If the UFC really wanted Jack Della Maddalena to fight in Australia, they would have ponied up the tax bill to make it happen, says Holland.
Leading into his UFC Noche fight against Jack Della Maddalena, Kevin Holland has made it clear that he’s all about the Benjamins. As it should be: he’s a prize fighter after all. He’d rather compete as frequently as possible than slow down and wait for appropriate contender bouts to come together. And he’s not going to fight in places where you get taxed up the wahzoo, like Australia.
Holland vs. Della Maddalena would have been a very solid addition to last weekend’s UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia. The reason it didn’t happen there, according to Holland? The UFC wouldn’t bump his pay up to cover for the country’s insane fleecing of fighters.
“Be realistic, do you think I wouldn’t go somewhere to fight somebody?” Holland said on UFC Noche media day. “Bro, my second fight with the UFC was where? Nah, it was in China. Do your homework, my boy. So why wouldn’t I go? If they cover my taxes, I’ll go anywhere. I’m pretty sure if they really wanted me to fight in Australia, they would’ve covered the taxes.”
“I wasn’t asked to fight in Australia. I was asked to fight in Vegas when the fight fell out with Kelvin Gastelum and old boy, I’m here in Vegas. Old boy keeps crying about not being able to fight in Australia. Motherf—er, if you were worth somebody coming out to Australia to fight you, they would’ve made sure somebody came to Australia to fight you. You’ve got a Timex sponsorship. Be happy with that and shut the f— up.”
We’ve heard reports for years that Australia and New York are two places fighters don’t want to fight in due to their extremely high tax rate. Now John Makdessi has pulled back the curtain on Australia, revealing his $58,000 purse for UFC 293 ended up being $28,461 after deductions and Australian taxes. He still has to pay Canadian taxes on top of that.
The Aussie government would get an even bigger chunk of cash from Holland if he’d taken on Della Maddalena in Sydney. At UFC 291, “Big Mouth” was one of the few fighters to have his purse amount released by the Utah Commission. He made $178,000 to show and $178,000 to win for a total of $356,000.