Multiple UFC London Fighters Claim They Were Compensated by the UFC

Per sources, UFC has been working with fighters scheduled to compete on the canceled UFC London card on March 21 in terms of compensation, including headliner Leon Edwards, who almost flew to the US at the last minute in an effort to keep his fight together.

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) April 2, 2020

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been trying to make it up to fighters after the UFC London card was scratched earlier in March.

MMA Junkie first reported on Wednesday that multiple UFC London competitors have been paid by the promotion. Fighters including Marvin Vettori, Nicolas Dalby and Kevin Holland have all posted on their respective social media accounts that the UFC has paid them at least some amount for their time. UFC London was set to take place on March 21 at the O2 Arena in London, but was scrapped on March 16 due to the coronavirus.

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As a fighter AND a father & family provider I would like to take a moment to thank @seanshelby, @danawhite and @ufc for stepping up and taking care of us fighters from the cancelled #UFCLondon event! These times are taking a huge hit on all of us, even UFC. So I really commend you for helping us get through this tough period so we can take care of our families and stay ready to fight as soon as possible and once again put on exciting fights for the fans, in the best fight promotion in the world #Thankful | #GoodKarma | #StaySafe

A post shared by Nicolas “Lokomotivo” Dalby (@dalbymma) on Apr 1, 2020 at 5:19am PDT

Although the UFC briefly attempted to relocate the event from London to the United States, those efforts failed and the organization was forced to call a halt to the card as well as two others. Fighters were briefly concerned about getting paid despite not competing, as many athletes do not have a secondary source of income, and the UFC appears to have delivered.

In addition to the aforementioned fighters, ESPN confirmed on Thursday that the UFC was actively attempting to compensate fighters from that UFC London card. This also includes one of the headliners, Leon Edwards, who nearly flew to the U.S. to keep his bout with Tyron Woodley intact. Of all 13 fights scheduled for UFC London, none stayed intact, but Darren Stewart took on Bartosz Fabinski that weekend on Cage Warriors 113 in Manchester, England.

It is unclear whether fighters scheduled to compete on the previously slated cards of UFC Columbus on March 28 or UFC Portland on April 11 will be/have been paid despite the event cancellations.