UFC: London Fighters Pay Had $20,000 Ceiling After Event Was Cancelled

The UFC vowed to ‘take care’ of the fighters who were left out of pocket when the UFC Fight Night 171 event in London, England was cancelled on short notice back in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s now emerged that there was a ceiling to their generosity.

“I’m told the fighters who were slated to compete on the ill-fated London card on March 21 received no more than $20,000,” ESPN’s Ariel Helwani revealed. “As you can imagine, some of the higher earners aren’t too pleased with that amount, while others were happy to get something for nothing.”

At the top of the list of fighters who would have been most adversely affected by that is likely to be former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who had up until recently been earning a basic salary of $540,000 as the titleholder, but was believed to be looking at somewhere in the region of $200,000 for his UFC: London fight with Leon Edwards.

Now that the word is out about what the fighter payouts it will be interesting to see if any of those involved start to speak out with their thoughts on the matter, but as far as Woodley goes, for the time being he’s been more occupied with an ongoing war of words on Twitter with middleweight champion Israel Adesanya!

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.