The current UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, is pushing for an increment on his $50,000 performance bonus.
Adesanya has received eight $50,000 checks in 15 fights, making him a frequent recipient of the UFC performance bonus.
For each event, the UFC frequently awards two to three “Knockout of the Night” trophies, one “Fight of the Night” prize, and a $50,000 incentive to each fighter.
The president of the UFC, Dana White, has previously boosted the incentive; in 2009, fighters competing at UFC 100 received a $100,000 bonus. Fighters appearing at UFC 262 were additionally paid a $75,000 bonus as a result of Tony Ferguson’s open campaign to raise the amount in May 2021.
In line with the successful campaign Ferguson mounted for the increment of the bonuses at the UFC 262, Israel Adesanya has now requested that bonuses be raised continuously.
The Nigerian-born Australian UFC champion argued that the inflation rate has been going on steadily, and incentives to fighters should also go up as he referred to the proposed merger of UFC and WWE.
“The UFC and WWE merger, $21.4bn company. I’m like, ‘Yo, they can go up.’ It’s been a few years, inflation has been going up. The bonus got to go up, that’s how I feel. I’ve told them this and I’ve said this publicly, it’s not crazy”, Israel Adesanya said in a recent episode of Impaulsive.
“My knockouts alone are worth $50,000. That’s knockouts alone. I’ve said this, the UFC, sometimes bumps it up to $100,000 for certain cards. UFC 200 or UFC 100 I think they did, the bonuses were worth like $100,000. When I knock someone out, I normally get a bonus, so I’m like my knockouts are worth $50,000.”
