On a recent episode of Theo Von’s podcast, Jake Paul laid out his case against the UFC’s athlete pay model.
Paul began by drawing a direct comparison between his own promotion MVP and the UFC’s approach to compensating athletes. Using a hypothetical matchup as an example, he suggested that the UFC is reluctant to offer large purses because of how its pay structure is built.
“You don’t want to pay Conor Benn $15 million to do an easy match against Regis [Prograis] right off rip because your whole UFC model is paying athletes like one-third of that max,” he said.
The conversation soon shifted to UFC CEO Dana White. When host Theo Von described White as a smart businessman, Paul pushed back, arguing that the promotion’s decisions around compensation reflect poor judgment.
“Not smart enough. Just look at what he’s doing. You don’t not pay your athletes, bro,” he said. “Why are you not going to pay Jon Jones?”
Paul referenced reigning heavyweight champion Jon Jones as a prime example, questioning why one of the sport’s biggest stars would be left off a major event due to contract disputes.
His sharpest criticism centered on the share of revenue athletes receive compared to athletes in other major sports leagues. Paul pointed to the National Football League as a benchmark for how revenue is typically divided.
“The NFL pays their athletes 50% of the revenue. So if the NFL makes a billion dollars, the athletes make 500 million,” he said. “In the UFC, it’s 150 million out of a billion. But when you exclude Conor McGregor and Jon Jones from that, it becomes like five zero, like 5%, 50 million out of a billion.”
Paul argued that the situation is trending in the wrong direction, claiming the percentage paid to athletes has steadily declined as the company has grown more profitable.
“When they’re paying athletes like 15% of the revenue, by the way, down to 10%, the investors are going to be like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to make more money,'” he said.
He attributed the shift to what he described as a structural change within the organization, suggesting that corporate ownership and investor pressure have reshaped the company’s priorities.
“This is like one of the most profitable sports organizations in history. Their investors have gotten greedy,” he said. “They’re in control. They are looking at the P&Ls and being like, ‘Yo, like we can just keep pumping this.’ They forgot their heart as a company.”
Paul also referenced the UFC’s corporate ties following its merger with professional wrestling giant World Wrestling Entertainment under parent company TKO Group Holdings, arguing that shareholder expectations now play a larger role in decision-making.
“They have stockholders. It’s a part of the WWE, a public company,” he said.
Throughout the discussion, Paul repeatedly positioned MVP as an alternative model, emphasizing what he described as a fighter-first philosophy.
“Our motto is always fight er first,” he said. “When you start there, where you’re athlete first and operate as a startup, we instantly took over and resonated with athletes and are clearly the best to work with and make our athletes the most amount of money and give them the highest percentage of the matches.”
He closed with a warning about the long-term health of the sport, arguing that the current system could ultimately limit mixed martial arts’ growth.
“MMA is not ran properly and they’re becoming greedy,” he said. “Boxing has been around since the 1500s. MMA is 30 years and it’s declining.”
