Dana White has a ‘big surprise’ from Turki Alalshikh.
Eight years after Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather took place, the UFC CEO finds himself back in the boxing world, promoting the biggest fight of the year between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford this weekend.
Canelo vs. Crawford is the first boxing event under the TKO/Zuffa Boxing banner. Dana White was front and center for the press conference on Thursday, where he dodged a question from a reporter about TKO attempting to change the Muhammad Ali act for fighters.
At the end of the press conference, Turki Alalshikh told White onstage to make a ‘surprise’ announcement.
White did not make any such announcement at the press conference, waiting until Friday to do so.
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Dana White announces $100,000 bonuses for Canelo vs. Crawford undercard
Speaking to Stephen A. Smith on Sirius XM, White revealed that there will be $100,000 bonuses for both ‘performance of the night’ and ‘fight of the night’ for the Canelo-Crawford undercard.
“The opportunity wasn’t there during the press conference,” White claimed.
“So I’ll announce it right here…
“Canelo and Crawford are going to do just fine on Saturday. They’re going to be okay.
“But on the undercard fights, we’re going to have a performance of the night and a fight of the night [bonus]. $100,000 each for the fighters on the undercard from Turki Alalshikh,” White confirmed.
“So you can be involved in the performance of the night and the fight of the night and take home 200 grand for these undercard fighters,” White said.
In comparison, each performance bonus in the UFC is $50,000. The UFC usually hands out two performance of the night bonuses and then a fight of the night bonus to both fighters involved, but of course this depends on the event.
Fans react to boxing bonuses being twice as big as UFC’s
White’s bonus reveal on Friday was not without criticism.
While White stated the bonuses are from Turki Alalshikh, the UFC boss caught flak for not raising the bar on bonuses for his fighters.
“Can’t do this for UFC?” one fan said of White confirming boxing bonuses were double the premier promotion’s.
“But UFC fighters been stuck at 50k for over a decade? Cool,” another fan said.
“How?! Dana White told me that undercard boxers make peanuts compared to MMA fighters!” another fan wrote on X.