Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson will not receive his purse despite making weight for his scheduled fight with Michel Pereira at UFC 291, according to UFC president Dana White. Thompson declined to move forward with the fight after Pereira missed weight by three pounds.
Thompson revealed after the cancellation of his July 29 fight that he received no compensation but remained optimistic that things would be sorted between him and the promotion.
"I made weight this morning as I have done every fight during my 11+ year UFC career," Thompson wrote in a statement published to his Instagram on July 28. "My opponent did not. This isn't the first time I've had an opponent miss weight and given how that played out previously, myself and my team felt that it's ultimately not smart for us to move forward with this fight.
"This isn't a videogame and both of us are putting our health and our careers on the line... Fighters who miss weight face far too few consequences and are often allowed to fight with a significant competitive advantage. This appears to be happening more and more these days. Hopefully, the decision to not move forward with the fight will discourage others from missing weight in the future. I also hope to encourage fighters that face this situation to follow suit and not allow this to happen to them. I'm healthy and I will look to get back in the Octagon [as soon as possible] but on a level playing field..."
White said this week that fighters are not entitled to contractual payment if they refuse to fight.
"So how that works is, guys don't just get paid to not fight," White told reporters at Tuesday's "Contender Series" post-fight press conference. "It's not how that works. Guys have been paid. We've taken care of guys. Hey, listen, if you come in, and you're making short money, we take care of you.
"You come in and you don't fight -- first of all, you decided not to fight. The guy was three pounds overweight, whatever it was, you get a piece of his purse if you take the fight. But if you deter you decide you don't want to take the fight. We also offered him another fight."
The colloquial "show" and "win" money do not reflect the nomenclature in the UFC contracts. A fighter's contract is split into two parts: purse and bonus. The purse is obtained for completing a fight and the bonus is assured only by winning the fight. Making weight is not enough to collect on payment.
"If you don't turn around quickly, then we try to figure out what did it cost for your camp?" White said. "We'll reimburse you. You know, there's a lot of different ways that this gets worked out. You don't just go, 'Yeah, this guy's three pounds over, I'm not gonna fight, and no I won't take another fight two weeks later, and pay me my show money.' Not how it works.
"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."
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An argument can be made that Thompson did everything right. He trained, he showed to the scales and made weight. Taking a fight against an overweight opponent is a gamble. The overweight opponent may have a size advantage and hold a physical edge by avoiding the rigors of cutting weight.
More MMA news, rumors:
- Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull is having a rough year. Pitbull is considered the greatest export in Bellator history but the last few months have not been kind to him. Pitbull announced on Tuesday that he is undergoing cervical spine surgery to repair a herniated C6/C7 disc. The news comes less than two weeks after Pitbull suffered a shocking knockout loss to Chihiro Suzuki on short notice at Bellator x Rizin 2. "I had been feeling this compression when I received the blows in fights, and I had been feeling numbness and weakness in my arms and legs," Freire said in a press release translated from Portuguese. "I avoided this surgery because once you've done it, there's no going back and there were risks involved, like not fighting again. I ended up being too conservative and paid the price. I had never lost two fights in a row and had never been knocked out in 19 years as a pro. My only way out was to have the surgery." Pitbull will be out of action until next year.
- Claressa Shields is headed back to MMA in 2024. The undisputed middleweight boxing champion has signed a new multiyear deal with the Professional Fighters League, the promotion announced on Tuesday. Shields is a perfect 14-0 in boxing but 1-1 in MMA. "I am excited to return to a fighter-first organization and I can't wait to return to the PFL SmartCage," Shields said, per ESPN. "My goal remains unchanged. I will be the first athlete to hold championships in boxing and MMA simultaneously. I have grown so much since my first MMA fight and cannot wait to put my skills on display."
