Maybe the biggest takeaway, other than the obvious, is how much the UFC was invested in Lyoto Machida. Or the other way to look at it, if the UFC was doing this for Lyoto Machida what were other fighters getting?
Bloody Elbow on the frontlines of some new un-redacted documents, that may give people a peek into the world of UFC contracts.
“The information is all provided in formerly redacted passages from the expert report of Hal J. Singer, an expert witness for the Plaintiffs in the anti-trust lawsuit. The lawsuit is currently being contested between a group of former fighters (including John Fitch, Cung Le, and Kyle Kinsgbury) and ZUFFA LLC, whom the fighters accuse of running a monopsony.”
And?
“According to the passages, Machida was at one time subject to a $100,000 stoppage bonus. This bonus was presumably given on top of any performance bonus or purse he may have received for a given fight.”
Oh word?
The great Jason Cruz of MMA Payout was the first to get a hold of these new documents.
Also from the newly undredacted Singer report, Lyoto Machida had a Letter of Agreement while in the #UFC which gave him a $100K bonus for any stoppage. The bonus was specific to Machida and presumably in addition any additional Performance of FOTN bonus he may have received. pic.twitter.com/wbAOFVZXVf
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) July 29, 2019
“…an agreement with Lyoto Machida that awards a stoppage bonus (“Further, Zuffa shall pay Fighter a Stoppage Bonus for such Bout in the amount of One Hundred Thousand Dollars (US $100,000), less all permissible or required deductions and withholding. For purposes of this Agreement, a Stoppage occurs if and only if Fighter is declared the winner of the Bout by Knock Out, Technical Knock Out or Submission by the applicable Athletic Commission.”).”
Lyoto Machida parted ways with the UFC in 2018 and signed with Bellator. For 11 years Machida was a solid UFC star but was he worth lining his pockets with an extra $100k per stoppage? The documents don’t say how long Machida had this bonus written into his UFC deal.
If Machida is getting sweet unreported bonuses, then what are other fighters getting? What about those handful of fighters who the UFC really likes? What do the bonuses in their contracts look like?
