Dana White Makes Bold Statement on Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson's UFC Pay Dispute
UFC President Dana White has clarified some details surrounding the pay dispute with Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson since his UFC 291 withdrawal.
RELATED: Stephen Thompson Reveals If He's Been Paid For UFC 291 Weigh-in Fiasco
Thompson committed to a full camp and made weight against Michel Pereira prior to UFC 291 on July 29, before pulling from the fight after Pereira missed weight by three pounds. Since then, Thompson has confirmed he has not received his show money for making weight.
"I've done everything that I'm supposed to do, and I've tried to be as honorable as possible when it comes to signing my contracts and abiding by it and doing what the UFC has said," Thompson admitted in an interview on "The MMA Hour".
During the Dana White's Contender Series press conference on August 9, White cleared the air on the issue, but alluded to the notion that fighter salary plays a factor into whether they receive proper compensation or not:
"Guys don't just get paid to not fight," White remarked. "Guys have been paid --- listen if you come in and you're making short money... we take care of you.
"...First of all, you decided not to fight, the guy [Pereira] was three pounds overweight --- whatever it was --- you get a piece of his purse if you take the fight. But if you decide you don't wanna take the fight we also offer him another fight.
"There's a much bigger story behind the scenes."
White then touched on "Wonderboy's" pay dispute:
"And no you don't just show up and say 'Yeah I'm not gonna fight --- I want a quarter of a million dollars,' --- not the way it works, it hasn't worked that way for anybody.
"So what we do is we try to turn you around quickly, if you don't turn around quickly then we try and figure out what did it cost for your camp, we'll reimburse you --- there's a lot of different ways that this gets worked out."
White then reiterated his stance on Thompson's dispute, suggesting Thompson wanted his show money after declining a fight two weeks after the cancellation. "Not how it works, you don't fight, you don't get paid --- necessarily --- in the contract," White remarked.
So does Thompson get paid or not? White was sure to conclude his statement with a short answer:
"We always make sure that we take care of everybody... We're working it out with Wonderboy right now... This should all be worked out by Saturday."
This clearly isn't the end of the fiasco, and more news should emerge if White's "Saturday" statement holds true.
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