UFC president Dana White has reacted to Stephen Thompson’s claim that he will receive some backpay for his upcoming fight at UFC 296.
In the last few days, it’s been confirmed that Stephen Thompson will return to take on Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 296. It comes after Thompson’s scheduled bout with Michel Pereira was cancelled, with ‘Wonderboy’ refusing to accept the bout after Pereira missed weight. This led to a dispute between the veteran and the promotion, with Thompson noting that he wasn’t paid for making weight and doing his job.
Since then, Thompson has noted the following during an interview with Chris Weidman regarding the Rakhmonov fight.
“I do believe that they’re going to – I think the deal is, when I fight Shavkat, they’re going to add on what they owed me for the last fight.”
Weidman jokingly responded:
“So they’re bribing you.”
To which Stephen Thompson replied:
“I don’t think they’re bribing me. But it was the fact that I wanted somebody – OK, so there was the thing about Usman after that fight. Usman called me out, and I wanted that fight, but the UFC kept coming back and saying, ‘No, Usman’s not gonna fight you. He’s gonna fight somebody else.’ So there’s a lot going on.”
After being asked about this during a media scrum, White said the following – with a confused smile on his face.
Dana White: If that’s what he said it must be true. pic.twitter.com/Db9eOD756o
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 27, 2023
