{"id":514273,"date":"2026-03-04T18:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514273\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:44:09","slug":"ufc-326-star-max-holloway-takes-strong-stance-on-ufc-fighter-pay-in-paramount-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514273\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 326 Star Max Holloway Takes Strong Stance on UFC Fighter Pay in Paramount Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC 326 headliner and current \u201cBMF\u201d titleholder Max Holloway has offered some interesting insight on UFC fighter pay ahead of his rematch with Charles Oliveira. <\/p>\n

One of the most popular fighters on the UFC roster, Holloway previously had a lengthy reign as the promotion\u2019s featherweight champion before he was unseated by Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245 in his fourth attempt to defend the title. <\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed\u201d came up short in two bids to reclaim the belt from Volkanovski before he was also knocked out by Ilia Topuria<\/a> in another featherweight title bout at UFC 308, which encouraged the reigning \u201cBMF\u201d champion to fully commit himself to the lightweight division going forward. <\/p>\n

Max Holloway Weighs-In On UFC Fighter Pay Under New Paramount Deal<\/p>\n

Scheduled to try and defend his \u201cBMF\u201d belt for the second time in a long-awaited rematch with Oliveira at UFC 326 this Saturday, Holloway recently spoke with fellow UFC legend Demetrious \u201cMighty Mouse\u201d Johnson and delivered some interesting thoughts on fighter pay (h\/t Home of Fight<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time, it\u2019s always gonna stick out in my mind,” Holloway said. “Now, I love Derrick Lewis, he\u2019s the man \u2013 but when Jon Jones said \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll fight Francis [Ngannou].\u2019 I think he said \u2018Give me $10 million\u2019\u2026The UFC said \u2018Hell no, we\u2019re not paying you that.\u2019 Derrick Lewis, I believe was ranked at the time, and he said \u2018What? Jon\u2019ll do this for 10? Give me a mil, I\u2019ll fight Francis now.’<\/p>\n

\"Derrick<\/p>\n

Derrick Lewis (blue gloves) before the fight against Waldo Cortes Acosta (red gloves) during UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

“We cannot be doing that brother. You need to be like \u2018Yeah, Jon.\u2019 You need to almost stand in Jon\u2019s corner and be like \u2018Yeah Jon, you deserve 10, go get that 10.\u2019 \u2018Cause guess what, if you\u2019re fighting for 10, then it looks like your base pay probably comes up too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jon<\/p>\n

Jon Jones (red gloves) reacts after defeating Stipe Miocic (not pictured) in the heavyweight bout during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Holloway has seen it all and then some during a UFC career that began in 2012 when he joined the promotion with a 4-0 record. After he came up short in his UFC debut against fellow MMA legend Dustin Poirier<\/a> and went 3-3 during his initial UFC run, the Hawaiian defeated Will Chope in 2014 to kick off what eventually became a 13-fight win streak.<\/p>\n

“Blessed” Could Make UFC History On Saturday Night<\/p>\n

Now getting towards the end of his career and on the cusp of becoming the UFC\u2019s all-time leader in fight time this weekend, Holloway wants to see younger fighters advocate for themselves more during the UFC\u2019s lucrative new era with Paramount<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that these new fighters coming in, just know your worth man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Holloway celebrates after knocking out Justin Gaethje (not pictured) during UFC 300 at T-Mobile Arena. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed\u201d will have the chance to add another huge victory to his already Hall of Fame-caliber record this weekend when he meets former lightweight king Oliveira, who unfortunately suffered an injury less than two minutes into their initial meeting back in 2015. <\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/p>\n

Charles Oliveira (blue gloves) prior to the fight against Ilia Topuria (red gloves) during UFC 317 at T-Mobile Arena. | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Like Holloway, \u201cDo Bronx\u201d was also knocked out by undefeated UFC star Topuria when the latter fighter moved up a division to claim the vacant lightweight belt at UFC 317. Oliveira rebounded from that setback by submitting Mateuz Gamrot in the main event of UFC Rio <\/a>last year and earned a \u201cPeformance of the Night\u201d bonus for the impressive victory. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC 326 headliner and current \u201cBMF\u201d titleholder Max Holloway has offered some interesting insight on UFC fighter pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-514273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}