UFC President, Dana White, has revealed that many UFC athletes have been complaining about their pay, comparing their paychecks to boxers.
UFC is known for underpaying their athletes, with most contenders making between $10,000 to $30,000, while champions and stars have the potential to earn more through PPV share. This issue has been brought up by many influencers, with Jake Paul being the most notable.
Although both low-level boxers and MMA athletes earn insignificant sums, it is still a fact that elite boxers tend to make more money than UFC champions.
This is in part due to protections Ali act extends. These do not apply to MMA, so UFC has the monopsony on the market, controlling a 90% market share.
However, as MMA becomes more mainstream, the pay gap has become common knowledge,
During his appearance on Bussin with The Boys podcast,
“Yeah, there’s fu****g like a handful of guys in boxing that make sh**loads of money. The rest of the guys make nothing and that’s not the case…we’ve got 800 guys under contract. If you’re a low-level guy coming in, you work your way up. These kids are all making really good money.” White said.
The 53-year-old also explained that a lot of boxing promoters hold their payments to boxers, which never happens in the UFC.
“It’s more about when these guys hear some of these boxing numbers. First of all, most of these boxing guys that you hear make all this fu****g money, they’re all in lawsuits. Mike Tyson’s in a lawsuit right now for a fight that he didn’t get paid for. I’m hearing [Deontay] Wilder is probably about to be in a lawsuit here. Yeah, these guys all get in lawsuits cause they never get paid.” White said.
And while White can dispute all he wants, the fact is that Conor McGregor is the only MMA person capable of competing in earnings against mainstream sports and even that is mostly due to his lucrative side gigs.