Max Holloway didn’t stick to his original plan to hold out for a better payday.
The fan favourite is set to return in this Saturday’s UFC 326 main event, where he’ll be aiming for back-to-back BMF title defenses.
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Charles Oliveira will be the one standing in his way. Both fighters are hoping a win can set them up for a shot at the lightweight title down the road.
This will also be their first fight since the UFC raised its bonus payouts. Holloway wasn’t initially thrilled by what was essentially an extra $100k.
Max Holloway didn’t push for $326k bonuses despite pre-fight talk
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
In 2024, Holloway played a role in getting Dana White to raise UFC 300 bonuses to $300k, and he ended up being one of the big winners that night. His dominant showing against Justin Gaethje earned him both Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night honours.
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This year, UFC payouts have gone up again thanks to the $7.7 billion Paramount deal, but even with that bump, they haven’t kept pace with the company’s revenue growth over the past decade. That led Holloway to consider pushing for more.
UFC Embedded cameras caught ‘Blessed’ during fight week chatting with co-headliner Caio Borralho about asking for $326k bonuses for Saturday’s card. He even brought it up again while talking with Daniel Cormier.
“I’m gonna go out there tomorrow (at the UFC 326 press conference) and ask Dana White if he can make the bonuses more again,” Holloway said.
“That would be awesome. Yeah, bro, why not? 326 thousand.”
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Cormier laughed off that suggestion at first, and maybe that played a part in what happened next.
No such request was made during Thursday’s press conference as bonuses stayed locked at $100k.
Holloway will be among the favourites to collect one come fight night at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. While he has the second most post-fight bonuses in UFC featherweight history, Oliveira has the most of all time across every division.
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