{"id":921169,"date":"2026-10-08T23:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921169\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:22:11","slug":"middleweight-champion-sean-strickland-openly-contemplates-leaving-ufc-over-fighter-pay-mma-crossfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921169\/","title":{"rendered":"Middleweight champion Sean Strickland openly contemplates leaving UFC over fighter pay \u2013 MMA Crossfire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Strickland is on the warpath again and this time, he is thinking hard about leaving the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>Strickland has been banging the UFC fighter pay for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmacrossfire.com\/2026\/07\/28\/sean-strickland-blasts-predatory-pay-structure-recommends-dont-join-the-ufc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">awhile<\/a> now, but recently on social media he openly floated leaving the company after watching fighters like Conor McGregor collect big bank for small performances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gotta be honest unless things change with the UFC Im kinda over it,\u201d Strickland tweeted. \u201cMcGregor makes 30 million to fight for 30 second and they dont want to pay us a fraction of it. Contemplating just going to 205 knocking out my contract and scrapping with <a class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1wvb978 r-1loqt21\" dir=\"ltr\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jakepaul\" rel=\"nofollow\">@jakepaul\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Whether Strickland is actually serious about taking such a stand is one thing as he likely makes one of the better salaries on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>Being able to move the UFC needle remains one of the requirements to enter the fighter pay conversation.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Its just hard McGregor 30 million<br \/>Some lame boxer 15 million<\/p>\n<p>The thought of just giving up my belt going to 205 and speed running my contract to fight Jake and make what these guys are making sounds pretty damn appealing<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SStricklandMMA\/status\/2107950882507882612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWhen you\u2019re a fighter, you\u2019re so f*cking poor,\u201d Strickland previously said. \u201cEven in the UFC. UFC guys, they\u2019re signing guys at like, 10 and 10, [$10,000] to show, ($10,000) to win, $20 grand. So then you pay off your manager, you pay taxes; if you lose, you only get like eight, seven grand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cNow, say you go get injured or get locked out. The UFC is f*cking brutal. The UFC is so f*cking predatory. This is why you see a lot of foreigners excel, because guys in Brazil that live in the f*cking favelas, $10 grand to them, that\u2019s f*cking life-changing. I have buddies that go and live in Dagestan or Brazil, and they go back and live like a f*cking king. Like bro, you can\u2019t even pay rent for a couple months here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cSo the UFC is so f*cking predatory pay. Like, I\u2019m happy. I make good money. But only the very top guys are making money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The UFC has doubled the bonuses for events since signing the seven year $7.7 billion deal with Paramount+ that began in 2026. They even added $25,000 finish bonuses as well.<\/p>\n<p>But to many, including Strickland, the current UFC pay structure is the same as it ever was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland is on the warpath again and this time, he is thinking hard about leaving the UFC.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-921169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921169","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=921169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}