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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"At the last press conference, I talked to the press I told them we're not doing away with the fight of the night bonuses. After I said that, I got a lot of feedback from the fighters. The fighters want the finish bonuses. They want the finish bonuses and they want the discretionary bonuses to stay the same, so, that's that."
-After discussing cutting "Fight Night" and discretionary bonuses to increase salaries for low-level UFC fighters due to complaints about fighter pay, Dana White said on Tuesday that it's not the move the fighters wanted, so nothing will be changing (via MMAFighting.com).
Penick's Analysis: It really didn't need to be a "one or the other" proposition from White, but they successfully used the scare tactic of removing the bonuses to shut down some dissension. Fighter pay could certainly be increased for the low level fighters in the UFC, because there's something to be said about being able to make a full-time living in the organization if you're a pro at the highest level. At the same time, the ones that actually should be making more are the ones who have been around for a long time and the ones populating main cards with regularity. Those that have a name people will tune in to see. That's where raises could and should happen, as the top athletes in the sport aren't at the level of their contemporaries in other areas. But with this announcement, White's letting the fighters who get those nods as the most exciting from event to event know that they'll continue to be taken care of as they've grown accustomed to.
[Dana White art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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