MVP<\/a> MMA organization) for supposedly underpaying its fighters.\u00a0<\/p>\nSean Strickland discloses and lambasts allegedly low UFC fighter pay, cites currency differential as reason behind foreigners’ UFC success<\/p>\n
During a recent appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show, hosted by U.S. military veteran Shawn Ryan, UFC middleweight titlist Sean Strickland addressed a range of topics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Tarzan” insinuated that the UFC, despite being the premier MMA organization and handing its top fighters decent paydays, doesn’t pay well for the average fighter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old seemed to jibe at fighter pay in general and lambasted the UFC, in particular, stating:\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So, like, fighting s*cks, dude. I mean, you’re so poor. Like, when you’re a fighter, you’re so f**king poor. Even the UFC guys — I think they’re signing guys at like, 10 and 10… So, like, 10 (grand) to show, 10 to win.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan weighed in, seemingly surprised and asking whether the pay was indeed as low for a UFC fighter per match. Strickland replied, “20 grand. So then, you pay off your manager… You pay taxes. Like, dude, if you lose, you’re making, like, eight, seven grand.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UFC staple added, “Say you go and get injured and get locked out. Like, the UFC is f**king brutal. Like, the UFC is so f**king predatory. This is why you see a lot of foreigners excel… The UFC is so f**king predatory to pay.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, he suggested that some of his fellow fighters, who hail from places like Brazil and Dagestan, accept the pay accorded because it’s life-changing money to them back home due to the differential between the U.S. dollar and their currencies.<\/p>\n
He implied, however, that the average UFC fighter pay isn’t even enough to pay a couple of months’ rent in the United States of America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Strickland highlighted that he’s happy, saying, “Like, I’m happy. I make good money. But, like, the only very top guys are making money.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sean Strickland sheds light on the pay boost UFC gives to fighters for short-notice fights<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Sean Strickland segued into the pay boosts that fighters receive for short-notice matchups in the UFC.<\/p>\n
The veteran combatant is no stranger to stepping up for a fight on short notice, as he’d memorably faced Brendan Allen in a 195-pound catchweight matchup on short notice at UFC Vegas 14 back in November of 2020. He bested Allen by TKO.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, Strickland, speaking to Shawn Ryan, explained that the UFC loves fighters taking short-notice matchups.<\/p>\n
For context, such fights generally come to fruition because of late withdrawals from scheduled matchups due to injury and\/or miscellaneous reasons. That, in turn, pushes the UFC brass to incentivize fighters who agree to replace their injured counterpart and salvage the matchup, without a full training camp, on the given UFC card.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strickland said, “Oh, it’s so predatory. Now, mind you, you could get a couple of fights and — the UFC, they love you taking a short-notice fight. If the UFC calls you, and they say, ‘Hey. You wanna take a fight on like a five-day notice?’ They will give you, you know, maybe a 30, 40, 50 grand pay bump.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
He continued, “But yeah, the UFC loves that sh**. Short-notice fights give you the biggest pay bumps.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of this time, Strickland remains the ruler of the UFC middleweight division, enjoying his second reign at 185 pounds after having narrowly outpointed and dethroned Khamzat Chimaev in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He’d subsequently focused on recovering from his shoulder injury, while Chimaev has been persistent in his pursuit of an immediate title rematch against him.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, former UFC middleweight titlist Dricus du Plessis<\/a>, who’s beaten Strickland twice, recently reinserted himself into the title picture by besting Kamaru Usman via unanimous decision.<\/p>\nStrickland’s next octagon appearance — be it against Chimaev, du Plessis, or another adversary — hasn’t been officially announced yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch Sean Strickland sound off on the UFC fighter pay below (*comments at the 16:00 and 20:20-minute marks of the video):\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland has made significant revelations regarding the UFC fighter pay and the extra sums that athletes receive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,4120,785,43022,85,787],"class_list":["post-831625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sean-strickland","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831625","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=831625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}