Demetrious Johnson didn’t get the opportunity to break the all-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title defense record last weekend (Sat., Sept. 9, 2017) at UFC 215 after his scheduled opponent, Ray Borg, was forced out due to illness.
As a result, “Mighty Mouse” didn’t get a paycheck, either.
And though the promotion usually offers up the “show” purse to fighters who did show up — only to have the rug pulled from under them at the eleventh hour — Johnson says he has yet to receive any confirmation that he will get paid.
Yet.
“I have not been paid, yet. Obviously UFC and First Round management are working on that,” said Johnson during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. “Obviously in the past, I remember this happened to Tony Ferguson, this happened to other guys, and even to Sergio Pettis when he was to fight Henry Cejudo. They are trying to book this fight as soon as possible, which will be in 20 days, so I got to go back into training camp for three or four weeks,” he added.
According to Johnson, if his fight against Borg gets re-booked, and fast, he likely won’t see a penny for making it to UFC 215.
“They said, usually if it’s a quick turnaround then they do not pay the athletes. But hopefully they do make things happen on October 7 if possible so I can get a paycheck,” said Johnson. “As far as I’m concerned, my black ass should be going to the bank and depositing a check right now and dropping my kids off at school. But that’s not the case. It’s up to UFC and First Round Management.”
“When they said, ‘Stop cutting weight,” the first thing I said was ‘How the fuck do I get my money? Do I need to finish cutting weight, jump on the scale and make weight to get my paycheck?’ Because I just trained eight weeks for this. But it’s just part of the sport,” he concluded.
According to this report, Valentina Schevchenko was paid a $70,000 discretionary bonus after her fight against Amanda Nunes was cancelled at UFC 213 last July. This, despite the fact that their rematch was booked two months later at UFC 215.
Nevertheless, Johnson is waiting to see if his management team and UFC agree to some kind of payoff or whether or not Ray is healthy enough to make it to UFC 216 on Oct. 7, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tick tock.