Alexander Volkanovski wants a bobcat, Junior Tafa a farm, while Diego Lopes reckons $200,000 will help him and his Academy, fund the future of several young Mexican toughs.
But as for Dan Hooker?
Well, he just wants his neighbour’s place.
Although not for staging those backyard scraps for which this Auckland berserker has now become famous.
“I’m already hosting those in my own backyard,” he cackles.
UFC 325: Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 | SUN 1 FEB 1PM AEDT | For the first time in his storied career, UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will defend his championship in his home city of Sydney, in a rematch with Brazil’s Diego Lopes. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.
Which, The Hangman reckons, may also help his neighbourhood takeover.
“I’m hoping they’ll scare everybody else off,” he continues, still grinning. “Scare them off, bring the property value down, so I get the neighbour’s house for a bit cheaper.”
Beautiful.
Same deal, how he plans to get it done.
With Hooker well aware his signature violent streak is the best way to earn one himself a bumped up UFC performance bonus.
As revealed recently by UFC boss Dana White, the four event bonuses he regularly doles out – two for greatest performance, and two more for fight of the night – have been doubled to US$100,000.
Which when converted to Aussie bucks, becomes $140,000.
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Elsewhere, White is also now gifting a US$25,000 bonus for anyone who finishes a rival.
Which again Down Under, equates to $36K.
Asked this week about how he plans to spend any bonus won in Sunday’s UFC 325 headliner in Sydney, Volkanovski revealed how “I really need to buy a bobcat … and for what’s required on the farm, it’s going to cost me a couple of hundred grand”.
Fighters square up at the weigh in! | 00:21
Meanwhile, the man looking to take his crown, Lopes, has revealed he will be putting the cash towards an Academy program run out of his adopted hometown Puebla, Mexico.
Better, the challenger is planning to win not one performance bonus, but two – and exactly like he did last start in September, when a brutal spinning back elbow ended Jean Silva.
That, and earned him both a performance bonus and Fight of the Night.
“So I don’t just want one bonus,” he said this week. “I’m looking for $200,000.
“My last fight, I took the double and now I want it again too.”
And as for where the cash will go?
“Ah, I’m really smart with my money,” he stressed.
“Of course, I will help my students, help my team-mates, help to keep all those guys in training and ready for their next fights.”
What about for you, though?
“For me? Simple things,” he said. “Maybe some pizza.”
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Elsewhere, cult UFC favourite Tai Tuivasa promised surprising control with any potential bonus – “I’ll spend it on family and bills” – while Australia’s Next Big Thing Quillin Salkilld is looking at a house deposit.
Which is also something of a surprise given, when winning the first of two $50,000 bonuses last year, the hyped Perth native went and threw half on the blackjack tables.
With the rest then used to buy himself a new car.
“But if I get a bonus this time around, I’ll put a deposit on a house,” he said “Or an apartment.
“Maybe I’ll save up for a penthouse.”
Wonderfully, Welsh fighter Oban Elliott has so loved his time Down Under he also wants to buy property here, while the co-main’s Benoit St Denis says his will be directed towards “getting my family in a better place economically”.
Tau’s weight gamble backfires | 01:27
Tafa, meanwhile, says he wants to buy his family a farm – just like Volkanovski.
Quizzed on the new bonuses, the Queensland light heavyweight said: “Man, how do you not wanna go for the knockout now?
“For me, it’s actually going to be important to remember the game plan and not just immediately go looking to take my opponent’s f***ing head off.
“Although I do see myself knocking him out, and by the end of the first.
“Because I’m an entertainer.
“So of course, I’m wanting those bonuses.
“Because I can go out there and win $40,000 with a win, or look to make it $150,000.
“So the forty is never the option.”
Volkanovski and Lopes make weight | 03:01
And as for where his bonus would go?
“I’ve got two little ones, aged three and two,” he says.
“And the real goal for us is to get a farm, just like Alex.
“That’s the dream.
“To have 10 kids and a farm with animals, living self-sustainable.
“I don’t want to be rich.
“And I don’t want to be famous, either.
“I want just enough for me and my family.”