Stan Dorsainvil stepped into the Octagon for the first time this past weekend, and by Monday he was fielding a very different kind of interview question: whether his UFC paycheck was enough to get him off the Home Depot schedule.
It wasn’t.
Speaking during an interview, the debuting star was blunt about his day job status. “Yes, sir. I’m still a wage slave by everyone else. You know what I’m saying? But, hey, until I start making them big bucks, I gotta sit there, clock in, clock out, get to work, get busy, and do it all over again.”
When asked directly whether he was still full time at the hardware retailer, he corrected the record rather than let the moment inflate his situation.
“Part time, part time,” he noted. “Maybe I might cut some hours, you know what I’m saying? But I like having something to keep me busy aside from just training all the time. You know what I mean? Keep the love of the sport going.”
There was a real number on the table that night, and Dorsainvil made clear it wasn’t just going toward rent. Asked about the possibility of pulling in $100,000 for the win, he shut down any idea that he’d be walking away from his apron the next morning.
“No, definitely not. That 100K doesn’t even belong to me, you know what I mean? That goes to my coaches, my manager, and of course, it’s gotta go to moms. Mom gave me everything, it’s only right that I give her something back,” he stated.
Pressed on what he’d actually spend it on, he leaned on a phrase he says gets repeated back home.
He noted, “We have a saying in Florida, you know what I’m saying? Mom in need of house, baby needs some shoes, times are getting hard, guess what I’ma do, I’ma hustle.”
The California State Athletic Commission’s release of athlete purses from the card confirmed just how far that hustle mentality had to stretch. Dorsainvil’s total for the night landed at $24,000, split evenly between a $12,000 show fee and a $12,000 win bonus.
He wasn’t alone near the bottom of the pay scale either. Several names on the same card, including Jeisla Chaves, Terrance Chatman and Lerryan Douglas, were listed at $12,000 flat, while others cleared six figures with names like Gregory Rodrigues topping the sheet at $340,000.
That gap, combined with an athlete clocking retail hours the same week he competed at the sport’s highest level, is what set off a wider conversation online once the clips started circulating.
One commenter pointed out that a third round WNBA rookie draft pick pulls an average salary of $270,000 a year, a figure that dwarfs what plenty of UFC competitors bring home even after a win bonus. Another simply couldn’t picture the same scenario playing out in a different league, joking about the idea of a rookie from the NFL needing a retail shift to make ends meet.
Former UFC competitor Miles Jury had already laid out why that pay structure exists in a video posted weeks before Dorsainvil’s debut. His explanation centers on the promotion’s position as the dominant stage in the sport.
Without a rival organization offering comparable exposure or money, incoming athletes have little leverage to negotiate, and Jury notes that contracts tend to arrive as take it or leave it offers. He also points to the sheer number of athletes willing to accept smaller purses just for the chance to compete, which keeps overall pay depressed the same way it would in any industry where labor is replaceable.
On top of that, Jury explains that newcomers typically start their UFC run at the bottom of the pay scale regardless of what they accomplished before signing, without the signing bonuses that rookies in other leagues often receive up front. And once an athlete is under contract, he says, there’s generally no path to competing elsewhere for bigger money and then returning, even during a hot stretch, since the promotion controls where and when its athletes can fight.
UFC President Dana White has heard the WNBA comparisons before and doesn’t think they hold up. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he defended the promotion’s approach to pay for athletes who are still new to the roster.
“Figh ter pay has gone up every year, and it will continue to go up as long as we continue to be successful,” White said. “But to compare it to the WNBA, that’s ridiculous. First of all, if you come into the UFC, let’s say you sign a three-fig ht deal, we’re going to find out if you even belong in the UFC. I should pay you $370,000 to see if you belong in the UFC?”
