When proposed UFC 291 opponent Michel Pereira missed weight by three pounds, Stephen Thompson made a business decision and elected not to take the fight. In a lengthy statement on social media, Thompson explained that this wasn’t the first time he had an opponent miss weight and, given previous experiences, he and his team felt it was not smart for them to move forward with the fight. Thompson later appeared on “The MMA Hour” and revealed that although he hadn’t been paid his show money for the event, he expected the UFC to “do right” by him. However, there seems to be differing perspectives on what “doing right” actually means.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q8qC1P3B0s
UFC President Addresses Thompson Situation
At the Contender Series post-fight press conference on Tuesday night, UFC president addressed the Thompson situation. “Guys just don’t get paid to not fight, that’s not how that works,” White said. “We’ve taken care of guys. 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 was three pounds overweight — whatever it was — you get a piece of his purse if you take the fight. But if you decided you don’t want to take the fight, — we also offered him another fight. There’s a much bigger story behind the scenes. No you don’t just show up and say, ‘Yeah I’m not gonna fight, I want a quarter of a million dollars.’ It doesn’t work that way for anybody.”
Thompson’s Stance and Potential Compensation
Thompson’s stance was applauded by many in the MMA community. The South Carolina native is 40 years old and has designs on making one more run at UFC gold. He doesn’t want to risk that chance against an opponent who failed to make weight. White revealed that while the promotion may work on compensating athletes in other ways after their fights fall through — or get them rebooked as soon as possible — it’s not likely that “Wonderboy” will receive his full UFC 291 purse.
White explained, “What we do is we try to get you another fight and turn you around quickly. If you don’t turn around quickly, then try to figure out what did it cost for your camp, we’ll reimburse you, there’s a lot of ways this gets worked out … You don’t fight, you don’t get paid in the contract. But we always make sure that we take care of everybody. 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.”