UFC president Dana White shares insight on the promotion’s discretionary backstage bonuses

UFC president Dana White has given fans and pundits alike a look into the discretionary backstage bonuses he hands out after events.

Everyone is well aware of the Performance and Fight of the Night bonuses that are given out across all Ultimate Fighting Championship PPVs and fight nights, but as it turns out, White also hands out extra bonuses when there’s an evening in which many fighters have put in an impressive performance.

During an interview with the New York Post, White went into more detail regarding this matter.

White said that the general practice is that for “everybody who delivered on the card, I write a check” that ranges from $4,000 to $25,000 each, “depending on what I thought of their fight.”

“I’ll give you an example,” White said. “There will be a night where some crazy s–t happens throughout the whole card, and then we have to pick what we thought [were] the $50,000 [bonus recipients], but somebody else was right in the running. They could have got it too. And it depends, I’ll write them anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000.”

White has been doing the media rounds in recent days to build the anticipation for UFC 258 this Saturday night as Kamaru Usman prepares to defend his Welterweight Championship against top contender Gilbert Burns.

“Stylistically, this fight is awesome,” White told TMZ ahead of the fight. “I’ve been waiting for this fight for so long. It was supposed to happen sooner, but here we are on Saturday, and I can’t wait. As many people know, Usman is tied with [Georges St-Pierre] for consecutive UFC wins at 12. If he wins this weekend, he breaks GSP’s record for 13. He’s on a 16-fight win streak. This guy has not lost in seven years. He hasn’t lost since 2013.

“He’s going up against Burns, who is a former teammate of his,” White continued. “[Burns is] a multiple time Brazilian jiu jitsu world champion. This guy is also undefeated at welterweight, and he’s got a 74 percent finish rate. This fight is so fun. The only thing we don’t know is who used to get the better of who in the gym when they used to train together.

“Every weekend I’m telling you why you have to watch this, why you have to watch that. You have to watch this fight on Saturday.”

What do you think of this explanation from Dana White?