UFC’s Heavyweight Dilemma

Posted on | January 27, 2022 | No Comments

The UFC holds a certain prestige in the fight game, not only is it the biggest name in MMA hosting many of the biggest stars, but also continues the trend of hosting many of the biggest events in the always shining Vegas known for its bright lights and big casinos with alternatives launching online as you can use these sites to find some of the best – but the UFC has also gained a reputation over the years for underpaying fighters and perhaps not representing their best interests, and is something that has thrown the heavyweight division into a bit of a tough spot.

Current heavyweight champ, Francis Ngannou, has been quite outspoken about this recently but isn’t the first to raise concerns as the UFC has had a long list of heavyweight fighters speak out about the treatment – Mark Hunt is certainly the most notable and was one of the first fighters to launch a larger scale law suit, former champ Stipe Miocic has also been quite outspoken about the poor treatment received during his tenure as champ at the UFC too in a somewhat recurring theme.

With Ngannou beating his most recent challenger and having his fight contact come to an end, it seems there has been no desire to renegotiate a contract unless more money is guaranteed – having only secured a suggested purse of $600,000 on this most recent title fight and likely some pay-per-view points too, it falls very short of what some fighters are earning in other sports, particularly those of championship fights too. Other personalities have been making waves here too most notably Jake Paul, by reaching out to UFC fighters and boxers alike and paying them a substantial figure for the one night, it has outlined this issue even more – and has even led to a suggested lawsuit from the UFC against Ngannou for negotiating with the Paul team. Whether or not this lawsuit will hold any water is yet to be seen but is something to be considered.

With fighter pay being a topic of discussion within the organization for quite some time, it’s unlikely that there’s any change coming any time soon particularly as there has been support from some more outspoken fighters who hold a bigger voice – but as awareness continues to grow and the figures become more visible for each fighters pay too, there is pressure growing against the UFC to start adjusting fighter pay to more fair rates, and to have other organizations perhaps follow the same path and show more visible fighter pay too.

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