Controversy surrounding fighter pay in the UFC has been an omnipresent topic for many years but lately the promotion has taken more than a few very public hits over how much athletes are earning, especially with names like Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones lashing out over grievances with the promotion.<\/p>\n
As she plotted her comeback, Rousey revealed she first approached the UFC with the idea to fight Gina Carano, but the two sides weren\u2019t able to come to an agreement and she eventually signed with Jake Paul\u2019s Most Valuable Promotions with her return airing on Netflix. As for Jones, he complained that the UFC refused to budge over a $15 million offer to have him fight at the upcoming White House card after he was reportedly offered $30 million for a heavyweight title bout against Tom Aspinall.<\/p>\n
But despite all the public outcry about how the UFC is conducting business these days, Matt Brown isn\u2019t buying that the biggest combat sports promotion in the world is suddenly feeling threatened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would start with saying no, we are not at a breaking point,\u201d Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. \u201cThe UFC is still the powerhouse. Look, people like me and you might sit and talk about how yeah maybe it\u2019s not the best fighting the best, it\u2019s Jon Jones versus [Tom] Aspinall or whatever best versus best would, because the UFC has all the best I can think of. It\u2019s not [Francis] Ngannou versus Jones. 99.9-percent of people have no idea who the best even is. Most people don\u2019t even care [and] are never going to talk about Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones is old news now. They got new stars to replace him.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould it get to a breaking point is the question and when people like Jon Jones stand up and say \u2018I\u2019m not going to fight for $15 million\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s when I think the ball can roll a little bit, but it\u2019s more like nudging the ball that even rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown definitely understands Jones\u2019 complaint that he was being offered $15 million \u2014 the same figure Zuffa Boxing is reportedly paying Conor Benn, who isn\u2019t nearly on the same level of popularity or accomplishment as the former two-division UFC champion.<\/p>\n
But Brown believes at this stage of the game, the UFC is effectively too big to fail and the organization is never going to sweat missing out on one particular fight because there\u2019s dozens more ready to take its place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on Jon Jones\u2019 side on this,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThere\u2019s been enough things I\u2019ve not been on Jon Jones\u2019 side about but I think from his point of view, he\u2019s look at it like you\u2019re paying Conor Benn $15 million, who\u2019s a mid-boxer right now. He might be a great champion of the future, but he hasn\u2019t had those title shots, and he hasn\u2019t even had those opportunities yet. He has one good win on his record over [Chris] Eubanks, I think that\u2019s probably his best win. Jon Jones is like \u2018bitch, I\u2019ve got 15 title defenses, I\u2019m greatest f*cking champion in UFC history, bitch. Why am I getting the same amount as this guy?\u2019 Everybody knows who Jon Jones is versus Conor Benn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get where Jon is coming from on that situation. But again when you say breaking point, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s at a breaking point and I think the UFC or TKO [Group Holdings] or Endeavor, however you want to phrase it, they\u2019re like \u2018we\u2019re putting out cards and people are going to watch them because we\u2019re the UFC\u2019 and I think that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
With 325 million subscribers, Netflix getting involved in MMA with the upcoming Rousey vs. Carano card is definitely big business and there\u2019s a good chance that event crushes every UFC show in 2026 \u2014 including the upcoming card at the White House.<\/p>\n
That said, Brown knows the UFC machine is going to just keep rolling along, and he\u2019s not sure anybody is capable of slowing that down, especially without making a truly significant investment in the sport that goes beyond these big marquee events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the powerhouse,\u201d Brown said about the UFC. \u201cThey\u2019re the f*cking top of the world. Everybody else is fighting for scraps way at the bottom. There\u2019s not even a f*cking close second. Now Netflix they can invest the money and potentially do things to potentially make a dent at some point. There\u2019s a lot of potentials there, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a f*cking monster. I don\u2019t think just putting on fights with big names is going to sway people from wanting to see the best and when the UFC says these are the best, people believe them. Me and you may not be on the same page. Me and you might sit here and say \u2018that\u2019s not the best, it\u2019s not Jones [versus] Ngannou.\u2019 Are you going to tell me when you go to the bar and you watch the fights and the UFC puts out the promo and everybody\u2019s watching the pre-fight promo and they\u2019re like these motherf*ckers are the best. Don\u2019t tell me that Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett aren\u2019t the best two to be fighting for an interim title. I\u2019ve got to see this, these are the best two!\u201d<\/p>\n
The only real concern that the UFC might face in the future really does come down to how much the promotion is willing to pay the superstars and champions commanding the biggest audiences.<\/p>\n
This past weekend at UFC London, Dana White admitted he sat down with Nate Diaz for a meeting recently but the two sides didn\u2019t strike a deal because Diaz eventually signed onto the Rousey vs. Carano card where he\u2019s facing Mike Perry. White said he believed Diaz received an offer \u201che couldn\u2019t refuse\u201d with veteran UFC color commentator Joe Rogan later stated he heard it was more than $10 million for the fight.<\/p>\n
The UFC could obviously afford to pay Diaz over $10 million but instead allowed him to sign with MVP instead. Could that come back to bite the UFC?<\/p>\n
Brown is skeptical at best on that subject, especially when it comes to events featuring aging superstars signed for one big event rather than actually building something for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nowhere near a breaking point,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe thing is the UFC, they already did the gimmick fights. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to get that maybe ever again. They did the CM Punk thing. They brought up women\u2019s MMA with Ronda, it\u2019s not really a gimmick. They did the Brock Lesnar thing, they did all this stuff. They built the UFC up to the ginormous brand that it is now, they sold it off and now it\u2019s such a ginormous brand that they can go around and say \u2018we are the premiere promotion with the best fighters in the world\u2019 and they\u2019re not going to say this part out loud but \u2018we have a lock on the best fighters in the world with our exclusive contracts.\u2019 They\u2019re not going anywhere. We have all best fighters in the world and they\u2019re not lying about it. They have the best fighters in the world and they put on the best fights in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to compete with that if you\u2019re an MVP or Netflix whatever and you want to compete with that and again, I question whether that\u2019s actually their motive because that\u2019s such a f*cking battle, we\u2019re nowhere near a breaking point \u2026 I have a hard time believing it will ever happen unless the UFC completely f*cks up. The only way it would possibly happen would be the lawsuit coming in with injunctive relief and opening up the market and changing the contracts. That\u2019s literally the only way that there\u2019s any chance of anyone getting anywhere near the UFC and even then, it\u2019s probably still not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Google Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, and iHeartRadio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Controversy surrounding fighter pay in the UFC has been an omnipresent topic for many years but lately the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,45518,1591,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-561228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-mmaf-podcast-network","tag-podcasts","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}