UFC London's Brad Scott details money woes caused by scrapped fight – and it ain't pretty

LONDON – Brad Scott arrived here with high hopes of an impressive performance, a big win and the start of a successful year in the octagon. But by Friday night he was left without a fight, in debt and with a new job working for the local council clearing out evicted houses.

Scott (11-5 MMA, 3-4 UFC) was all set to take on fellow Brit Jack Marshman (22-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) in a welterweight contest at UFC Fight Night 127. On paper, it looked like a potential fight of the night candidate. But when Marshman suffered complications during his weight cut Thursday night, the Welshman was forced off the card, leaving Scott angry and frustrated.

Earlier in the day, Scott took to social media to vent his frustration in a post that he later deleted, as he felt his words were being misrepresented as a rant against the UFC. In reality, he said, his anger was directed firmly in the direction of his opponent.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed,” Scott told MMAjunkie on Friday night. “But people seem to be getting the wrong end of the stick when they think I’m blaming the UFC for not paying me. I’m not blaming the UFC. I’m blaming Jack. It’s Jack’s job to make weight. It’s Jack’s job to turn up and fight. It’s not the UFC’s fault.”

With his bout scrapped from the card, Scott was given half his fight purse, ($10,000) by the UFC to help tide him over until his next bout. But the seven-fight UFC veteran said the gesture, though welcome, still left him considerably out of pocket, especially given the fact that he hadn’t received any payment from Reebok for the week.

“It would be really nice if the UFC looked after me and gave me my Reebok money for this week,” he said. “I’ve worn their gear every day this week, and I’ll be wearing Reebok to the fights tomorrow. Even though I can’t compete, I’ll still be there, and I’ll still be wearing Reebok. It’d be nice to get the $5,000, which to a company like Reebok, is (expletive) all, by the way.

“And it’d be nice if they gave me my turn-up bonus (show money). I don’t expect a win bonus, but I expect enough money to pay for the camp I’ve just done so I can get ready for the next one.”

Coming from a small U.K. gym with few training partners, Scott travels to the U.S. for his fight camps to get the level of training he needs. He explained how the financial demands of putting together a training camp requires him to receive his full fight purse in order to help cover his costs.

“Just going over there (to the U.S.) – not paying for the training and all of that – is £5,000 (roughly $7,000 USD) for the food, the accommodation and the flights. Then I have to give my training camp 10%. I have to give my manager money. Then I have to pay my boxing coaches the fees for all the one-on-one training I get.

“I’ve actually ended up £2,000 in debt. That’s $2,600. That’s how much I’ve been left in debt from this fight. Now I’ve got to go and find a job to make up the shortfall and help make ends meet before I can fight again.”

Right now, Scott’s financial position following the collapse of his contest has left him with little option but to take on a job.

Scott is no stranger to manual labor – earlier in his career spent time between fights doing woodworking jobs – and he explained he already has a job lined up after his main sponsor stepped in with an offer of work and financial assistance.

“I’m going to work for a company called Bristol Waste Clearance, who are my biggest sponsor,” Scott said. “They go into properties where tenants have been evicted and clear out the property and put it into storage, or scrap it. We have to remove heroin needles and drugs and stuff.

“It’s run by a guy called Scott ‘The Lion’ Cowles, who was also a fighter. He offered me a job straight away, and he offered to pay towards my next camp because I’ve been left in a (expletive) position. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to fight for the UFC.”

Even after learning of Marshman’s withdrawal, Scott was determined to fulfill his part of the contract by weighing in and offering himself as a potential substitute should another welterweight or middleweight fall off the card.

“I was walking around at (182 pounds), and I turned up on the morning (of the weigh-ins) at 171,” he explained. “I said I’d make the weight, and if any of the welterweights didn’t make the weight in the morning I’d be a stand-in. I said I’d even fight a middleweight if a middleweight dropped out.

“But when I got down there my name had been scribbled off the list. Jeff (Novitzky) and Sean (Shelby) were really polite to me. They said it doesn’t matter, so I didn’t make weight.

“Now, looking back at it, I wish I’d got on the (expletive) scale – just barged in and got on it – so they had no say in the fact. But I think because they called the fight off before I ever had the chance to make weight, that was the issue.”

Scott’s main source of frustration was the fact that the Marshman camp didn’t reach out to mention he was having issues. If they had, Scott said, he’d have been happy to have accepted a catchweight bout.

“Weight to me was never an issue,” Scott said. “But when I saw Jack during the week, I could see that he was huge, and that he was going to struggle.

“I only wish he’d have reached out to me and said, ‘Brad, I’m not going to make the weight, I’m killing myself. Can we do a catchweight?’ Because I would have totally agreed. I was the late replacement. I was the one who had to cut all this weight, and I still (expletive) made it. It’s not nice not putting a fork in your mouth, but I still made it.”

Scott’s initial reaction – including the aforementioned deleted social meida post – was interpreted by some as a dig at the UFC, but the Wiltshire native said UFC officials were nothing but understanding with him over the situation.

“I’ve got to be completely honest, they were actually really polite,” Scott said. “They were really well spoken to me on the phone, and they were really understanding. I think they were really disappointed, too.

“Obviously they were mostly concerned with Jack’s health. He’d missed the weight cut and banged his head, so they were very worried about that. But I was hoping it was going to be along the lines of, ‘We’ll pay you, because you turned up ready to fight – and on short notice, too.'”

Despite refusing to throw the UFC under the bus, Scott did say he hoped officials could pull the relevant strings to help suitably compensate him for missing out on a fight through no fault of his own.

“I’ve done everything right,” Scott said. “I’ve dieted, I’ve trained flat-out, I’ve traveled all the way to America, got great training and a great game plan. It was a fight I wanted. It was a fight I was happy with. He (Marshman) seemed happy with it, too, but he must have been lying to himself.

“All these interviews and super photos he was putting up saying he was on weight. Clearly, that wasn’t true, was it? It just seems very wrong and very unprofessional to me. It’s Jack’s fault, not the UFC’s.”

The UFC, for their part, is trying to help, with matchmaker Sean Shelby telling Scott he’d look to find him a spot on the newly announced UFC Fight Night 130 in Liverpool on May 27.

“I’m really happy and grateful Sean is trying to get me on that card as fast as possible,” he said.

But Scott said if the UFC had any thoughts about trying to rebook Scott against Marshman at the Echo Arena, they’d have to do it at a heavier weight.

“Why should I risk losing out on up to $50,000 again if he doesn’t make weight again?,” Scott said. “I don’t think he’d make the weight, and that’s the honest truth.”

But if the UFC looked to rebook that fight at 185, Scott would have no problem signing on the dotted line.

“I’ll beat him at 185. I don’t care,” Scott said. “I’ve got no fear of him at all. I’ve sparred him, and I’ve gotten the better of him – and he knows it.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 127, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.