On this day in 2010, Dana White regretted his decision to give the fans more power.
White recently announced that he’s signed a five-year contract extension to remain the UFC’s CEO and president.
While the promotion is going to undergo some big changes in 2026, it’s likely that some of the things that fans complain about are going to remain the same for the foreseeable future.
Aside from the occasional one-off like the record-setting UFC 282, the MMA leader doesn’t tend to change the way that they hand out post-fight bonuses to the fighters.
However, there was one event where a new method was given a test run, only for the outcome to not go down well with the boss.
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The UFC letting fans vote for Fight of the Night backfired at UFC 124
On this day in 2010, the Octagon arrived at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for a card headlined by one of the most legendary champions of all time.
Georges St-Pierre dominated Josh Koscheck to send his fans home happy with another successful defense of his welterweight title at UFC 124.
Having already beaten his rival once before, their heated rematch was one-way traffic, with the champion winning every round on the scorecards and outlanding his challenger by 110 significant strikes to 16.
Despite this, it was awarded the Fight of the Night bonus, which meant that Koscheck received an additional $100,000 despite his disappointing defeat.
That’s because the UFC had given fans the opportunity to decide who received the bonus by voting for it, which Dana White immediately regretted.
“It’s one of the hazards of letting the fans vote. They’re always chirping about how we messed it up, and here we are,” White stated at the post-fight press conference.
White went on to say that this would only be a one-off, claiming that the fans “blew their chance”.
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Dana White promised to ‘take care’ of who should’ve won the bonus
Letting fans vote for things like bonuses does sound like a good idea on paper, but there are some major flaws with this.
For a start, it’s likely going to be the biggest names that receive the most votes, especially when you have a legend like Georges St-Pierre fighting in his home country.
Also, not every fan is going to sit and watch the entire card, so two fighters that put on a barnburner early on in the night might get completely overlooked.
This was the case at UFC 124, with White believing that Sean Pierson’s win over Matt Riddle in the third bout of the night was the most deserving of the Fight of the Night bonus.
He claimed that he’d “take care” of them after they were snubbed by the fans.
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