Den tidigare UFC-fightern som numera tävlar för Bellator, Michael ”Mayday” McDonald förklarar hur det är att fightas under UFC-fanan när en inte är känd. McDonald menar att UFC använder bonussystemet som ett vapen i kontraktsförhandlingar. I Bellator väljer man istället att höja lönen för sina utövare och använder sig inte av bonussystem på samma sätt. McDonlad menade även att UFC noggrant kollar på dina senaste prestationer i oktagonen för hur ditt kommande kontrakt skall se ut. Genom MMAFighting sade han följande.
With the UFC’s bonus system and how it’s structured, if you win and you get a bonus you’re doing good, you’re comfortable in life. If you don’t win it, you’re starving. A lot of the guys in the UFC are at that place and it’s not a very good place to be. Now I’m with Bellator and it’s not the way it is and I’m very happy about that. The bonus structure isn’t applied here with Bellator and because of that the base payments can be a bit better. In the UFC, they used to use the bonuses against you, they used them like a gun to your head. They would say, ‘We don’t want to raise your contract because your last fight was this or that’ or, ‘all you have to do is win some bonuses, if you win some bonuses you’ll be fine’. It was used more like a weapon than a reward, and I’m honestly glad that I don’t have to deal with that anymore.
Vidare menade McDonald att bonussystemet i allra högsta grad kan förändra en fight och hur en gameplan i många fall kan slopas helt. McDonald diskuterar om just det i sin match mot John Lineker.
I’m happy I made the decision but I guess part of that is me putting away my pride as a competitor, but sometimes that still comes out. In my fight with John Lineker, I didn’t want to take him down. I wanted to show the world that my hands were better than John’s. The fight showed his chin was better than mine, we were both hitting each other. My pride as a competitor can still come out, but as a businessman, if I did that over again I would have thought, ‘Mike, you’re a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a fantastic wrestler – put this guy down and put him where he is least comfortable.
McDonald gick nio matcher under UFC-fanan där 26-åringen vann sex av dessa, två genom submission samt två genom knockout.
