Another prominent UFC fighter has publicly complained after he was dealt a raw hand by having his opponent pull out at the last minute, being unable to procure a replacement due to NYSAC interference, and the UFC not paying him his show money – or any money.
Chris Weidman, who was scheduled to face Eryk Anders at UFC 309, is coincidentally the brother-in-law of Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, who also got in the news for this in 2023 after Michel Pereira missed weight for their UFC 291 bout.
Weidman in fact stated that he believes Thompson got some money from the promotion, but not his full purse.
Now, the former defending middleweight champion has expressed the same concerns on The Ariel Helwani Show
“I showed up, you guys had that on the budget sheet to begin with, you guys had a great night, why do you keep that money and I dont?”
Chris did a lot more than show up. Fighters have to go through a several-week-long training camp (which is not cheap), media obligations every day during fight week, and all the while have to starve and dehydrate themselves to cut weight. To not be compensated at all for that is harsh.
Weidman says the UFC’s excuse was, “Their thoughts were, ‘Listen, this happens on like 40% of the cards, and if we paid people to not fight…’ they just want to be consistent.’”
The problem with that is simple; what exactly would happen if you paid people to not fight? If this happens once on 40% of cards, that is only about ten fights per year where they would have to pay a fighter their show money. According to Chris, that is their own figure.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is worth $12 billion and has yearly revenues in excess of $1 billion since 2022. For 2023 that number was $1.3 billion, according to the latest figures, but fighters are only paid 13% now.
If they paid approximately ten fighters a year their show money for an opponent pulling out at the last minute, i.e. after the weigh-ins, then the UFC would be out no more than a million dollars a year, unless all ten were veterans with large purses.
Chris Weidman has put his blood, sweat, and tears into this company, has had his shin snapped in half in the UFC octagon. He has been a loyal company man and will have health issues from MMA that last his entire life.
Yet improving the revenue share by 0.07692307692% yearly* is apparently beyond the pale, as is the UFC treating some of their own longest-tenured fighters fairly.
Chris Weidman deserves his contracted UFC 309 ‘show’ money after Eryk Anders had to pull out just hours before their fight.
“My show money is my win money. I have guaranteed money. So that was my point—like, I showed up, you guys had that on the budget sheet to begin with, you… pic.twitter.com/7pf1ifIlPe
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) November 26, 2024
*high estimate of one million dollars paid to UFC fighters whose opponent pull out each year, expressed as a percentage of 1.3 billion dollars of revenue yearly for the UFC
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