Dana White on ‘Wonderboy’ not being paid his show money for UFC 291 – “You don’t fight, you don’t get paid” 

Dana White recently opened up about Stephen Thompson’s compensation issue. 

‘Wonderboy’ and Michel Pereira were scheduled to fight in a welterweight contest at UFC 291. However, the Brazilian failed to make weight and came in three pounds over the non-title welterweight limit of 171 pounds. After Thompson chose not to fight at catchweight, the bout was ultimately scrapped. 

After the event, Stephen Thompson revealed that the UFC didn’t pay him for going through a full fight camp, making weight, and showing up to the weigh-ins. However, ‘Wonderboy’ was vocally optimistic about the UFC doing right by him. 

In a recent press conference, Dana White revealed why Thompson wasn’t paid and outlined the promotion’s remuneration process. He said:

“You decided not to fight, the guy was three pounds overweight, you get a piece of his purse if you take the fight… No, you don’t just show up and say ‘yeah, I’m not going to fight, I want a quarter of a million dollars’, that’s not how it works, hasn’t worked that way for anybody…There’s a lot of different ways that this gets worked out.” 

White then explained that the promotion was looking for a solution with Thompson’s team and said:

“You don’t fight, you don’t get paid necessarily in the contract. But we always make sure that we take care of everybody and we’re working it out with Wonderboy right now. It’s all being worked out behind the scenes, and this should all be worked out by Saturday.”

Dana White praises Nate Diaz after Jake Paul loss; claims the Stockton slugger will always be welcome in the UFC

Despite their past differences, Dana White and Nate Diaz share a mutual respect for each other. The UFC supremo recently discussed Diaz’s boxing debut against Jake Paul and showered praise on the former UFC star for holding his own against the YouTuber. 

Diaz faced Paul in an eight-round boxing match on August 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Stockton native showed some promising moments during the bout but couldn’t stop Paul from cruising to a unanimous decision victory.

In a presser after the conclusion of Dana White’s Contender Series 57, Dana White reacted to Diaz’s performance and said:

“For a kid pushing 40 years old fighting a guy four weight classes bigger than him in boxing and two in MMA and going the distance at his age against a 20-f*cking-something-year-old kid, so far, he’s fared the best. He looked good. I’m happy for him.”

White addressed Nate Diaz’s eagerness to return to the UFC and added:

“We feel the same way about Nate. We always have… This will always be Nate’s house. Nate grew up here. He came up on The Ultimate Fighter. He fought some of the biggest fights ever here. We love the kid. I don’t know about fighting in the future, but this is always going to be his house. We’ll see.”