🔥 Introducing the new https://t.co/vCNztABJoG @UFC Fan Bonus of
the Night 🔥💰60K in
#Bitcoin shared by the top 3 UFC athletes
🎁Fans can win exclusive prizesCheck it out: https://t.co/svOHGBUBIp#UFC273
pic.twitter.com/kj8BOAWeBq
— Crypto.com (@cryptocom)
April 7, 2022
The Ultimate Fighting Championship will put some
bonus awards in the hands of the fans again.
At UFC 124 in 2010, the promotion announced that fans could vote on
their preferred “Fight of the Night,” which would give $100,000
checks to the fighters that fans selected. In a move subsequently
maligned by UFC head Dana White, the fans voted on the headliner of
Georges St.
Pierre vs. Josh
Koscheck instead of the other deserving options. White took the
option away after just one event, but according to the promotion on
Thursday, a version of fan-voted bonuses will return on
Saturday.
The bonuses, which will come from the partnership of the UFC and
Crypto.com, will not impact the standard fight night bonuses
awarded for competitors throughout the night. However, they will
only be given to fighters on pay-per-view events, and not for a
Fight Night or UFC on ESPN offering. A trio of bonuses, based on
the vote totals from fans, will be doled out to fighters at
$30,000, $20,000 and $10,000 amounts for their place in the voting.
The payouts will come in the form of bitcoin, so the amounts will
not be exact for long as the price of bitcoin fluctuates wildly.
The organization signed a $175 million partnership over 10 years
with Crypto.com in 2021, which means that a full year’s worth of
bonuses would total $720,000 of the $17.5 million that the UFC
earns from that contract in a given year.
White spoke highly of the new added bonus structure highly, and
gushed over the partnership with the Crypto.com, saying,
“Crypto.com has been an official UFC partner for less than a year,
and I’m telling you they are already one of the best partners we’ve
ever had. They’re constantly coming up with new ideas about how we
can work together to connect with the fans. This new Fan Bonus of
the Night is an awesome way to get fans more engaged in our events
while rewarding the fighters for bad-ass performances.”
Fans can vote on crypto.com/fanbonus, and the
voting will be open at the start of the card and will conclude an
hour after its completion. Three votes will be allowed per voter,
and those voting can select both competitors from a bout if they
see fit. These bonuses will first be unveiled at
UFC 273, which will take place at the Vystar Veterans Memorial
Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. on April 9. Headlining the show is a
featherweight championship match between champ Alexander
Volkanovski and Chan Sung
Jung, while the co-main event draws a bantamweight title
rematch when Aljamain
Sterling takes on Petr Yan to
unify the strap.