{"id":552837,"date":"2026-03-22T08:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T08:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552837\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T08:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T08:03:10","slug":"ufc-london-fighter-pay-debate-laid-bare-as-conor-benn-deal-described-as-heartbreaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552837\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC London: Fighter pay debate laid bare as Conor Benn deal described as ‘heartbreaking’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of the most impressive performances at UFC London came on the undercard.<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Wood overcame the odds yet again to beat Losene Keita, while Mason Jones overwhelmed Axel Sola in a bruising back and forth fight of the year encounter.<\/p>\n

Jones and Sola were covered in blood and breathing heavily by the end of their contest, with both fighters swinging until the final bell, using every last drop of energy.<\/p>\n

Jones’ performance was the type that can have a lasting effect on a fighter’s career but he and Wood roused the fans on a night when the atmosphere was sometimes flat<\/a> at the O2 Arena.<\/p>\n

Fighters on the prelims like Wood and Jones don’t get as much media attention or promotion from the UFC – and strikingly less money than their headlining peers.<\/p>\n

But in a sport that demands so much from the flesh and mind, there are arguments the athletes should be better looked after amid a changing landscape in combat sports.<\/p>\n

Fighter pay has been questioned by athletes and the media recently after boxer Conor Benn secured a reported \u00a311m one-fight deal <\/a>with Zuffa Boxing.<\/p>\n

Zuffa Boxing is owned by UFC president Dana White, so critics have asked why the 56-year-old isn’t paying similar amounts to his MMA fighters under contract.<\/p>\n

The UFC gives about 20% of revenue to fighter pay, compared with boxers who get about 60% of revenue from their events.<\/p>\n

London’s Wood, who has won 11 of 14 fights in the UFC, says he hopes the Benn deal will spark a change because he was “heartbroken” when he saw how much he would be earning.<\/p>\n

“When you think I’ve been in the UFC for eight years, but I’m not on that, I”m not even on 1% of that,” Wood told BBC Sport before UFC London.<\/p>\n

“Especially when I believe MMA is the tougher sport as well, but again I just try and control what’s in my hands and it’s got nothing to do with me.<\/p>\n

“It was definitely heartbreaking to see someone is getting paid that much.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the most impressive performances at UFC London came on the undercard. Nathaniel Wood overcame the odds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-552837","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\/552837","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=552837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}