Fighters and the media have gotten the attention of UFC president Dana White. Now, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.
One of the hotter topics as of late has been the amount of money mixed martial artists and, more specifically, UFC fighters are being paid for their efforts. Recently, UFC 162 main-card fighter Tim Kennedy sounded off on fighter pay, telling GrappleTalk Podcast, “It would be slim pickings to survive off what I make in fighting, It’s good to have another job because the UFC doesn’t pay very well” (h/t Callum Leslie of Place to Be Nation).
Shortly after making that comment, Kennedy took to his Facebook page and backed off from those words, but obviously the UFC had gotten wind of Kennedy’s initial statement.
White, speaking to MMAJunkie, said the UFC had a potential plan in place to level the playing field for the lower-paid fighters on the roster. That plan? Do away with bonuses:
The bonuses are something we’ve been doing out of the kindness of our f–king heart. It was something we liked to do. Apparently, people don’t like it. They want the lower-level guys to get paid more money…
All these f–king morons have no idea what goes into this and what it takes to build a sport and a company at the same time. And we’ve been very fair to guys.
The aggression in White’s statements makes it clear that he’s pretty irritated by the never-ending discussion of fighter pay, but it’s hard to tell where this is all headed. White is a master at steering the conversation where he wants it to go. He has an uncanny ability to make many fans, fighters and media follow his lead, and reading into his statements a bit, the message seems to be, “Be careful what you wish for.”
The implication is that the lower-level fighters will be the only ones seeing bumps in pay, something that may get the attention of the middle- and upper-tier fighters. That may cause some strife among the fighters on the UFC roster, and don’t think that wasn’t part of White’s plan.
Has the UFC been fair to its fighters? I can’t answer that question, as the promotion does not disclose its financials and full fighter salaries, but the growing number of voices that seem to have issues with pay would lead one to believe that there are at least some concerns with fighter pay.
Shots have been fired by both fighters and management on this topic. It will be interesting to see where this conversation goes and what impact White’s words have among the fans, media and fighters.
One thing is certain: This conversation is far from over.
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