just recently scoffed a questions over minimum salaries<\/a> after WNBA players negotiated a new rate where nobody makes less than $270,000 for a season.<\/p>\n\u201cFirst of all, if you come into the UFC, let\u2019s say you sign a three-fight deal, we\u2019re going to find out if you even belong in the UFC,\u201d White said. \u201cI should pay you $370,000 to see if you belong in the UFC?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Brundage is in a much different situation as a 16-fight UFC veteran but he\u2019s not complaining about his pay whatsoever. In fact, Brundage argues that seeking out his new job as a firefighter actually lessens the stress surrounding his UFC career and he believes the end result is becoming a better fighter.<\/p>\n
\u201cStability is definitely a thing,\u201d Brundage explained. \u201cFighting is an awesome job but it\u2019s not really a career. Some people need just their Plan A and if you give them a Plan B, they\u2019ll struggle I think because they need to feel their back is against the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t do it for me. I\u2019ve got young kids, I\u2019ve got a wife and to me, fighting only becomes easier when there\u2019s stability in my life, like I have a career that I\u2019m doing as well and if fighting doesn\u2019t work out, then I have this career to fall back on. For me, that\u2019s better because I\u2019m fighting because I love fighting. I think it\u2019s a good thing. It gives me direction before I\u2019m done fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brundage has seen plenty of horror stories in combat sports where athletes are clearly no longer in their primes but they continue competing because fighting is all they know.<\/p>\n
The last thing Brundage wants is to overstay his welcome, especially if that comes along with absorbing the kind of damage that ends up affecting his quality of life or the ability to provide for his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see a lot of guys, they get done and then don\u2019t really know where to go,\u201d Brundage said. \u201cThat puts them in some of these spots that can be dangerous. If you\u2019re fighting desperately and you\u2019re doing bare-knuckle and you\u2019re past your prime, you shouldn\u2019t be fighting or they\u2019re doing these different leagues and you\u2019re like I think maybe you should be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never want to tell somebody that, especially when they don\u2019t have a direction to go. So it gives me direction when fighting is done and it\u2019s the type of job and career that\u2019s awesome, pays well, has great benefits but also allows me to keep a schedule where I can fight, if that\u2019s something I choose and want to do. So it\u2019s the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once he\u2019s officially working as a firefighter, Brundage expects to work 24 hour shifts during the week but that also allows him plenty of time to train and stay on call whenever the UFC needs him.<\/p>\n
Plus now that he\u2019s not dependent solely on his UFC paycheck, Brundage expects the results are going to show in the cage as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there will be some negative things that will be hard to navigate but for the most part, I think it\u2019s all positive,\u201d Brundage said. \u201cIt makes fighting much easier, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best part about the timing of this hiatus is that Brundage is taking a break coming off a win rather than a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like everybody kind of hates on me a little bit, the record doesn\u2019t do me any favors, but three out of my last four [fights] were [split decisions],\u201d Brundage explained. \u201cI feel like you switch those three to me winning, which isn\u2019t that crazy, and my record looks a lot different. I\u2019ve got 15 wins and only six losses, that\u2019s a pretty good record and then I\u2019m 9-6 in the UFC. That\u2019s pretty good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like I was getting killed but no one looks at the fights, no one goes back and watches the fight. They just look at the record, look at the result and go \u2018this guy\u2019s not good.\u2019 I feel like it\u2019s not a performance issue, we\u2019re figuring it out but we\u2019re just right there. It felt like I turned a corner a little bit and I hope we can keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Make no mistake, Cody Brundage loves fighting in the UFC. With three fights already under his belt thus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-744788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744788","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=744788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}