Jake Paul has been one of the biggest voices shining a light on UFC’s business model. Despite the fact that UFC is a publicly traded company there are a lot of fans who refuse to believe that their favorite athletes are in no way financially secure.
But Paul’s motivations might be impure – as Ben Askren claims. In a recent interview with James Lynch, Askren shared:
“I didn’t watch it. I thought he had the chance to beat Anderson. Yeah, and he happens to be a lot better than everyone anticipated, so I wish he wasn’t. But I think Jake’s a little disingenuous on it. Like, because he, you know, he’s not going in-depth enough. He just it just keeps being like the fighters aren’t paid enough.”
“The fighters aren’t paid enough. And, you know, there’s so much more to it. I think there are a lot of things the UFC could do a little bit better, but I think they’re generally doing a pretty good job. I don’t know. I guess I would I would love to hear Dana kind of talk. And he never will. Right.”
“talked at length about the business aspects of paying fighters more and what it means to organization and how profitable they are and all those things that will be fascinating. And, you know, you look at a major a major boxing card, not a not a beginner boxer, a major boxer. You’re going to see, guys, hundreds of thousand dollars.”
Askren has a point here but Paul also admitted that his motivation wasn’t pure way back when.
“I think it’s personal for (Dana White). Okay. You know, because he’s this old guy who is clearly like a control freak. And I’m the only one that’s able to get under his skin.” Paul told Graham Bensinger
“Dana has the audience that I want. And so he doesn’t realize that he’s just playing into my game. Because I have the YouTube audience, the digital audience that tik tok all that. “
“What I want is the fight fans who will pay $60 $70 $80 to see me fight. And all he’s doing is making me 10 times more relevant in that space by playing my game.”