Matt Mitrione Blasts Promoters’ Win Bonuses, Talks “Rough Gig” of Being a Fighter

Mitrione, now fighting under the Bellator flag, believes that fighters are being somewhat duped by the often elusive “win bonus”.

Be it an incentive to go for a knockout, or a reward in recognition of a stand out performance: the win bonus is a staple of fighters’ pay in MMA. It is common in other sports to receive a bonus for say, winning ‘The Superbowl’ in NFL (Mitrione played for New York Giants & The Minnesota Vikings prior to his fight career), or the NBA Finals in basketball. Granted, the gulf in pay between high level footballers and basketball stars in comparison to MMA fighters means this is where the comparison ends.

Mitrione believes it is promoters and not fighters who are the true beneficiaries of such bonuses. ‘Meathead’ recently spoke at Bellator 170’s media scrum, and gave his opinion on the “stupid” post fight rewards.

“It’s stupid – a split purse is ignorant. All it is, is a way for promoters to save money and to put a carrot in front of a horse. That’s all it is. Like, if you win you’ll get 24 grand. All that does is make guys fight like bullsh*t, or it makes it so you can’t base your financial life. You can’t say, ‘After this fight, I’ll have 24 grand.”

Mitrione squares off against Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of Bellator 172 on Feb. 18. The heavyweight stated that a fighter on a $12,000 to show & $12,000 to win may make as meager as $4,000 upon paying coaches and other outgoing/expenses, if he were to lose:

“Good job, you got 4,000 bucks; good for you. And that’s the way it is. You end up like, what the hell do I do? You’re living on a couch with some guy that you don’t know that well. You’re living in a gym just to have a shower. … And you’re on the main card. Everybody knows your name now but you ain’t got sh*t for it. Good job, Chuck. That’s the way it goes. It’s a rough gig.”