If Jake Paul keeps saying he wants to improve fighter pay, then transparency from his own fight cards is the first step he needs to take.
It’s been nearly a week since Jake Paul fought Anderson Silva, and while we’ve heard Paul’s pleas for a “United Fighters Association” and his plans to raise $50 million dollars to create a UFC fighters union, what we haven’t heard is any info from the ‘Problem Child’ as to what the official purses were for himself, Silva and the other fighters who competed on his Most Valuable Promotions event. If Paul wants to be taken seriously as an agent for change regarding fighter pay, he needs to be completely transparent with his own promotional endeavors.
It’s easy to have doubts about Paul’s sincerity when it comes to battling for better revenue splits in combat sports. While he’s done a lot of talking over the past couple years, those reservations largely remain in the aftermath of his win over Silva.
One of the main reasons it doesn’t seem like Paul is serious is that so many of his attacks are more focused on UFC president Dana White than on the promotion itself and its ownership group. It’s often hard to believe Paul is earnest in his desire to help these athletes and not just looking for attention when one of his many post-fight statements was, “So, man, Dana White can suck this d*ck.”
That said, for whatever personal beef he wants to keep going, one thing Paul could do to change that perception is to be transparent with his finances. Opening his books would go a long way toward displaying his seriousness in making a real difference in fighter pay. Without that transparency, he’s just the latest in a long string of promoters talking a big game on changing the industry, while operating exactly the same kind of business as everybody else.
While a very few commissions would alleviate that burden for Paul by disclosing the info for him, the Arizona Athletic Commission (like most others) does not publicly disclose those numbers.
Until Paul shows he is serious, all his talk, all his posturing, all his tweets come across as empty cries for attention from the MMA media and Dana White.
I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting Paul to be sincere in his talk of changing fighter pay. But, to be blunt, it mostly seems to come up around the time he has a boxing match with another retired UFC fighter. He needs to start showing some action. It’d be a small, but meaningful step forward to disclose the full payouts from his fight card that went down on October 29.
Bloody Elbow reached out to Most Valuable Promotions and requested fighter payouts for the event. Unfortunately, the promotion did not respond before publication. If we do receive a reply, this story will be updated.