Following her win over Sarah Alpar, Jessica-Rose Clark opened up about her frustrations with not getting a performance bonus. Now she goes into more detail about her struggles with the UFC, and how financially difficult it is to be a fighter.
Clark easily had one of the best showings of the night at UFC Vegas 11, a card that was filled to the brim with outstanding performances. Unfortunately she did not win out on one of the $50,000 bonuses handed out at the end of the night. This prompted her to vent her frustrations by sharing her bank account balance, which sat at a surprising $17.70.
A bonus would have been nice Uncle Dana.
I’ll do better next time 🤷🏻♀️ #UFCVEGAS11 https://t.co/2KIZ4lQS1b pic.twitter.com/8H4MCPBF14— Jessy Jess (@missjessyjess) September 20, 2020
Jessica-Rose Clark Looking At Other Ways To Make Money
At this point, Jessica-Rose Clark has gotten her show and win money from her fight, so her bank account is looking a little better. However as she explained in a recent interview, this is only a temporary fix for her problems. Her bills have piled up from not being able to fight consistently, so she was really hoping for the bonus to put her in a better spot.
“I was bummed out,” she said. “I’d already made plans, like if I got a bonus, that would help so much, because being injured last year and then losing, like, I think I made $16,000 for the entire year, plus had a ton of medical bills to pay. So it was like, getting a bonus, especially after the year is almost over now, would have been amazing.”
“I thought I maybe should have got it over Khazmat, whatever his name is, because he got a 17-second knockout. Like, yeah, that’s cool, but they didn’t fight,” Clark said. “He threw one punch and finished him. I’m like, ‘C’mon man, I actually fought for 14.5 minutes.’
“Whatever, it’s cool. It’s was a little more, that feeling of maybe [getting] one this time, it’s given me a little more drive right now, seeing what I could do and feeling that maybe, I think that’s only going to create better performances in the future.”
That being said, although her bank account is better off now than it was Saturday night, this is just a temporary fix for Jessica-Rose Clark. She is now left with looking at other forms of earning income, as fighting is not seeming to be enough to pay the bills.
“It’s definitely a band-aid,” she said. “I need to come up with some external forms of revenue, because the last two years have shown me that I can’t make a living off of fighting. Like, that’s a fact, especially if I get injured and I have to take another year off, I get no income from the UFC. I have some plans and ideas of how to create other forms of revenue. That just kind of solidified it.”
San Diego is amazing ❤️
@ErinADarling #LilThiccc #EatBurgersLiftHeavyGetThiccc #AHotPizzaAss pic.twitter.com/gMiaWmR7BV— Jessy Jess (@missjessyjess) September 23, 2020
It is incredibly disappointing and unfortunate that professional athletes like Jessica-Rose Clark and many others, have to resort to second jobs to pay their bills, despite being in the UFC. It is even worse that most of them rely on an arbitrary bonus that they have to essentially beg for, in order to make a living. Hopefully Jessy Jess can find a way to earn enough money to get by, and not struggle so much with her bills moving forward.
