-fight bonuses for monumental UFC 306 event after fighters attempt to goad him into it
13/09/2024 11:47
This past Thursday just outside the Sphere in Las Vegas, the UFC hosted its UFC 306 pre-fight press conference in which every fighter on the entire card took part.
Noche UFC, also known as UFC 306, is one of the biggest combat sports events of all time and is the first sporting event to take place at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
In the main event, the UFC’s biggest current active star, Sean O’Malley defends his bantamweight title against Georgian number one contender, Merab Dvalishvili.
In the lead-up to the monumental event, UFC CEO Dana White has been open with the fans regarding how much money it has taken to create such a unique event, revealing that it has cost over $20m.
The recent history of Dana White increasing post-fight bonuses
Something that has become a theme of the UFC this year, is White spontaneously increasing the post-fight bonuses for fighters and it first began back at the milestone UFC 300 event in April.
During the pre-fight press conference for that event, the fighters all rallied together and chanted on stage for White to increase the bonuses from $50k to $300k, to mark the significance of the event.
After agreeing to raise the bonuses, the night turned out to be a huge success with several incredible fights and spectacular finishes.
Just a few months later at UFC 303 in June, White awarded UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira, $303k for his emphatic knockout win over Jiri Prochazka.
The following PPV after that, UFC 304 in Manchester, White agreed to double the bonuses from $50k to $100k, but after a night of below-par fights, the UFC boss vowed that he would never do it again because it clearly didn’t drive the fighters to perform well.
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“I think tonight showed that we should not (give out bigger bonuses). Upping them doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make anybody fight harder. I’m not doing this again. Ever. Today was the last day I’m doing that,” White said at the UFC 304 post-fight press conference.
Dana White refuses to increase bonuses on stage at UFC 306 press conference
This past Thursday just a few days out from the huge UFC 306 event at the Sphere, all 20 fighters took to the stage for the pre-fight press conference.
One fighter who is competing in the special event, Edgar Chairez, attempted to get White to increase the bonuses because of the significance of the event.
“Listen, I think if we already have an event to celebrate the hardest-working people in the world, maybe a different kind of paycheck or some sort of additional bonus to reward us for such hard work, what do you think?” Chairez pleaded.
The majority of the fighters on stage then proceeded to attempt to goad Dana into increasing the bonuses by chanting ‘Dana! Dana! Dana!’, and Brian Ortega even shouted out ‘Pay the Mexicans!’.
Unfortunately though, White having learned from his mistake swiftly moved the conversation on and abruptly said: “Who has the next question?”
White has made it clear that in the future there may be an increase in the bonuses in general but he is never going to be pushed into increasing them per event because of fighters asking about it at press conferences.
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