Dana White provided updates on Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson getting paid for UFC 291 and Conor McGregor’s next opponent.
The seventh season of Dana White’s Contender Series began on Tuesday night, August 8, with five fighters earning a UFC contract. Shortly after the event, the UFC president answered questions during a press conference, leading to updates about several highly discussed stories.
On July 29, ‘Wonderboy’ was scheduled to fight Michel Pereira on the UFC 291 main card. Unfortunately, Pereira missed weight by three pounds, and the karate specialist wasn’t willing to accept the change to catchweight.
‘Wonderboy’ later revealed the UFC didn’t pay him his show money because he didn’t want to fight Pereira at a slight weight disadvantage. As a result, the MMA community heavily debated whether or not the fan favorite deserved to get paid. While speaking to the media on Tuesday, Dana White addressed the situation by saying:
“Guys don’t just get paid to not fight, that’s not how that works. Guys have been paid, we’ve taken care of guys. Listen, if you come in and you’re making short money, we take care of you. You come in and don’t fight. First of all, you decided not to fight. The guy comes in three pounds overweight, whatever it was. You get a piece of his purse if you take the fight. You decide you don’t wanna take the fight, we also offered him another fight. There’s a much bigger story behind the scenes.”
White continued by revealing ‘Wonderboy’ was offered a different fight in the following weeks after UFC 291:
“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, hasn’t worked that way for anybody. So, what we do is we try to get you another fight, we try to turn you around quickly.”
Dana White concluded by clarifying the UFC and ‘Wonderboy’ are working on a solution:
“If you don’t turn around quickly, we try to figure out what did it cost for your camp, we will reimburse ya. There’s a lot of different ways that this gets worked out…We always make sure we take care of everybody. We’re working out with Wonderboy right now. It’s all being worked out behind the scenes and this should all be worked out by Saturday.”
In December 2022, ‘Wonderboy’ ended a two-fight skid by securing a unanimous decision win against Kevin Holland. The 40-year-old hopes to make one last run at becoming the UFC welterweight champion. Therefore, he saw Pereira’s added weight as a disadvantage that could end his chances of accomplishing a lifelong goal.
Dana White talks Stephen Thompson.#UFC pic.twitter.com/4rLr1cbgJb
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) August 9, 2023
Dana White confirms Conor McGregor will fight Michael Chandler
On Tuesday night, Dana White ended the rumors of Conor McGregor wanting to fight someone other than Michael Chandler. Over the past month, McGregor has continued to tease Chandler, who he coached against on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, by claiming he would potentially fight someone else for his highly-anticipated Octagon return.
White responded to the situation by saying:
“I talked to Conor either yesterday or the day before. He’s ready to fight. I said, listen, get in shape, and let’s figure this thing out. Yeah, yeah, he’s fighting Chandler. Conor likes to f*ck with everybody. You know what I mean? Especially his opponent or possible opponent.”
McGregor hasn’t fought since losing against Dustin Poirier for the second consecutive time in July 2021. Although ‘The Notorious’ hasn’t officially been approved by USADA, he’s expected to fight again in December of this year or early 2024. Meanwhile, Chandler last fought in November 2022, losing against Poirier by a third-round submission.
Dana White says Conor will be fighting Michael Chandler. pic.twitter.com/BucNMf0fIc
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) August 9, 2023
