Mailbag: Where did all the UFC's Fight of the Night bonuses go?

Yahoo

09-04-2025

Alexander Volkanovski has a rare chance to recapture a UFC title after two straight losses, but age is a question for the 36-year-old former champ. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
What's happened to all the 'Fight of the Night' bonuses at recent UFC events? Can Alexander Volkanovski win back the UFC title and prove that fighters over 35 can still be champs? And how many old dudes is Chase Hooper going to have to fight, anyway?
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All that and more in this week's mailbag column. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesMMA or @benfowlkes.bsky.social.
@sentientlife4o1: What do you think is up with the UFC not giving Fight of the Night bonuses at its last 4 events? Do you think they're phasing them out or have the fights really been that lackluster?
It's a weird choice, right? If the TKO execs have decided to just phase out that bonus altogether for Fight Night events (pay-per-views have still been getting them, though we'll have to wait and see on UFC 314 this Saturday), they should say so and explain the decision. Otherwise it seems like even the people running these events don't think there are any good fights on them. That's not a great look.
One thing the 'Fight of the Night' bonuses are good for is sending a message to fans who might have skipped that event. They can look at the bonus results and immediately see which fight is probably worth catching up on. And since there are so many Fight Nights, those are the events that are most likely to go ignored by a lot of the fans. Why send the message that none of these fights was worth watching anyway?
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I refuse to believe it's just that there have been no good fights for four straight events. Having watched them, I'm sure I've seen some fights that were, at worst, pretty good overall. Even so, "Fight of the Night" is a relative term! It doesn't have to be the best fight ever. It just has to be the best fight of that event.
If we're prioritizing finishes and individual performances over collective efforts, just change it to a standard finish bonus and be done with it. But also don't do that, because "Fight of the Night" does serve a genuine purpose.
@Beastin364: If Volk wins can we finally stop saying that featherweights over 35 are washed?
First of all, it's not just featherweights who've struggled in UFC title fights past the age of 35. It's basically all fighters 170 pounds and below. Second, I'd argue that losing a title fight doesn't automatically mean anyone's 'washed.' That term ought to be reserved for the guys who can no longer beat even the mid-level contenders — not the guys who fall just short of being the absolute best.
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Alexander Volkanovski's situation is a little bit different, though. For one thing, he was just a couple months shy of his 35th birthday when he beat Yair Rodriguez. For another, his two recent losses both come with certain caveats. The first one was when he went up in weight on extremely short notice and got knocked out by the world's best lightweight. The second was when he returned from that knockout way too soon and got knocked out by the world's best featherweight.
I'm not trying to make excuses for the man, but those two fights alone don't really tell us where he's at. At the same time, nothing about this situation is normal. Most ex-champs with two straight losses don't get a title shot. And if they do, it usually comes against a reigning champ — not a contender who's technically below them in the rankings.
It's weird, in other words. But I think that probably favors Volkanovski. This is kind of the best-case scenario for him, and likely the best chance he's ever going to get to have another UFC title reign.
@RealFakeSamDunn: What's the best-case scenario for the future of the UFC featherweight division? LA LEYENDA's moving up, Max also, Pitbull is there but he's old, Volk's either at the end of his prime or it's altogether passed, etc.
Is it inevitable that the overall 145 talent level simply drops?
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Of all the weight classes, I worry about the future of featherweight least of all. There are plenty of good fighters in that weight range all over the world. We just saw a couple of them in the main event of Saturday's APEX card. We'll see more (well, Jean Silva at least) on the undercard of UFC 314. And while sometimes fighters will move up, they also might move back down when they discover that lightweights are bigger and stronger than they thought.
The world has many good athletes around this size. The good news for MMA is that most of the rest of the pro sports universe has little use for them. The UFC isn't competing with the NFL for talent here the way it is at heavyweight or light heavyweight. There may be ebbs and flows, as with all divisions, but there will always be a few good 145-pounders somewhere.
@ItKanoli31520: a) is the UFC fumbling it by having Aaron Pico's debut on some random Apex card, and likely not even the main event? He could be fast tracked to contendership, why not give him a platform? and b) what are some of your favorite combat sports books? both fiction and non fiction?
As of right now, there's been no official confirmation from the UFC on Aaron Pico's first fight. But we know from past experience that the UFC sometimes likes to take new signees from other organizations and scuff them up a bit in order to, I don't know, prove its dominance in the MMA space or whatever.
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Thing is, fighting a guy like Movsar Evloev could absolutely be a quick way to contendership – if Pico wins. Evloev is a top five featherweight right now. You beat that guy in your debut and it really sends a message. Having to send that message in the APEX, though, would be kind of a waste.
@JedKMeshew: Do you think Chase Hooper is mad at his dad and that's why he keeps fighting old guys? Instead of black shirts and emo music he chose to fight father proxies in THE OCTAGON?
To be honest, I appreciate what the UFC is doing with some of these Chase Hooper matchups. What do you do with a fighter who's 25 but looks 16? Give him an opponent with some grey in his beard. In this matchup with the 41-year-old Jim Miller, it works not only visually but also stylistically.
Young weirdo grappler against the neighborhood submission artist who seems like he warms up by mowing the lawn in an old pair of stained green Asics? Yes, please. I genuinely want to see how this one plays out. I'm also a little stunned that Miller is as high as a 6-1 underdog on some sportsbooks. Have we completely forgotten about the phenomenon known as old man strength?!?
@WorldsWorstHero: What was the first moment in your life that had you like, "damn, I'm old!"? And how old were you when this moment occurred? Lol
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You know how you'll be drifting off the sleep and then think you're falling or something and jolt yourself awake? I hurt myself doing that once. Like actually injured myself and needed a few days to recover. So that was pretty sobering.
Now I'm at the age where my kids regularly talk about pop stars and celebrities who frankly sound totally fictional to me. These people simply cannot be real. That feels like a new and even more alienating phase of being totally old. At least this one is peaceful. I hear about Doja Cat or whoever and I know it is simply none of my business.