First it was Donald Cerrone. Then it was Nate Diaz. And now we have the third offender, and he is the champion of the 155-pound division.
Rafael dos Anjos was the third fighter fined at UFC on Fox 17 for violating the UFC's Athlete Outfitting Policy, sources told MMAFighting.com. The sum of the fine was said to be “significant.”
Cerrone was featured on The MMA Hour on Monday and said his fine was “quite a bit more” than $5,000, and that he could purchase a new car for the amount he was dinged. It would be logical to assume the champion got fined an equal or greater amount than the challenger.
Champions make $40,000 per defense under the guidelines of the deal.
When did Dos Anjos stray from the Athlete Outfitting Policy?
He was wearing his championship kit on Saturday, but on Friday at the weigh-in, he sported an Evolve MMA t-shirt before tipping the scale. Dos Anjos has been with Evolve MMA since it opened in 2009 and is listed as one of its primary instructors. The champion does most of his training at Kings MMA with Rafael Cordeiro.
Other than the three lightweights who had fines levied against them, 12 others will be receiving warning letters from the UFC, according to MMAjunkie's John Morgan.
@dannyrube @ekc They mentioned something about it going back into the fighter fund, but does that mean other fighters get the money?
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) January 11, 2016
There is still a question of where the money from the fines goes. The NFL donates all money from fines to charitable programs for former players, but no one quite knows about the UFC's practices.
Now we know all three fined individuals from UFC on Fox 17. Perhaps the lightweights need a crash course to remind them of the rules of the deal. We shall see how strong of a deterrent these fines are for the rest of the roster as we still get used to the Reebok deal moving into 2016.
