Uriah Hall is done with mixed martial arts (MMA), but he’s still down for a good time that sees him paid for his efforts.
The Ultimate Fighter 17 (TUF) runner-up called it a career this past Aug. 2022 after a tough unanimous decision loss to Andre Muniz the month prior. Now, Hall is joining in on the exhibition boxing action, facing National Football League (NFL) free agent running back, Le’Veon Bell.
Hall and Bell took part in a virtual media day today (Thurs., Oct. 13, 2022) and the age-old fighter pay question was brought up for the now-former MMA fighter.
“It’s okay,” Hall said about his pay in boxing (h/t MMA Fighting). “Listen, the UFC opened my career and extended my career. I made a great deal and everybody’s contract is different. There’s a lot of things that aren’t fair. I don’t think certain things are fair to athletes and for [Jake Paul] to speak out on that, kudos to him but is anything done yet? Nope. How far can we take it?
“You don’t have to go too much into details but I know people that are making [$10,000 to show, $10,000 to win], which is ridiculous,” he continued. “Cause you’re going out there and fighting and you’re putting your brain cells on the line and f—king ring card girls are making $70,000, which is utterly f—king ridiculous. So yeah, there’s some s—t that’s just not going down but compared to this it’s okay. You know your worth as you get older in your career, I think, especially when you put a lot on the line for it and some people feel like they deserve more. At one point, I felt like I deserved more and I had to fight for that.”
Entering UFC through TUF, Hall was touted as one of the best prospects the sport had ever seen at the time. Instantly, fans were fantasizing about the thought of him taking on then-dominant Middleweight champion, Anderson Silva. The fight eventually happened in Oct. 2020, seeing Hall knock “The Spider” out in round four (watch highlights).
Hall went 1-2 in his final three fights following the Silva win (17-11 overall, 10-9 in UFC). His boxing debut versus Bell will go down the same night as the aforementioned Paul takes on Silva on Oct. 29, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz.
“As much as the UFC will give you an opportunity, what I learned from that is it’s like a monopoly,” Hall said. “They pick and choose. It’s like who can we take? For certain people that they don’t want to take, they slowly dismiss them. It’s business at the end of the day. Same thing in this sport. It’s business.
“Yeah Jake might say all that s—t but it’s just to stir up Dana [White],” he added. “Is he doing it because he really cares or is he doing it because of the media? I don’t f—king know. But it’s business and that’s why a lot of these guys talk about money first and everyone’s going to listen. But it’s business.”