Dana White wants you to trust him on Shane Carwin's Pay

Fightlinker describes Mike Landsberg of TSN's Off The Record as "one of the few guys to regularly call bullshit on [White's] answers."

You can watch Landsberg's interview with Dana White for yourself and decide but for those who are too lazy to Cage Writer points out an important exchange regarding what WKR feels is one of the principle stories heading into UFC 116 (at least for the MMA verse).

Landsberg referenced the number Carwin released last week when telling MMA Junkie that on paper the maximum he would make fighting in the main event at UFC 116 was $80,000 ($40,000 to win, $40,000 to show).

White chuckled and then fired back, "Shane Carwin's gonna make a lot of money for this fight."

White confirmed that the overall number wasn't accurate.

"I don't like people knowing about the money. I don't like people knowing about our business. Believe me when I tell you, these guys make a lot of money."

Steve Cofield goes on to point out a potential flaw in that argument:

Apparently Carwin isn't so confident otherwise he wouldn't have mentioned the salary and the lack of a back end pay-per-view bonus.

Essentially Dana White is saying "trust me." If we were looking to be sensationalist we could point out that Dana has said, on the record, "I will lie to you" but we're not going to do that...

The issue at hand is over the UFC's discretionary bonuses, often referred to as the "locker room" bonuses (a term that became famous with the Couture lawsuit) and the tremendous leeway management has in awarding said bonuses. White and Zuffa officials have always contended that fighters make more than their disclosed salaries, which we are led to believe are an appetizer to the main dish of discretionary bonuses.

Whether you agree or disagree with a payment system that is not contractual is something that fans can debate for a long time. Some like it as they hate the "million dollar" athlete who under performs. Some hate it as they don't trust a payment system shrouded in mystery with no contractual obligations to a payment method credited as being instrumental to a fighter's full salary (part of the issue in the Couture case).

SBN coverage of UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin