Could Quinton “Rampage” Jackson be onto something with his proposal to prevent boring UFC fights?
UFC 321 left fans feeling disappointed following a main event title fight that ended in an accidental double eye poke. While situations like that are out of a promotion’s control, Jackson believes UFC can do something to prevent bouts such as Alexander Volkov vs. Jailton Almeida.
Many looked at Volkov vs. Almeida as a potential heavyweight title eliminator. Almeida simply did not press the action even when he was in top control, and it cost him a split decision loss.
During an episode of the “JAXXON” podcast, “Rampage” suggested UFC could sweeten the deal significantly in terms of “Fight of the Night” bonuses to help prevent lackluster outings (via MMAFighting).
“I’m going to tell you how the UFC could fix it,” Jackson said. “If I was a promoter, and I had the bankroll the UFC had, I would up the Fight of the Night bonus. They just made seven billion more dollars just for rights, right? I would up the Fight of the Night bonus to a million dollars. So there’s two more million dollars per show, they can afford it. You’re going to get more exciting fights.”
With a $7.7 billion streaming deal with Paramount already locked up, UFC’s higher-ups and TKO may not feel the need to boost bonus pay substantially. UFC CEO Dana White has claimed that fighter pay will increase, but he did not get into any specifics.
While Jackson’s plan would appear to make sense in theory, many are doubtful that UFC will ever boost bonuses that high. Time will tell if UFC’s planned bump in fighter pay, whatever that may be, will be enough to prevent more fights such as Volkov vs. Almeida from happening in the future. Seasoned MMA fans and experts have their doubts.