The UFC has been giving out performance bonuses to fighters for years, but on Saturday night at UFC 273 Crypto.com added their own spin on the practice called the ‘Fan Bonus of the Night.’ Every pay-per-view moving forward will feature three bonuses paid to fighters in Bitcoin, based on votes from fans.
The fighter with the most fan votes receives $30,000 worth of Bitcoin, with second place getting $20,000 and third place $10,000. All these figures are in US dollars, with fighters getting the equivalent in cryptocurrency based on the exchange rate at the time.
We now have our first three fighters to get a Crypto.com payout, and they are: Khamzat Chimaev, Alexander Volkanovski, and Petr Yan.
While it’s somewhat disappointing that no prelim fighter ended up cracking into the top three, any extra money making its way to the athletes is good news.
Also on the crypto-currency tip is the crypto-coin named after Joe Rogan’s dog, Marshall Inu. While we certainly don’t know enough about this particular coin to encourage people to buy in, Marshall Inu have been splashing UFC fighters across all levels of the roster with cash, and are apparently also paying out $70,000 to the top three fighters voted by their community. First place gets $40K, second place gets $20K, and third place gets $10K.
We’ll update you once news breaks on which UFC 273 fighters received Marshall Inu payouts.