After Talk of a 2nd Job, Joanne Calderwood Gets UFC Bonus, New Contract

Quit your day job.

With talk of low MMA fighter pay growing louder, UFC strawweight Joanne Calderwood did a little of her own talking on Instagram after knocking out Valerie Letourneau at UFC Fight Night 89.

In the wake of her noting that she would need to "work [and] save" in order to return to training, UFC brass apparently awarded Calderwood a bonus and new contract.

UFC President Dana White addressed the situation on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (h/t Dave Doyle of MMAFighting.com):

She will be bonused for that fight. There were so many good fights that night, people were going crazy, "How did she not get [a bonus]?" and it's true. Me and [UFC CEO] Lorenzo [Fertitta] were saying, "How the hell did that skip us, she should have got a bonus."

... 

We're going to take care of her, and we're going to sign her to a new deal.

In a post on Calderwood's personal account next to a photo of her wearing a cap that read "Broke as Hell," Calderwood wrote that she was "gutted I didn't get the bonus tonight but I'm not afraid to go home, work and save so I can get back to TriStar Gym asap and hopefully be back in the Octagon soon."

That seemed to indicate that she would need to find pay beyond what she received for fighting in the UFC.

The post evidently triggered a sizable reaction on social media and elsewhere, which in turn evidently triggered White and Fertitta to reconsider their bonus and contract decisions. The UFC Fight Night 89 $50,000 performance bonuses originally went to Steve Bosse, Sean O'Connell, Krzysztof Jotko and Donald Cerrone.

Calderwood (11-1) finished Letourneau in the third and final round of their bout, which served as the main-card opener. A native of Scotland, Calderwood is now 3-1 under the UFC banner.

Criticism over fighter pay has intensified in recent months, forcing Fertitta and other UFC leaders to defend the company's pay scale.

It is unclear whether or to what extent UFC officials are becoming more sensitive to such criticisms, but in this instance, based on what White said, a fighter and her fans appeared to make a difference by speaking up.

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