Former UFC star Quinton “Rampage” Jackson” believes the UFC can guarantee more entertaining fights by drastically increasing post-fight bonuses.
The world’s leading MMA promotion is currently at the tail end of a nine-week stretch of consecutive events that began in late September with UFC Perth. That run will conclude in late November with UFC Qatar, and this week the UFC is set to return to Las Vegas following a visit to Abu Dhabi for UFC 321.
UFC 321 fell short of fan expectations even before the night’s highly-anticipated main event between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane ended in a No Contest, and the back-to-back UFC Vegas cards coming up unfortunately don’t offer much in the way of star power.
With the UFC set to kick off a new partnership with Paramount worth a reported $7.7 billion starting next year, former UFC titleholder Jackson suggested that a massive increase to “Fight of the Night” bonuses might help incentivize fighters to put on more exciting contests.
Jailton Almeida and Alexander Volkov during their fight at UFC 321. / (Craig Kidwell/MMA Junkie)
“If I was a promotor and I had the bankroll the UFC has, I would up the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus.” Jackson explained on the Jaxxon Podcast (h/t Bloody Elbow). “I would up the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus to a million dollars. So that’s two million dollars per show. They can afford it. You are gonna get more exciting fights…I would do a million, if I had made seven billion dollars just off selling the rights.”
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A massive star in PRIDE before he joined the UFC, “Rampage” won the UFC light heavyweight title by knocking out Chuck Liddell in 2007 and defended his belt once before he lost to Forrest Griffin at UFC 86.
“Rampage” Jackson stands on the scale during weigh-ins for UFC 186. / Jean-Yves Ahern-Imagn Images
Jackson went on to fight for Bellator following his lengthy UFC run (he did return to the Octagon for a one-off fight in 2015) and last competed in 2019 when he was knocked out by MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 237.
Fans are curious to see how the Paramount partnership and apparent death of the UFC pay-per-view model may change UFC events next year, but so far UFC CEO Dana White has been noncommittal regarding how the promotion’s fighters will actually benefit from the new deal.
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The UFC previously awarded “Knockout of the Night” and “Submission of the Night” bonuses before switching to a standard two “Performance of the Night” bonuses per event to go along with “Fight of the Night”. White and the promotional brass occasionally opt to hand out four “Performance of the Night” bonuses if a card doesn’t feature a standout fight, but the UFC’s post-fight bonuses have been essentially locked at $50,000 for well over ten years at this point.
Ľudovít Klein and Mateusz Rębecki won “Fight of the Night” at UFC 321. / (Craig Kidwell/MMA Junkie)
UFC 321 saw Valter Walker and Quillan Salkilld both earn “Performance of the Night” bonuses for earning the only two finishes on the card’s prelims, while Ľudovít Klein and Mateusz Rębecki also earned an extra $50K for their bloody “Fight of the Night” war.
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