‘Never again’… Dana White lowers fighter bonuses after ‘nobody fought any harder’ at UFC 304

Dana White won’t keep increasing fighter bonuses after a lack lustre series of bouts in Manchester on Saturday night.

The UFC CEO upped the standard $50,000 performance bonuses for UFC 304 after being asked by King Green during the pre-fight press conference. He raised it to $100,000, making for a bigger motivator to particularly those on the undercard who are on early contracts.

However, the event was still full of decisions, much to his annoyance. Of the 14 bouts in the evening, nine went to the judges including the main event and only one was a split decision, indicating that the other eight weren’t necessarily too close or exciting.

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Dana White unhappy with showings at UFC 304 after raising bonuses

Dana White was not thrilled with the action in Manchester, refusing to admit that the late night nature of the show may have played a factor. The event was run for an American audience, where West Coast audiences are eight hours behind UK time.

The first early prelim took place at 11.15pm, and by the time the main card kicked off it was already 3am locally. Welterweight champion Leon Edwards even admitted that he was feeling tired throughout the week attempting to stay up for a ring walk time that ended up in the region of 5am.

“I think tonight showed that we should not,” White said when asked about permanently increasing the bonuses. “Upping them doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make anybody fight any harder. It doesn’t change anything. I’m not doing this again. Ever. Today was the last day that I’m doing that.

“Not saying that in the future the bonuses couldn’t get [to increase permanently], but I’m not going to be at a press conference and say, ‘$200, $300K.’ F***ing never again. Never again. You can thank everybody on this card for that.”

Paddy Pimblett pockets $200,000 bonus as one undercard fighter earns huge cheque

Ironically, after demanding the extra bonuses from Dana White, it ended up being King Green’s opponent Paddy Pimblett that pocketed double money for his stunning first round finish over the American on Sunday morning.

The Brit choked his rival unconscious in the opening round to send the Co-Op Live Arena into a frenzy, and was handsomely rewarded for his efforts. Elsewhere, undercard fighter Mick Parkin who is likely still on the UFC’s entry-level $12,000/$12,000 contract had his life changed as a result of his KO win.

Tom Aspinall also earned a bonus in his interim heavyweight title defence against Curtis Blaydes after landing a big stoppage in the first. But Pimblett was the undeniable star of the show, earning double money from White.

“Paddy is one of those guys that everybody talks s*** about and everybody wants to call him out,” White told the media following the event. “He keeps winning and he looked damn good tonight, that’s why he got the $200,000.

“I mean, I don’t think Bobby Green has been submitted since like 2009. So congrats to him, that’s a guy that came out tonight and looked like he wanted an extra $100,000.”

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