Media Stephen Thompson admits he will be "disappointed" if the UFC does not pay him for UFC 291

[Myrddin Wild]

The fight wasn't cancelled though. Thompson pulled out because he refused to fight Pereira.

Wildly different than your opponent suddenly being struck by a car or something.

Okay, I was un-aware of the details.

Wreckless makes a great point in that regard.

So basically you waste thousands of dollars of your own money on coaches/training camp and the only way you can get paid in the end is if you accept to fight someone who cheated the scales? That's fucked up lol

And I assume he only gets the % of the opponent's purse if he accept the fight as well.

Yeah, that's fooked... because it's a game of inches... & 4 inches (#'s) could be that little inch he needed. Wonderboy risks a scar to his permanent record.

Some commissions won't even allow the fight if the fighter is over by 5lbs or more... I'll bet they'd start making weight more if they took a point off a decision +the cut in pay.

 

[KOPPE]

No, it's showing up and making weight.

If his opponent doesn't do the same it's not on him.

The whole culture surrounding massive weight cuts bothers the fuck out of me and needs to be redone.

lots of fools in here think going through a whole camp and making weight is easy and shouldn't be rewarded.

 

[markg171]

are the fighter contracts kept private by UFC/WME? I'm just thinking we need more information since that excerpt didn't mention anything about making weight.

Weight classes are regulated by the commissions, not the UFC. And the commissions tend to take 20-30% of the offending fighter's purse and give it to their opponent.

If they actually go through and fight them that is.

 

[SuperNerd]

When UFC adopts all the weight classes, remember, I told you so.

I probably won't be alive to brag about it.

 

[pick999]

One of the UFC's most loyal fighters and they do this to him

 

[Nathan LaMontagne]

lots of fools in here think going through a whole camp and making weight is easy and shouldn't be rewarded.

Preach.

I mean it's not like training camps don't cost a HUGE amount of money.

I mean I went into the poverty zone from just training more often and not being able go work as much the couple times I fought.
And I'm talking the lowest of the regional shit.

I couldn't imagine how much, if I actually had a manager, an agent, actually having to pay training partners to come in, housing them. And on and on.

Winderboy did his contractual obligation.

He did everything he had to do that was under his own control. The second Pereira missed weight was the second Wonderboys obligation stopped.

 

[markg171]

lots of fools in here think going through a whole camp and making weight is easy and shouldn't be rewarded.

I don't think anybody's saying that.

People like myself are just pointing out that that's not at all what the contracts and bout agreements say so it's completely irrelevant to whether or not Thompson had earned his purse or not.

It's a complete strawman designed to tug at your heart strings instead of looking at what was actually legally agreed upon and owed by both parties.

 

[nonoob]

he spit in the face of Dana White.

That would be fluids emitted toward Dana's face, wonders if the opposite effect from Dana body happens for those posting as above.

 

[The Eagle]

Ya arguing for no reason. This is why there are contracts and you negotiate such things before the fight. Karateka fucked up. I know that some fighters before still got paid even though their opponent missed weight and fight was canceled. You insert such clauses in contract.

 

[Clark Rogers]

I'm not taking either side, just asking a question...

I know the weight limit is contracted, what do the contracts say specifically about a missed weight scenario? Does it get into the purse fines and the opponent's rights to pull out at all, or are those controlled somewhere outside the contract, like by the commission?

So many guys don't pull out of fights when their opponent misses weight, has me wondering what the verbiage is.

 

[KOPPE]

Drive to work. I have my lunchbox. I'm even wearing my uniform.
The door is locked and I go home.
Can I still get paid?

oh yeah lets compare packing your PB&J sandwich in a lunchbox to a grueling fight camp and months
on a calorie deficit diet where you dance with the grim reaper in low sodium land.

 

[Royce's Gi]

Well , Stephen spent time and money on trainingcamp so he shouldn't be the one penalized

It was Michele who didn't make weight

Wonderboy did everything he wa supposed to do

 

[leatherneck]

uggh i hate Ariel.

 

[El Fernas]

Show money means showing up in the Octagon and fighting. Not the weigh in.

It actually isnt "show" money, its purse money, the rules to get that purse money are not that clear tho, some states iirc say that the fighters have to get paid if the fight gets cancelled last minute, thats how the UFC got rid of Leslie Smith, they (had to) paid her when her opponent missed weight and she refused or the AC didnt let her fight, something llike that, either way she didnt fight but got paid, they count it as a fight on her contract that happened to be her last, she was let go.

This was in New Jersey and not every state has the same rules regarding purse (show money)

 

[bongwater]

cut him!

 

[xn7]

I doubt it's changed much since Eddie's original contract was made public due to the Bellator lawsuit, but the specific language there about that was simply that Zuffa agreed to pay you within 24 hours of the bout's completion.

View attachment 994112

But the point is that yes, the bout has to actually start.

another sherdog lawyer.

 

[AstralPanda]

The fight wasn't cancelled though. Thompson pulled out because he refused to fight Pereira.

Wildly different than your opponent suddenly being struck by a car or something.

Too many fighters use coming with those extra few pounds as a way to gain an unfair advantage.

And the UFC has allowed it without consequence.

That needs to stop.

A few pounds doesn't seem like much but it can be massive, especially in an otherwise close fight.

I understand wanting him to take the fight regardless but I also think there needs to be a precedent set against this kind of behaviour as well.

 

[Banana Tree's Nemesis]

I mean he still got his fight week compensation and with his number of fights for the UFC that should be well above 20K$.
Fight camps may be expensive, but they don't have to be. That's voluntary expenses.

I hate to be the devils advocate here, but not fighting is not fulfilling your contract. Think of the other side of the contract as well. It's not only a hungry fighter who's doing everything right to feed his family.
There's also a MMA promotion involved. They have every right to get their side of the deal aswell. And from their side the deal is that a fighter fights a bout and is compensated more or less in accordance to his assumed contribution to the viewership.
If your first prelim late replacement guy has a fight falling through, they don't have to give a shit and may aswell just give him his 20K$ show.
If a guy like Usman or Adesanya has a fight cancelled, they would have to pay them a huge sum, whilst actually losing viewership due to the loss of a headlining bout.

If you wanna give them a little something, I'm all for it, but the whole show money would make no sense whatsoever.

 

[markg171]

another sherdog lawyer.

You don't need to be a lawyer to read that or shit like this from Nevada's bout agreement:



Or Nevada's legislation:

NRS 467.030, 467.120)
1.  All payment of purses must be made:
(a) Immediately after the contest or exhibition; or

To see that the purses are owed for and only after the fight occurs. Not beforehand.

This fight was in Utah so depends what their specific rules are, but the standard for purses isn't that you made weight but rather that you actually fought the bout.

 

[sdpdude9]

Being ready to go is not at all the same thing as actually going.

Say you’re an architect and you’re hired to design and oversee the construction of a building. The client separately hires a building crew. You spend months designing and planning. Then when building day comes, the building crew comes unprepared and is unable to procure the proper equipment or materials so now the building can’t be built.

According to your logic, the client is right to not pay you anything for the work you’ve done since the project wasn’t ultimately completed due to no fault of your own.