UFC veteran of 20 years Diego Sanchez has agreed with a recent statement made by Uriah Hall on the wage disparity between athletes and ring ladies in the UFC is something to seriously consider.
Hall shared:
“You don’t have to go too much into details but I know people that are making [$10,000 to show, $10,000 to win], which is ridiculous,” he continued.
“Cause you’re going out there and fighting and you’re putting your brain cells on the line and f—king ring card girls are making $70,000, which is utterly f—king ridiculous. So yeah, there’s some s—t that’s just not going down but compared to this it’s okay.”
Sanchez posted a message on his private Instagram account endorsing Hall. In the post’s caption, Sanchez stated that fighters should be paid more for risking their life for viewers’ amusement.
“Sex sells but so does blood and the entertaining of the people with all the risk on the fighter. With death and bodily harm as the risk I think we fighters should take more of the cake! But all fighters know why ring girls get paid so much.”
Interestingly Sanchez was known to have had a fling with a ring girl in his past. He dated blonde bombshell Ali Sonoma from 2006 until 2008,
Sanchez and Sonoma were a couple from 2006-2008. Their relationship went serious as they became engaged and started to live together. But Sanchez later decided to focus on his career and called off the relationship. Said Sonoma via Social media in 2008:
“As some of you know I was in a almost 2 year relationship with UFC fighter Diego Sanchez, a man who proposed to me after 4 weeks of dating. Diego recently decided he can’t have both: he can’t have the relationship and be the champion. Sigh…and that’s ok…I am the kind of person I believe everything happens for a reason, due to God’s will and His plan for us…and I will do nothing but trust in Him and not who I thought and always imagined would always be there for me. Words sometimes have no meaning, based on the person they come from. Ladies, don’t rely on your “man” or whoever it is that you think will never forsake you.”
This isn’t’ the first time Sanchez dissed the ring girls. He supported Khabib’s statement that ring girls were redundant when he joined Eagle FC saying:
“He doesn’t want ring girls in there, there’s no ring girls, you know what I mean? And no disrespect to the ring girls, you know, like that’s Vegas and that’s selling s*x. He’s aware of that and he’s like that’s not what I want to do in Eagle FC.”
“You know, Khabib [Nurmagomedov] has been real big on his faith. You know, he has a mountain of faith, in god, and that’s the man I am too. Even though our belief systems maybe a little different, we both believe in a God and so to be able to come into Eagle FC, get my opportunity to fly like an eagle and spread my message. My message is a God message,” Sanchez added.
Before making his Eagle FC debut, Sanchez had a lengthy and successful career in the UFC. He was the champion of first season of TUF. Sanchez faced up against several top athletes during his time in the multibillion dollar promotion. This includes Nick Diaz, B.J. Penn, Josh Koscheck, Michael Chiesa, Jim Miller, and Al Iaquinta.
Sanchez left after an infamous unholy alliance with guru Joshua Fabia who had alienated the majority of people in Sanchez’ life and inadvertantly put the spotlight on athlete brain health in UFC going so far as to leak concerned texts Sanchez’ ex wife sent UFC.
Majority of the criticism ring girls have received to date originates in conservative ideas. Khabib Nurmagomedov famously dismissed them as useless:
“I don’t want to offend anyone, ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts. What is their function? I have a question, you can show it is the second round that is on the screen.”
“There are people who understand martial arts and they are walking. This is my personal opinion Do they develop the sport? Or they help people to see it is the second round now? I realise that it is a history. History knows many mistakes. We read history to avoid mistakes of the past in the future. If we look in the history it says they are useless. That is my personal opinion.”
He also explained he was uncomfortable seeing them in front of his father. The girls didn’t take too kindly to that.
In recent history Khmazat Chimaev piled on these comments by sharing the following on social media:
Regardless of how conservative you are or aren’t the truth is that many of them outearn the talent who is putting their lives on the line in the cage. UFC has been adamant to keep the athletes down as to not compromise their sizable profit margins. On any given night, UFC athletes receive under 20% of profits an event brings in, which is fairly atrocious.