Dana White made it abundantly clear what he thought of his UFC servants, and mixed martial arts in its entirety, when he stuffed a reported $15m into the pocket of Conor Benn. Obsessed with his Zuffa Boxing venture and the civil war that is breaking out on the other side of the combat world, the UFC suddenly feels like a secondary project to its own president.
Benn, a big name in boxing but not yet at that elite level of worldwide marketability, is allegedly being paid this eye-watering fee – a number which White neither confirmed nor denied when probed in an interview with Piers Morgan – for one co-main event bout against Regis Prograis, a former two-time super-lightweight champion who is long past his prime and is fighting outside of his natural weight category. These contract terms do not exist in the UFC, even for its biggest, best and most beloved stars.
Fighter pay has always been a pressing issue, as was notoriously harnessed by Jake Paul as ammunition against White, but the UFC head honcho’s undervaluing of his own employees has arguably never felt this pertinent. It’s led to said top stars speaking out to an extent that some haven’t dared to before.
“When you see somebody get paid that amount of money from the same person that’s not paying you on this side, it’s just disheartening,” British welterweight Michael “Venom” Page lamented to Sky Sports. Former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and Demetrious Johnson, who was notoriously underpaid during his record-setting flyweight title run, similarly voiced their own disbelief. Another to chime in headlines UFC 326 this weekend.
Max Holloway encapsulates what it means to be a fan favourite in the UFC. The former featherweight champion and reigning “Baddest Motherf***er” is a bona fide legend of the sport has enthralled fans at the top for a decade.
In the squared circle, he’d be raking in tens of millions per outing. In the Octagon, he’ll make not even a fraction of that.
Nor will his opponent, fellow icon Charles Oliveira – a frantic submission artist who put together one of the most entertaining title runs at lightweight in recent memory. Despite barely speaking English – usually a must to transcend American audiences – he is unequivocally adored by basically the entire fanbase. That takes a special kind of mixed martial artist.
It’s a main-event matchup that will have any combat enthusiast salivating, a proper super-fight and the running back of a battle that fans felt almost robbed of, with their first meeting – almost 11 years ago – ending in first-round injury misfortune for “Do Bronxs”. The best was yet to come for both, as was proven.
However, it comes with an inescapable distraction thanks to its timing, a week after Benn’s Zuffa signing – and a mere day after Tom Aspinall was unveiled by Matchroom in Eddie Hearn’s counter-strike.
Holloway and Oliveira have given so much to the sport, to the profit of White and his company. They were here long before the Conor McGregor boost, there to witness the UFC go mainstream before stamping their own mark at the top. Now, at a time when matchmaking tends to leave fans uninspired, both are two of the sparingly few marquee attractions left that still attract the masses.
As a couple of the UFC’s most decorated stalwarts, two “Dana White guys”, they deserve their flowers in cash. That is not to say they’re each worth $15m per fight, but for their service, they warrant a bigger piece of the pie; one White has fed to Benn by the bucket load.
The pay situation has admittedly improved in recent times, thanks to the UFC’s new broadcasting deal with Paramount. Fighter bonuses have doubled from $50,000 to $100,000 – a step in the right direction, with TKO (the UFC’s parent company) president Mike Shapiro insisting that they take the “increase in fighter pay very seriously”.
It’s all just a drop in the ocean, though, especially when White has now shown he can pay these mammoth salaries when he wants to, and when he can get Turki Alalshikh and Saudi entertainment company Sela onside. MMA salaries are often kept under lock and key but it is thought the career-high paydays of both Holloway and Oliveira are unlikely to have exceeded even a fifth of what Benn has been guaranteed for his first Zuffa outing.
With Benn’s pay-packet out of proportion to an egregious extent compared to his MMA counterparts, Holloway recognises that fighters need to come together and realise their own value if this issue of pay is to ever be truly solved. “The main thing I would say is know your worth, know what it is. It’s going to suck. At the end of the day, hold your ground. You should know what your worth is,” Holloway said on “Mighty Mouse” Johnson’s YouTube channel.
He also recalled when heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis scuppered chances of Jon Jones negotiating at $10m deal to fight then-champion Francis Ngannou by low-balling the bosses, offering to step in for a tenth of what Jones was asking for. “We cannot be doing that, brother. You needed to almost stand in Jon’s corner.”
The response from fighters needs to be collective. For too long, questions on fighter pay at UFC press conferences been brushed off, with even the most influential stars previously unwilling to rock the boat and criticise the company’s pay structure. This latest slap in the face should be a turning point.
And while nothing will change as a direct result of Saturday, what Oliveira and Holloway can do is put on a barnstormer. They have been proving their worth for long enough and in the UFC’s spiritual home of Las Vegas, they can realign focus back to the fighters and show just how skewed White’s financial priorities are, right under his nose.
