The UFC announced new bonus criteria for fight nights which will supplant the previous structure of awarding 4 monetary bonuses for Fight of the Night, KO of the Night and Submission of the Night.
Gone are the bonuses for KO of the Night and Submission of the Night which are replaced by Performance of the Night which will go to the “athletes who put on the best and most exciting individual performances.” Two fighters will receive the Performance of the Night bonuses.
The bonuses will remain at $50,000 which has been the standard (with a few exceptions) since UFC 141.
Payout Perspective:
The new bonus structure seemingly gives more defined flexibility for the UFC to award performance bonuses although a fight does not end in KO or Submission. This may be the case where the UFC thinks the judges gave a victory to the wrong fighter and/or a fighter makes a great comeback in a fight only to fall short. Certainly, one would think that the UFC could still award a “Performance Bonus” for a KO or Submission but the award need not have to go to this. Also, it allows the UFC to give out bonuses when there is no submission or KO (e.g., UFC 169 had no submissions). Of course, as we saw from 169, the UFC can decide when to give out bonuses and how much. At 169, with no sub bonus, the UFC gave FOTN fighters Jamie Varner and Abe Trujillo $75K each (thus splitting up the Sub bonus) and gave Trujillo his $50K for KO of the night.
The new structure also implies that fighters will not be able to double up on bonuses (i.e., no KO and Fight of the Night bonus for just one fighter). Another issue with the new structure is that the UFC may not have to award the Performance bonus if no one performs up to the UFC’s expectations. We shall see if this impacts the fights this Saturday with the upcoming Fight Night.
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