White: New structure ensures 'every dime' of bonus pot goes out UFC's door

The UFC’s recent policy change on the post-fight bonus structure took some people by surprise, but it appears to have been borne out of Dana White’s desire to empty the kitty set aside for the awards.

Two weeks ago, the UFC announced it was dropping the per-event awards for “Submission of the Night” and “Knockout of the Night,” and would instead give out a pair of “Performance of the Night” bonuses to go along with “Fight of the Night.”

The announcement came not long after UFC 169, which featured 10 decisions in 12 fights. Four days later, UFC Fight Night 36 tied that record with another 10 decisions. Sometimes, there just aren’t knockouts or submissions, which typically causes that money to stay in the UFC’s coffers instead of going out to the fighters.

White told MMAjunkie that while it’s a rarity that bonus money stayed behind, the new method is a guarantee that all the money set aside for the awards will go out the door.

“It only happened a couple times,” White told MMAjunkie following Saturday’s UFC 170 pay-per-view at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. “I started playing with this thing and started to realize, because we’re doing so many fights, how much money it was – it’s like $9.8 million. I want every dime of that $9.8 million to go out the door.”

White said he and company CEO Lorenzo Fertitta hatched the plan.

“The way it works (now) is, money goes out the door,” White said. “I don’t want there to be a situation where there was no submission, there was no this, there was no that. In this setup, it’s impossible for a bonus not to go out – unless the fights suck so bad one night.”

The bonuses are $50,000 each – though the UFC reserves the right to bump them up on special occasions. For instance, at UFC 169, with no submissions, that bonus went out the window. But White liked the fight between Abel Trujillo and Jamie Varner enough that he took the $50,000 from the submission bonus and split it between Trujillo and Varner for “Fight of the Night” awards at $75,000 instead of $50,000. Trujillo got another $50,000 for the night’s best knockout.

The likelihood is that “Performance of the Night” bonuses going forward still will come down to fighters who earn stoppages. At UFC 170 this past weekend, Ronda Rousey won a performance bonus for her TKO of Sara McMann, and Stephen Thompson won for his knockout of Robert Whittaker. In that case, the UFC got to give out bonuses for two of the five knockouts on the card when there was no submission.

The last event to feature a $50,000 bonus award staying in the pot was UFC Fight Night 33 in Australia this past December. With no submissions, the UFC saved $50,000.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Ronda Rousey)